Blood and Roses [Old Edition]: The Vampire in 19th Century Literature (Creature Classics Ser.)) [Paperback]

Adele Olivia Gladwell (Author), James Havoc (Author)

Book Description

Series: Creature Classics Ser.) | Publication Date: June 1996

The definitive collection of 19th Century literature in which the vampire, or vampirism - both embodied and atmospheric - appears. Seventeen seminal texts by legendary European authors, covering the whole of that delirious period from Gothic and Romantic, through Symbolism and Decadence to proto-Surrealism and beyond, in a single volume charged with sex, blood and horror.

Includes: Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Machen, Le Comte de Lautramont, Count Stenbock, J-K Huysmans, Jean Lorrain, Thophile Gautier, Charles Nodier, J Sheridan Le Fanu, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Oscar Wilde, Ivan Turgenev, Charlotte Bronte, J.M.Ryder.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: The Tears Corporation/Creation (June 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1871592143
• ISBN-13: 978-1840680072
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,637,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Compilation of Gothic Short Stories, March 5, 2004

By 

nansee555 (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood and Roses : Vampires in 19th Century Literature (Paperback)

(Note: I have the 1992 edition.)
I have to disagree with the other reviewer; I enjoyed the introductory critical essay, "The Erogenous Disease." Vampires and sex go together like ... blood and roses?
I always want to know what stories are included in anthologies and its usually never listed, which drives me batty, so here they are: The Vampyre by John Polidori, Smarra (an excerpt) by Charles Nodier, The Beautiful Dead by Theophile Gautier, Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe, The Feast of Blood (an excerpt) by J.M. Rymer, Hane Eyre (excerpts) by Charlotte Bronte, The Vampire's Metamorphoses by Charles Baudelaire, The House and the Brain by Edward Bulwer Lytton, Phantoms by Ivan Turgenev, Madoror - The First Song by Isidore Ducasse, Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu, The Horla by Guy de Maupassant, La-Bas (an excerpt) by Joris-Karl Huysmans, The Picture of Dorian Gray (an excerpt) by Oscar Wilde, The Inmost Light by Arthur Machen, The True Story of A Vampire by Count Stenbock, and Dracula (yea!) (excerpts) by Bram Stoker.
For the selections that are only excerpts, I recommend reading the whole thing if you haven't already. There are also a few nice (freakish) illustrations.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoy them first, Analyze them later, August 13, 2006

By 

Peggy F. Finch "Goblintrain" (somewhere) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blood and Roses : Vampires in 19th Century Literature (Paperback)

As reviewer Geoffrey Brent stated, this book has some great stories once you get past the pretentious 20+ page tunnel-visioned Freudian intro essay. Some of the stories you may have not seen before in other vampire literature collections, and Nansee555 was sweet enough to list them in her review. One thing to be aware of with this book is that a good number of the stories (6 of 16) are merely excerpts. In the case of the bit from "Varney the Vampire" you will be grateful for this brevity, but most of the other excerpts could have used a fleshier treatment. Still, it is enough to motivate the reader to search out the full works these came from, so no critical fault.

Perhaps the strongest points of this collection is that while not at all exclusively female vampire stories it offers a great selection of them, including of course Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla", and to my great delight Lafcadio Hearn's matchless English translation of the wonderful French vampire tale "The Beautiful Dead" by Theophile Gautier. It even includes a rare, perhaps the only published 19th century vampire story of female authorship, "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte.

On the whole it is a very useful, carefully, & thoughtfully selected compilation of 19th century vampire tales. Just don't let the Freudian intro essay lure you into performing psychoanalyses on the stories & thier authors before you have had the chance to absorb them & enjoy them first.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good stories, bizarre introduction, February 6, 2001

By 

Geoffrey Brent (Wentworth Falls, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood and Roses : Vampires in 19th Century Literature (Paperback)

Once you get past the introduction and into the actual stories, this is a reasonable enough compilation of vampire stories. Unfortunately, the 'introduction' fails to introduce the collection adequately; it looks more like an essay on the topic "Vampires in fiction as subversion of the Oppressive Male Patriarchy: discuss"... The purpose of an introduction is to introduce the stories that follow it; the closest Ms. Gladwell's introduction comes is to occasionally draw on examples from the stories to support her own points.

While sexuality is a major part of the mystique of the vampire, Ms. Gladwell does her readers a disservice by concentrating on it to the exclusion of all other considerations; also, by treating the stories as supporting material for her essay rather than the other way around. In comparison, Christopher Frayling's anthology 'The Vampyre: Lord Ruthven to Count Dracula' has a much more balanced and informative introduction.