Vampire Novels
The Vampyre
By John Polidori (1819). Polidori was Lord Byron’s friend and physician, and his story was inspired by a fragment written by the famous romantic poet . Polidori’s great innovation was to change the vampire from a medieval monster dripping with gore to a refined aristocrat : the pale, seductive Lord Ruthven.
Carmilla
By Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1872). Le Fanu was the greatest ghost story writer of the Victorian era. In Carmilla, a Gothic novella, he turned his attention to the vampire myth, with a sensational tale of love between a young woman and a female vampire that shocked his readers.
Dracula
By Bram Stoker (1897). This is the novel that started the vampire craze. Stoker was an Irish writer who drew on real historical figures, such as Vlad the Impaler, and European mythology, to create the tale of Count Dracula, who lures his victims to their doom in his Transylvanian castle.
I Am Legend
By Richard Matheson (1954). This highly influential novel mixed horror with science fiction, telling the story of how one man fights a plague of disease-ridden vampires who threaten to destroy human life on earth. The theme of apocalypse proved to be very popular in cold-war America.
Salem’s Lot
By Stephen King (1975). The second of King’s novels, Salem’s Lot tells the story of a writer who comes back to his hometown in Maine, only to find it threatened by vampires. It’s a classic King tale about evil flourishing in the very midst of suburban normality.
The Vampire Chronicles
By Anne Rice (1976-2003). Interview with the Vampire was the first in a series chronicling the life of Lestat de Liancourt, an eighteenth-century French nobleman, and his many subsequent incarnations. The Chronicles is one of the most successful vampire series of all time, with sales of over 80 million.
The Hunger
By Whitley Streiber (1981). Miriam Blaylock is a beautiful female vampire who takes human lovers and transforms them into hybrid vampire/humans, disposing of them when she is tired of them. Streiber describes vampires as a species akin to humans, with a set of practical problems such as how to acquire and dispose of bodies.
They Thirst
By Robert McCammon (1981). This novel imagines a horror scenario in which Los Angeles is taken over by vampires, transforming it into a city of the dead. The novel is currently out of print, and McCammon regards it as inferior to his later works, and has refused to let it be reprinted.
Fevre Dream
By George R.R. Martin (1982). This highly regarded historical novel is set in Mississippi in the mid nineteenth century. A tale of steamboats, vampire hunters, and the darker side of New Orleans, it has been described as ‘Bram Stoker meets Mark Twain’, and continues to attract awards.
The Stress of Her Regard
By Tim Powers (1989). Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, John Keats, and John Polidori feature in this novel, which imagines that these real historical figures were members of a vampire-like clan of succubi, lamia, fairies and other mythological creatures – some of them evil, but others good.
Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter
By Laurell Kaye Hamilton (1993- 2008). This bestselling series, about a female necromancer turned magical investigator, began with the first novel, Guilty Pleasures, and in the sixteen novels thereafter has continued to attract readers with its focus on the erotic side of the vampire myth.
The Last Vampire
By Christopher Pike (1994-1996). This series chronicles the life of a 5,000-year-old vampire, Sita, drawing from ancient history and world mythology as well from the science fiction and horror genres. Christopher Pike is a bestselling author of young adult and children’s fiction, whose real name is Kevin McFadden.
Southern Vampire
Series by Charlaine Harris (2001-2009). Dead Until Dark, the first novel in the series, introduces Sookie Stakhouse, a telepathic waitress in the small town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, who falls in love with a handsome vampire and embarks on solving a series of murders in the town. The basis for the True Blood TV series.
Vampire Kisses
By Ellen Schreiber (2003-2009). The series begins by introducing us to Raven Madison, a sixteen-year-old who complains that her life is boring. However, when a stranger comes to town, vampire Alexander Sterling, she falls in love and embarks on a series of adventures in the world of the supernatural.
Twilight
By Stephenie Meyer (2005- 2008). The latest vampire series sensation, the novels chart the adventures of teenager Bella Swan, who falls in love with a classmate, vampire Edward Cullen, thus endangering her life. Hailed as a thoughtful reflection on teenage sexuality, the books have sold millions of copies worldwide.