At the risk of this blog becoming dedicated to rampages on what’s right and wrong with the latest vampire novel, I have to give a shout out to a new discovery of mine (or my husband’s since he bought it for me). Vampire Stories is a collection of vampiric short stories written by none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Who knew he wrote about more than everybody’s favorite cocaine addicted detective? Okay, maybe you knew he wrote more, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out he had this group of stories AND that he was friendly with Bram Stoker. Maybe Doyle would “get it” and give the vampire the qualities so many authors missed.
Only four of the twelve stories in this collection feature Mr. Holmes; the rest introduce unfamiliar characters in some slightly familiar vampiric legends. I was intrigued not only by the tales themselves, but by the endnotes explaining the different legends. Doyle’s writing style hovers somewhere between Stoker, Shelley or Conrad here: decidedly British with a light dose of the gothic where appropriate. I’ll admit that the ethnocentric American in me hadn’t thought much about different cultures having their own unique twists on this creature and Doyle’s collection brings life to these myths while keeping the vampire in his (or her) rightful creepy place. Definitely an enjoyable read for fans of the original Dracula.
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