The literary and cinematic vampire

17 July 2012 · Mancunian Matters

Steve Balshaw

Bram Stoker Estate account

Estate summary

Steve Balshaw marks the centenary of Stoker’s death with a survey of the literary vampire, written alongside Grimm Up North’s Manchester film programme. He follows Polidori’s aristocratic vampire, the serial adventures of Varney and Le Fanu’s Carmilla before considering Stoker’s combination of Gothic devices, multiple narrators and modern technology. The essay contrasts the threatening vampire with later romantic versions and argues that Stoker’s achievement lay partly in synthesising earlier traditions. It is a critical interpretation rather than a verified checklist of direct borrowings. Some of its publication-history and biographical assertions require qualification; the Estate account does not repeat them as established facts.

Complete Part One inspected in the Internet Archive capture of 24 July 2012. Publisher displays Posted Tuesday, July 17, 2012 – 17:17; by Steve Balshaw, MM and Grimm Up North film columnist. The site-wide Updated date is distinct from the article date. The feature promises Part Two, which is not claimed recovered here. Its inaccurate 1816 publication date for The Vampyre, immediate-bestseller assertion and other uncollated historical claims are not adopted. Copyrighted essay linked, not reproduced.

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Gary Oldman as Dracula in promotional artwork for Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). © 1992 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved. — Promotional artwork for Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), one of the adaptations discussed. Contextual film illustration, not the feature’s recovered lead image.© 1992 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.