Before Bram: a timeline of vampire literature

There were many books on vampires before Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Early anthropologists wrote accounts of the folkloric vampire — a stumbling, bloated peasant, never venturing far from home, and easily neutralized with a sexton’s spade and a box of matches. The literary vampire became a highly mobile, svelte aristocratic rake with the appearance of the short tale The Vampyre in 1819. However the body of literature surrounding the vampire myth was as broad and varied as European culture at the time. Below is a timeline of the vampire stories that preceded – and inevitably influenced – Bram Stoker’s classic tale. This is a timeline of the vampire stories that preceded – and inevitably influenced – Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Image: Cemetery, CC0 via Pixabay.

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