Customer Reviews

The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Written by religious scholar and head of the Transylvania Society of Dracula's American chapter, J. Gordon Melton, "The Vampire Book" is an impressive attempt at a comprehensive reference work on vampire lore, from the emergence of documented vampire folklore in the 11th century to the present fascination with vampires in literature, film, and our popular culture. This mammoth volume (919 pages) begins with an forward by Martin V. Riccardo of the Vampire Studies network in which he presents an informative overview of the history of vampires in world cultures. Author J. Gordon Melton's preface addresses the important and sometimes perplexing question: What is a vampire? And there is a chronology of important events in vampire history from the year 1047 to 1997.

The bulk of "The Vampire Book" is 802 pages of encyclopedia that addresses a wide variety of subjects, in alphabetical order, relevant to vampire culture in literature, film, theater, folklore, history, and gaming. Entries for people include writers, actors, directors, and vampire scholars. As an example, the long entry for "Blood" recounts the significance of blood in ancient Biblical and secular traditions and vampire mythology. "Greece, Vampires in" presents the history of vampire legend in Greece. Each entry is followed by a list of sources. Among novels, films, and authors, only works that are considered significant or pivotal are given a separate entry. For example, the "Blade" comic book serial has its own entry. The 1998 film "Blade" does not, although it is alluded to under some other subjects. There are some black-and-white photographs scattered throughout the book, and there is a 16-page color insert in the center.

For those who own the first edition of "The Vampire Book", this "revamped" edition has 100 additional topics and updates on other entries. The vampire filmography that was included in the first edition became too unwieldy. It has been expanded and is now published as a separate book: "VideoHound's Vampires on Video".

Vampire fanatics and casual fans alike will find the "Vampire Resources" section in the back of the book useful. There are lists of vampire organizations, periodicals, and websites in North America and Europe, including separate lists for "Dark Shadows" fans. Vampire dramas on stage and all "significant" vampire novels from 1897 to 1997 are listed. There is a bibliography of vampire non-fiction and literary criticism. And if the subject you seek isn't where you thought it would be in the encyclopedia, there is a 50-page index to assist you.

I'm sure that there will be disagreements on what should or should not have been included in "The Vampire Book", but this is about as comprehensive as we can expect a reference work covering 1,000 years of vampires in popular culture to be. J. Gordon Melton's research is impressive. His writing is fluid and not as dry as might be expected. I'm only a casual fan of vampire film and literature, so I thought that I would use this book to learn about the particular vampire topics that appeal to me. But I found it so interesting that I read the whole thing. "The Vampire Book" is a scholarly resource for all aspects of vampire lore and a highly readable reference for the casual fan as well. If vampires fascinate you, "The Vampire Book" will too.

While the photos and drawings are great, the organization is good, and a strong attempt has been made to be inclusive and correct, I found several errors in the book, oddly about television more than anything else. Also, while I am, in fact, a storyteller for a Vampire: the Masquerade game each summer for a great group of players/actors, I found it odd just how much information from this gaming system was in the book (and also with errors) compared to other entries. Yes, the game is popular but it is just a game. Also I was disappointed that the movie guide is not a separate book. The other "lists" were great however. It isn't really a book you can enjoy reading straight through, is any encyclopedia? But if you know a term or an actor or director or writer, you can easily look them up here.

This book provides an A to Z, completely thorough guide to all things relating to vampires. From aconite, to Dark Shadows, to the Vampire Lestat Fan Club, to vampire characteristics.

This book also seems to talk about two aspects of vampirism. The Hollywood side, and the real side - including myths, legends, historical accounts, authors of fiction novels, vampirologists, vampire researchers, poets, etc. The Hollywood side of this book covers television shows (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dark Shadows), movies (Interview with the Vampire, Blade, those old 70s porn flicks, Bela Lugosi, etc. even stuff I've never heard of), famous vampire actors and actresses, film directors. While it does seem that the book is dominated by the Hollywood aspect of the vampire, it does talk about everything you can think of relating to the vampire in every culture and legend. Vampires in Africa, Australia, Russia, China, Spain, Bulgaria... The book discusses in length about fangs, blood, skin, methods of killing the vampire, immortality, flying, so many to list.

It's quite a heavy book, too. It contains a timeline of real vampire events, when books were published, when historical vampire figures (Vlad, Bathory, to name the obvious) were around, when vampire criminals did their crimes and were punished, all this dating back to the 1400s atleast. Its about 2.5 to 3 inches tall, and has a giant reference in the back, including websites to visits, theatrical plays to see, works of fiction to read, businesses that sell vampire memorabilia or occult items, magazines to subscribe to, or who to write to.

It is definately worth the price. This book is my best vampire book on my shelf. Anyone who has ever loved the vampire needs to get this book!

Mr. Melton's 852-page book is truly encyclopedic. It is well-indexed. It includes brief discussions of vampiric cultural history, "What is a Vampire?", and vampiric chronology. It provides individual detailed discussions of worldwide vampire-related topics. The book's Appendices provide comprehensive listings of vampire "resources", filmography, drama, and novels.

The book's encyclopedic organization *does* present a problem to the "front-to-back" reader. Identical material is repeated in related entries because each entry is meant to stand alone. This repetition is quite evident to the front-to-back reader.

One criticism: the sexual aspects and psychology of vampirism were not discussed in the detail they merit. Vampires control their (usually opposite gender) victims magickally, and vampires have (usually recurring) physical relationships with their victims. In some cases vampires kidnap and imprison their victims. These sexually dominant aspects of vampirism are emphasized in vampiric literature, drama, and cinema. Furthermore, vampires draw blood, a concern in today's environment of sexually-transmitted diseases. A more complete discussion of vampire sexuality and today's vampire cult practices would have been welcome.

This book is difficult to read, but will assist you in your next Trivial Pursuit game!

If you don't know much about the subject, this is an ok book. If you want boring biographies of every author, actor and fictional character that ever had anything to do with vampires, you'll love it. If you were hoping to learn something new about vampires, TOO BAD! The author is obsessed with fictional portrayals of the vampire, and really doesn't know or care much about vampires. The research is very spotty- he somehow got hold of some good stuff about Malaysian vampires and padded the book by repeating it verbatim in various entries ad nauseam, but he ignored ALL the info available about Japanese vampires and assigned vampirism to a different monster instead. sheesh. As if that sort of laziness weren't bad enough, most of the folklore and historical information is presented without references-he's fond of quoting sources that he didn't bother to include in the bibliography, leaving the impression he got most of this stuff out of other books just as bad as this one. Too many trees died for this book, unfortunately.

This second edition was Melton's chance to correct the many factual errors in the first edition. Not only are most of those mistakes still intake, but the new edition contains plenty of new ones! Again, this would be a great book, but if you can't rely on the information in one entry, then ALL of them must be suspect, rendering the book useless as a reference on vampires in popular culture and folklore!

I'd heard good things and bad things about the first edition of Melton's The Vampire Book, but when the second edition had its price slashed for a Halloween Sale at my local bookstore, I was inclined to buy it and for the most part I have not been disappointed with it. Melton covers just about every aspect of the Vampire Myth from the most ancient of texts to the watered down offerings of the WB. A six page "Chronology of the Vampire" is also very useful in showing how the most popular myths and legends we know today played off of each other and evolved from historical fact [though it only starts in the AD]. He also includes sections on The Masquerade and its clans, which I found particularly useful as someone who has never ventured into the Masquerade but always been interested in how it worked. The cross-referencing in this book is TOP NOTCH, as is the reference section and bibliography at the back. For those alone, this was worth the money.

The only problem I might have with this book is that it is very pop-culture heavy. Lots of time is spent talking about Authors, Directors and Actors famous for their work in the vampire genre and it tends to overshadow the historical/mythical information - which is what I bought the book for in the first place. Melton's personal opinions can also be felt as a very heavy influence in certain parts of the text, which left me feeling sometimes like I was reading Rev. Montaque Summers instead of a clear-headed Modern Researcher - but for the most part these biases and prejudices were kept in check.

On the other hand, he also includes some very good entries regarding vampire myths according to geography [Vampires in China, Vampires in Ancient Greece etc] which I DID find useful.

Those into the whole vampire literature scene will probably enjoy seeing their favourite authors and characters listed, and the movie buffs will have a wonderful time using the cross-reference as they skip from Bava [all hail!] to the Hammer Films to Jordan's Interview With The Vampire.

Those looking for a historical reference book regarding ancient myth/religion and information on the classic staples of the myth will also find some very useful information. HOWEVER for them I would suggest only using this book as a jumping off point.

If you are into vampires, into vampire movies, books, folklore... This book is an absolute MUST for any vampire fan. It is thoroughly researched and a veritable font of information about all things undead. Whenever someone asks me for a good resource book - this is the one I recommend.

Okay, forget that for some reason that passes understanding Keifer Sutherland from "Lost Boys" is the vampire pictured on the cover. This is THE Encyclopedia of the Dead and, as the cover proudly complains, this edition is "Completely Revamped." If you enjoy vampire stories and are trying to keep straight the difference between the vampires of Stoker and those of Anne Rice, this book is for you.

Martin V. Riccardo's Foreword, "A Brief Cultural History of the Vampire" is a solid introduction to the subject matter. The tome's editor, J. Gordon Melton, answers the age old question "What is a Vampire?" in his preface. There is also a Vampire Chronology. But the guts and glory of this book is the 900+ pages of entries.

"The Vampire Book" gives equal weight to appearances of the vampires in the mass media and in the folklore of the world. You can read all about "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in film and on television and then also learn that the late Denholm Elliot played a memorable Dracula in a British television version in 1969. You can find out about vampires in Scandinavia as well as the historical Dracula, Vlad Tepes the Impaler. Attention is paid to such things as blood, vampires and science-fiction, and vampire games (both board and role-playing).

All entries are cross-referenced by bold-faced type, which allows you to skip around from article to article-a lot more fun than just proceeding alphabetically. You can being with "Ackerman, Forrest James (1916-- ), which leads you to "Vampirella," then to "stake," and in turn "Bela Lugosi," "Transylvania," "Szekelys," "Bran Stoker," and on and on until suddenly the night has passed, the sun is coming up and you are turned into a pile of vampire dust (see: "Sunlight," pp 660-661).

This book is certainly worth the money. It is a very helpful reference book on vampires and covers everthing from the origins of the vampire myth to the Dracula Convention of 1997. It does have, as another reviewer pointed out, a whole lot of of entries on popular culture. I think that's okay, becaue this book covers EVERYTHING that has to do with vampires, past and present. Besides vampire myths from around the world, the book covers vampire novels, poetry, plays, movies, music, television shows, games, and much more. The book is full of everything, and is over 800 pages long. The "Chronology of the Vampire" is very interesting and the cross referance is excellent. The indexes in the back are very helpful.
Unfortunatly, there are some inconsistencies between the entries. I probably wouldn't have noticed this if I hadn't read the book cover to cover. Some entries aren't as interesting as others, but this is because of the wide range the book covers. Another complaint I had was that the author had entries on Lestat and Armand from Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles but didn't have an entry on Louis. While I love Lestat and understand he is more popular, I think Louis deserves an entry too. This is, of course, a minor complaint, but I wanted to mention it. All in all, this book is extreamly helpful and I would recomend it to any one who is interested in vampires. This book is a must for Vampire fanatics.