Vampires, A Very Peculiar History电子书

Cover

Front Matter

Title Page

Publisher Information

Dedication

Vampires

Quotes

Introduction

The first vampires

Eternal life

Vampire veg

CHAPTER ONE: Life force: A very bloody business

Floating cells

Blood substitute

Round and round

Bloody marvellous!

Go for the throat!

Rabbit starvation

Bloodstained clues

Blood as medicine

What’s in a name?

Meet the leech

Inspired by science?

CHAPTER TWO: Restless souls: Vampire myths & superstitions

The dead are dangerous!

Asvid and Asmund

Vile bodies – or holy ones?

Perfect – and perfectly preserved

An English vampire

Seeing is believing!

What’s really happened?

Mystery man – or monster?

CHAPTER THREE: Haunted lands: Home of vampires

Le Mercvre Galant

Don’t panic!

The sad case of Stanoska

The peculiar case of Peter Plogojowitz

The awful case of Arnod Paole

Direct action

Suspect a looming vampire attack?

The Vampire of Venice

Vampire ancestors

Playing safe

‘Barbarism and ignorance’

Deadly fears

Unbelievers

CHAPTER FOUR: Sensation seekers: The first vampire stories

Travellers’ tales

1741

Romantic revolution

1748

1797

1813

1819

Readers, writers… and libraries

1800

Fear of females

1822

1884

1836

Down to earth

1845–1847

1872

Choose your vampire!

1894

1896

CHAPTER FIVE: The greatest vampire of all?

A great story

Slow starter

The Land Beyond the Forests

Moonlight meeting

St George’s Eve

Dracula’s castle

Bran Castle

The man who dreamed up Dracula

Dracula checklist

A real-life vampire?

Tales for the times

Haunted holidays

Whitby and the Goth scene

Stamp of approval

CHAPTER SIX: Just a bite!: Dinner with Dracula

Starters

Main courses

Desserts

Beverages

The legend of Bull’s Blood

Vampire smoothie

Bloodstained brew

Other ways of eating blood

CHAPTER SEVEN: Could you spot a vampire?

Dead Or Undead

Femmes fatales

An A–Z of vampires worldwide

CHAPTER EIGHT: A fate worse than death: Becoming a vampire

1. Find an unburied corpse to inhabit

Feet first

Bloodshed at funerals

Blood sacrifice

2. Be accused of witchcraft or black magic

Stemming the flow

3. Break holy laws

Unclean!

Bad luck!

4. Die in childbirth

Ghostly food

White Ladies

5. Die from an infectious disease

Alone and palely loitering

Back from the brink

10 ways to keep vampires away

CHAPTER NINE: Mad, bad and dangerous to know?

Precious blood

Cruel countess

2500–1200 BC

Blood brothers

c.8th century BC – 4th century AD

How to be an Oracle

400–340 BC

AD 40

AD 1144

1450–1700

Toil and trouble

1789

1883–1892

Mercy! Mercy!

1823

Blood lust

The Glasgow vampire

CHAPTER TEN: It’s only natural

Natural-born blood-suckers

Five filthy facts about flies and fleas, etc…

Vampire bat basics

Bat attack!

A bat’s best friend…

Vampires and werewolves

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Shock, horror!

Vampires in modern media

Dangerous games

Moving pictures

‘Vamps’

Nosferatu

A lasting image

A new kind of vampire

Timeline of Vampire History

Glossary

End matter

Also Available