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The Posh, the Privileged and the Paranormal

The Posh, the Privileged and the Paranormal

Tag Archives: history of vampire books

Why I like Vampire Novels so much – Introduction

21 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by georgianaderwent in Uncategorized

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

history of vampire books, personal, series, vampire fiction, vampires

Last week, I started thinking about just what it is that makes me enjoy both reading and writing vampire novels. I intended a quick bullet point list, and instead, I’ve ended up with an essay, so I’m doing a separate post for each point each night this week.

So we’re clear, I have a few requirements for my vampire books. Outside of these, my love very quickly risks turning to hate:

  1. I’m mainly talking about books somewhere on the paranormal romance/urban fantasy spectrum rather than old fashioned horror. I like a bit of horror too, but if the vampires have no interaction with humans other than killing them, they probably don’t fall into the sort of category I’m talking about.
  2. At the same time, the plot can’t be just romance. Don’t get me wrong, I like a bit of vampire romance, but there needs to be something else, such as the way all the True Blood books are at least nominally based around a murder mystery.
  3. The vampires need to be more than just super attractive people. If the plot would be basically the same with human characters, I’m generally not interested. To tick this box, they need to tick at least some of the following boxes – has to drink human blood, has killed people at some point, can’t come out during the day.

Oh and finally, all my examples are based around the idea that the lead characters are a vampire man and a human woman. This seems to be the case in the vast majority of vampire books I’ve read, and I generally prefer this approach, but most of what I say makes sense if the genders are reversed or the couple are same sex.

Some of my reasons apply to other genres too, (and that’s great, because I love lots of other genres), but think that they are more pronounced in vampire novels, and that it’s probably the only genre that includes them all the a decent degree, though feel free to argue with me if you disagree!

So without further ado, my reasons (in no particular order) are:

  1. History without the baggage
  2. Folklore, tradition and magic
  3. Romance with meaningful tension
  4. Perfect people that you can buy into
  5. Utter cads that you can forgive
  6. The erotic power
  7. A metaphor for anything

One and two are coming up in a moment.  Check back each night this week for the rest of them.

Anno Dracula and rekindling my love of vampire fiction

12 Saturday Jan 2013

Posted by georgianaderwent in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

anno dracula, history of vampire books, reading, vampire fiction

Image

Despite the fact that I obviously love vampire books (you’d have to be pretty stupid to attempt to write a trilogy in a genre you disliked!) until this week, it’s actually been ages since I’d read one. Partly, this was because all the work I’d been doing on my own vampire novels had left me fairly sated, partly because it’s so hard not to compare similar books to mine. In that situation, I don’t know which is worse – the bad ones that make me mentally scream “why is this piece of rubbish selling so much better than Oxford Blood?” or the ones that make me think “I wish I had written this.”  With a really very finite amount of time to read in between my day job, writing, and attempting to maintain a social life, I’ve been trying to make an effort to make my reading time count and make sure I experience as wide a range of genres and styles as possible. Finally, the sad truth is that there are an awful lot of awful vampire books (I claimed you have to love a genre to write it – I strongly suspect that in the wake of twilight, far too many people jumped on the vampire bandwagon, with little interest in or knowledge of what had gone before). Awful in the sense of being badly written, awful in the sense of far too similar to lots of other novels and awful in the sense that although supposedly a vampire book, you could replace the characters with attractive, slightly mysterious humans and the plot would barely change (as Fifty Shades of Grey, Twilight fanfiction with humans, demonstrated so neatly).

Anyway, I finally read a new (to me) vampire novel – Anno Dracula, by Kim Newman. I only cracked because a friend had leant it to me, and looking nervously at the trashy eighties horror cover, it took me ages to get around to reading it. I’m so glad I did. It’s one of the best books, vampire or otherwise, I’ve read in a long time. After failing to give a single book five stars last year (apart from one re-read) my first read of 2013 is straight into the rarefied world of a perfect score.

I wrote a post a few months ago about how relatively few vampire fans have actually read Dracula, and how it was actually a genuinely good book rather than just an outdated, cliche-ridden founder of a genre. ( Have You Ever Actually Read Dracula?) Well all I can say is that Kim Newman is clearly fully in agreement with me. Unusually for a piece of entertainment riffing off Dracula, it takes its inspiration from the original book rather than later films or a vague idea of the story. All the obscure characters than cinema tends to ignore such as Dr Seward and Lord Godalming are present and correct. If you have read it, you’ll really appreciate the way this book continues the story of all the characters, large and small, keeping their personality intact, but also, in some cases, putting a different spin on it, eg. implying that Lucy was giving herself to Dracula willingly, and that Van Helsing’s attempts to give her blood transfusions, rather than Dracula’s ministrations, was what killed her (due to a lack of understanding about blood types).

The plot is quite straightforward. Dracula survived the events of the eponymous novel, married Queen Victoria and is now ruling Britain. As a result, people know about the existence of vampires and it’s becoming increasingly common and fashionable to become one. The basic premise is therefore broadly similar to the Parasol Protectorate, another book I really enjoyed, but I feel that this book took the concept and ran with it much better.

The first good point about the book is that it’s simply a damn good read. There are some interesting characters and it’s a real page turner.

Secondly, I found it really quite well written, with some fantastic turns of phrase. I’m quite puzzled by a few reviews that claim this isn’t the case – it’s one of the most technically adept paranormal novels I’ve ever read.

Thirdly, the author is clearly passionate about Victorian history and literature, and about vampire novels and films, and has very obviously done his research. It’s not just Dracula –  there are characters from a whole host of other old vampire novels, such as Carmilla, Varney the Vampire and the imaginatively titled The Vampyre. I haven’t read, all of those, but from his fabulous treatment of the Dracula cast, I imagine they’re pretty cleverly represented. In particular, the title character from The Vampyre, Lord Ruthven, is the Prime Minister in AD, and so awesome that I’m now desperate to read the original.

Beyond vampires, pretty much every character, from the stars to the cameos, is either a historical or literary figure, from Sherlock Holmes to Bram Stoker’s wife (the author being in jail for writing a seditious novel against the Prince Consort!), Oscar Wilde to Dr Jekyll. It was great fun spotting the references I knew, although even as a history graduate and huge vampire fan, lots of them went over my head, leading to a bit of fun on Wikipedia.

Finally, there were lots of little historical jokes (eg. some people were more concerned about Dracula being Catholic than being a vampire when judging his suitability for the throne) which were both amusing and cleverly done.

There’s a murder mystery, lots of political intrigue and a bit of romance, all of which are handled well.

To get the full benefit from this book, it’s probably useful to have read Dracula and ideally to have at least some familiarity with the Victorian period and/or Victorian literature and/or other famous vampire books and vampire mythology. Nonetheless, I’d recommend this book to anyone who’s looking for a fun but absorbing read. I rarely give five star reviews, but this has shot up into my list of favourites.

I’m now going straight onto the sequel, the Bloody Red Baron, set in World War One with Dracula leading the German air-force.

In another blog post, I commented on how important I think it is for writers to read, to maximise both inspiration and enthusiasm. (Writers: Don’t Forget to Read and Write) Reading this has rekindled my love of vampire novels, and I suspect can only help encourage me to finish the Cavaliers Book Three. With this in mind, on Monday I’m writing a post detailing just what it is I enjoy about vampire novels and whilst their a worthwhile genre, not just pure trash. Check that out, and in the meantime, I really can’t recommend Anno Dracula enough. Pop over to Amazon and get yourself a copy – http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005G4GJJQ

(Oh and whilst you’re there, if you haven’t already, get yourself a free Kindle copy of Oxford Blood before the promotion ends tonight –  http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009SQ1LPK  – both are also available at Amazon.com)

NOTE: I obviously don’t own the rights to the Anno Dracula cover pictured at the top of this post. As I’m only using it as part of my attempts to sing the book’s praises, I hope the the authors, publishers and lawyers don’t mind too much!

A History of Famous Vampire Books Part One – “Have you ever actually read Dracula?”

08 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by georgianaderwent in vampire books

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

dracula, history of vampire books, paranormal pondering, vampires

Have you ever actually read Dracula? I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while, but the fact that today, Google has a very cool picture which tells me it’s Bram Stoker’s 165th birthday, made me think that it was a good day to get on and do it.

I’m assuming that if you’re reading my blog (which fundamentally hinges on the fact that I write paranormal romance) that to a greater or lesser degree, like me, you’re a fan of vampire novels. And I think we can take it as read that Dracula, whilst not the inventor of the genre*, is the most famous  and influential vampire novel  ever written. Despite these two facts, I bet there’s a good chance you haven’t actually read it. You’ve probably seen a film or two. You’ve probably read spoofs or books that claim to be inspired by it. You probably have an idea in your head of the plot being based around visitors to a spooky eastern European castle with a suave but deadly host.

Back in the days when I sort of had an agent, they asked me if I’d ever read Dracula, and almost to my surprise, I realised I hadn’t. They hugely recommended it, so I decided to take advantage of the fact that Kindle lets you download out of copyright books for free (just one of the many reasons I love them – seriously, if you haven’t already, buy an e-reader) and get myself a copy.

I had to steel myself to read it. I was expecting it to either be painfully dry (I’m not a big fan of Victorian literature on the whole) or else painfully cheesy and clichéd. Guess what? It was genuinely brilliant – scary, romantic and well-written, the sort of book where you’re cheering the good characters on.

There’s a section where Dracula comes each night to feed off a young woman. Each night she gets weaker and weaker and each morning is given a rudimentary blood transfusion by a doctor acquaintance. Each night her friends do their best to protect her with crucifixes and white garlic flowers, each night the vampire somehow outwits them and drinks more deeply from her.  I wasn’t expecting my jaded twenty first century brain to be unnerved by something written more than a century ago, but these scenes, with their horrible sense of desperation and powerlessness, are some of the scariest things I’ve read in years. The diary of the ship’s captain, trapped at sea and horribly aware that one of his crew is being killed each night, is also pretty nerve racking.

Equally, whilst it’s not a paranormal romance in the modern sense of the word (there are certainly no human women having sexy time with this vampire), there are beautifully touching and romantic scenes,  whether it’s one character’s longing to get back to his fiancée when he’s trapped in Dracula’s castle, or most tear-jerking of all, another character deciding that he must be the one to stake his now vampiric fiancée to save her soul. At the same time, the link between sex and blood that tends to be made more explicit (in both senses of the word) in modern vampire novels, is very much there. When Dracula is biting his poor female victims, you definitely get a sense that there is more than mere hunger going through his mind.

A few fun facts:

  • I’m sure it’s not just me that imagines the entirety of the novel to be taking place in a castle in Eastern Europe. In fact, that’s only the first couple of chapters.
  • Dracula is killed with a metal knife, not a stake through the heart.

So this week, whilst it’s cold and dark outside, why not put down whatever modern vampire book you’re reading (apart from Oxford Blood, obviously!!) and indulge yourself with the king of the genre. It’ll be harder work than the latest Charlaine Harris or Laurell K Hamilton, but I promise you it will be worth it.

So, to return to my first question, have you read Dracula? If so, what did you think? Classic vampire novel or outdated?

*Before anyone tries to get clever, I know about Carmilla and Varney the Vampire and all those other nineteenth century vampire novels. Try taking a nineteenth century literature and culture module at Oxford and not having them thrust down your throat. But let’s face it, the may have come first, but Dracula made the genre.

**The cartoon near the top of the page is from: http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=285 Check out that page for more cute Dracula comic strips, and the site more generally for fab historical and literary inspired comics. So we’re totally clear, the picture totally belongs to Kate Beaton of Hark, A Vagrant, not me, but her website says it’s okay to use them as long as they’re properly cited.

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