Quite an interesting list from The Guardian re: their top-10-vampire-books. Some unusual choices (Ann Radcliffe as vampire slayer and a vampire parrot) but many blood sucking basics too. I am lucky to have a nice reprint of Florence Marryat’s Blood of the Vampire (unfavourably compared to Dracula, which came out the same year, and dismissed as ‘disagreeable sensationalism’ by its critics). It is definitely worth a second look, if only to enjoy the heady mix of psychic vampire, mad scientist and mixed race voodoo priestess! Carmilla is difficult to beat and she is still my favourite C19th vampire. I’d be interested to know what others make of the list. No YA fiction here? The Moth Diaries gets in but the usual prejudices against the much maligned and misunderstand genre of paranormal romance can easily be detected. It is like Twilight never happened!!
Accessible scholarly edition of The Blood of the Vampire available here
