Final

Many images come to mind when one says the word ‘vampire.’ There are, of course, the horrifying blood-sucking vampires of Eastern European legends, zombies from Africa, modern vampires from Twilight, and of course, vampires that draw from all of these categories, as in Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. This was a fantastic book, and I highly recommend it to anyone, even if they are not into stories about vampires or the horror genre.

This book is centered on, as the title indicates, an interview with the vampire Louis, who has been around for hundreds of years. I would guess that the modern part of the book is set in the late 20th century. The vampire was born in the 1700’s. The vampire is interviewed by a nameless boy, who is extremely nervous at first about being in a room alone with a creature that could kill him at any time he wanted. Luckily for the boy, this is not Louis’s goal.

The focus of the story is not on the boy and the vampire, but rather the vampire’s experiences that have led up to him being where he is at that point in the story. Namely, how he loses his humanity as time progresses. The vampire commences to tell his story to the boy, who is recording it through a cassette tape player.

Louis started out as a human, just as any other vampire does. He has a nice family (brother, sister, and mother) and a lovely plantation home near New Orleans. Everything is going well until Louis’s brother talks about visions he has had, telling him to sell everything and completely devote his life to God. He dies not too long after, and Louis is an absolute wreck. He wanders around for days, hoping to die. During one of these nights, he is found by a vampire named Lestat, who transforms him.

At first Louis sticks to merely eating animals instead of humans, and he hangs onto his old sadness for his brother and love for Babette Fenrier, the woman in charge of a nearby plantation. He feels just as humans feel and he upholds morals just as most people do. He resented Lestat for not teaching him properly and showing him what sort of an experience one might have during the kill, as opposed to killing mindlessly.

As Lestat and Louis live in New Orleans, Louis comes to realize that he needs to feed on humans in order fully sustain himself. He realizes this, yet he still thinks of himself as evil. One night he feeds upon a small child but leaves her alive. She is later transformed into a vampire and raised by Louis and Lestat, who name her Claudia. She is just as inquisitive as Louis, but she also has no problem killing, just like Lestat. Unfortunately for her, she is eternally stuck in her five-year-old’s body, unable to live completely on her own even if she wants to.

Louis and Claudia have an inseparable bond, beyond that of a father and child, even to the point of being the passion between two lovers. Louis acutely feels this as a human would, but more intensified. Claudia, like most vampires, merely feels a watered-down detached sense of the emotion. For a while, tensions have been building between Lestat and the other two. One night, Claudia follows through on her plan she has been formulating and she kills Lestat. Louis takes the body and dumps it into a swamp far away from the house. Louis was opposed to this killing and tried to talk Claudia out of it, but she was determined.

On the eve of Louis and Claudia’s departure to Paris to find other vampires, they see another vampire outside of their window and they hear the unmistakable footsteps of Lestat on the stairway. Claudia and Louis end up burning the place down while narrowly escaping.

Once the pair arrived in Europe, they decided to take a detour to the heartland of vampire legends- Eastern Europe. What they found were not civilized vampires like themselves, but untamed and horrifying monsters out of the Eastern European legends. They had no minds or anything, just the drive to kill. The trip to Paris is very somber after this horrible experience with other vampires.

While in Paris, Louis is found by another vampire who follows him and the two vampires fight. Eventually another vampire steps in to stop the fight and invites Louis and Claudia to the Théâtre des Vampires. Louis and Claudia attend one of the performances, and Louis acutely feels the pain of the victim that the audience doesn’t seem to realize is actually being fed upon by real vampires. After the show, the vampires all meet and talk. Louis decides that he loves the leader, Armand; Claudia does not like him one bit. The other vampires don’t like the pair. Louis does get to ask some of his most pressing questions that he came to Paris in search of the answers. His biggest questions were: was he was evil, a child of Satan, and does God really exist? Armand answers these as no, and not really. This has a huge impact on Louis, but it doesn’t change things for him too much yet.
Claudia and Louis are growing progressively further apart and colder towards each other. Louis has Armand to talk with and share his company, but Claudia becomes lonely and resentful. Eventually she finds a woman, Madeline, who makes dolls in the image of her deceased daughter who wants nothing more than to be a vampire and take care of Claudia. Louis had said earlier in the story that he absolutely would not turn anyone into a vampire, but he ends up granting Claudia this wish. They may have grown apart, but he still feels her pain and loneliness and an attachment to her.

Everything seems to be going pretty well, when suddenly the vampires of the Théâtre des Vampires storm into their room and take all three away (Louis, Claudia, and Madeline). It turns out that Lestat was still alive, despite of all that he’d been through, albeit greatly changed. He was weak and feeble and ugly, and not his former arrogant self. The other vampires found out that Claudia had attempted to kill Lestat, and in the vampire world, killing one of their own kind was the ultimate crime for which the punishment was death. Louis tries to save her but there is nothing he can do. He is absolutely torn with grief, and not even Armand can fully comfort him. Louis burns down the Théâtre des Vampires, killing all vampires there except Armand. The two go and travel the world together, but they no longer are passionate or long to be with each other. Louis was losing his human side and was becoming detached, like all the other vampires. Louis’s passionate emotions were what Armand most loved about Louis.

The two return to New Orleans, where they live in relative happiness, until Armand realizes that he is having a hard time adapting to the modern world, and he has no desire to continue, and the two vampires part ways. Louis barely feels any emotion about this, just as he felt no emotion when he saw Lestat again, old and feeble, begging him to stay and take care of him. And so the story ends, with Louis cold and emotionless, the complete opposite of what he once was- an immortal human with magnified emotions.

The boy interviewing the vampire (you’ve probably forgotten about him by now) is extremely distraught that the story ended this way, and demands that the vampire change him into a vampire. The boy believes he would live with all of the passion that Louis had at first, but the vampire refuses to change him, though he does drink from the boy to the point of unconsciousness. When the boy awakes, he has a plan- Louis did mention on the tapes where Lestat was currently living, so maybe…

Dracula Chapters 25-27

Chapter 25: Mina makes all of the men promise that if she ever loses control of herself and completely changes into a vampire, they will kill her so she doesn't kill anyone else. All of the men struggle with this, but Jonathan has a particularly hard time with it. I wonder if Van Helsing had touched her with the Wafer during dawn or dusk she wouldn't have the red mark on her forehead, since her soul is free during those times of day. Mina's reports are still the same: lapping water and darkness. Everyone is grateful that bribery works in those parts of the world. Everyone is ready for Dracula's coming, but he doesn't come. Mina seems to be changing further into a vampire. Dracula's ship doesn't end up docking where/when it was reported that it would, so then the group has to travel to the actual port. It is decided that Dracula is too concerned with escaping to read Mina's actions, so they take her back into their confidence.
Chapter 26: The penultimate chapter! Mina's report is finally different, showing that Dracula is close to shore. They can finally go get him! Unfortunately, it is becoming harder to hypnotize Mina to get her reports of Dracula's actions. I wonder if that's because he cut her off and she's trying to see through a connection that's not there? The men speak to the captain of the ship, but the box was already taken away. They conclude that Dracula is traveling by boat up a river, and they're pretty sure as to which river it is. Jonathan and Arthur decide to travel by boat upriver to try to overtake the box, and Quincey and Dr. Seward decide to go along the river bank on horseback. Van Helsing is to go with Mina by carriage. Everyone is grateful for being loaded with cash. The hunt seems to be going pretty well.
Chapter 27: Mina is changing even further into a vampire. She sleeps all day and doesn't eat. She is constantly becoming more pale, and her trances are nigh impossible to bring about. When they stop for the night, Van Helsing makes a ring around Mina with the Wafer. This proves really useful because later the three vampire women come by and try to get Mina to join them. Mina refuses, which is really good. It shows that she may be changing, but at least she still has control over her soul to some degree. Poor horses. It's really bad that the boat Jonathan and Arthur are on is broken. I wonder if Dracula had a hand in this? Van Helsing comes across the tombs of the three women and he destroys their bodies, thus freeing their souls. It's a good thing he saw their expressions of relief after they were killed, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to go on. A recurring theme in this book is the notion that vampires can easily lure others to join their ranks by being beautiful. The tomb and chapel of Dracula are sterilized forever. Van Helsing and Mina hide out in a cave, and they witness both parties (Quincey and Dr. Seward, Jonathan and Arthur) closing in on the men transporting Dracula's body. Time is running out, since no one want to fight Dracula while he has his complete power. Quincey is injured while obtaining the box, but he and Jonathan open it and kill Dracula. Luckily for all, he has an expression of sheer relief at being released from his curse. It's really sad, though, since Quincey Morris dies. He was my favorite character, too! At least it was for a good and noble cause. The little epilogue is a nice conclusion to the book, since it shows that yes, all of what the band went through was worth it.

I really enjoy this book, as it is so well written. It's also captures the reader's attention by having so much happen in one chapter. I really recommend re-reading it some day since you pick up on so much more and it has much more meaning the second time around.

Dracula Chapters 21-24

Chapter 21: This is the chapter in which Renfield's story of involvement with Dracula is revealed. All of the hints dropped earlier in the book are explained here. Renfield reveals his role in letting Dracula into Dr. Seward's home, and the men finally realize what in happening to Mina. Soon afterward, Renfield dies from his horrendous injuries inflicted by Dracula. I'm surprised that they didn't notice that Mina was being preyed upon long before they did, especially after seeing those exact same signs in Lucy before she 'died.' Mina tells about being controlled by Dracula and having been forced to drink his blood. The chapter ends with everybody extremely unhappy and distraught.
Chapter 22: It's incredible to see the faith exhibited by all of the protagonists in this book. All of these dark events are occurring and yet they all are trusting that they will be delivered safely. Everybody decides that it is for the best that Mina is kept in full confidence. At the meeting, they all discuss the ligistics of going and destroying all of the earth boxes of Dracula's. When Van Helsing goes to bless Mina with the Wafer, it sears her skin since she is 'unclean' now. The men then set off to destroy the boxes and are successful in destroying all but one of them. They must then wait for Dracula to come.
Chapter 23: Jonathan, Dr. Seward, and Van Helsing have to wait for Quincy and Arthur to come back, hopefully before Dracula does. That way they could have more people to fight him when he comes. Van Helsing tries to keep Jonathan calm while waiting. Eventually Quincy and Arthur show up, and not long after that Dracula comes to the Picadilly house. He's absolutely furious, and makes a lunge at the men. Jonathan tries to slice him but misses. Dracula escapes, but at least the boxes are sterilized and he can't return to London. Mina makes everyone feel sorry for Dracula by explaining what it would feel like to be outcast for so long. During times of dusk and dawn, Van Helsing hipnotizes Mina since through here connection with Dracula she can see and hear what he sees and hears. They all find out that he is on a boat somewhere in his last earth-box.
Chapter 24: Van Helsing instructs Jonathan to stay with Mina while they search out Dracula, who has gone back to Transylvania. Mina is extremely happy about the fact that Jonathan is staying and that Dracula is far away. Van Helsing describes talking with the men who loaded the box onto the ship and dealt with Dracula. After looking back at the history of Dracula and his bloodline, the main characters see that his actions make more sense than they did before. Van Helsing and Dr. Seward have a discussion and decide to keep Mina out of the meetings since she is changing and can subconciously transmit information to Dracula. Luckily for them, Mina had reached this same conclusion and wasn't too upset about it. She decides that she must go with the men to kill the Count since her times of hipnotism can tell them lots about what he is doing. The men make plans for the journey, and write up their wills.

Dracula Chapters 16-20

Hooray! I finally finished the book! Now for all of the blogging...
Chapter 16: Yay for grave debauchery! This chapter is full of suspense and a sense of sadness for all of the men really, but especially for Arthur, who has to come to terms with the fact that his beloved is indeed a vampire and must be slain by him. At least Lucy is at peace now before her soul could get too plagued by evil. It would have been pretty terrifying to be one of those people in the graveyard when the vampire came back to her lair. It's a good thing they all had the necessary equipment!
Chapter 17: Mina arrives at Dr. Seward's home/lunatic asylum, and she and Dr. Seward decide to tell each other all that has been going on. I believe that this is the chapter in which Mina goes through and types up all of the diaries and documents and compiles them in a book in chronological order (much like the book we're reading!). I'd guess that this was Bram Stoker's intent to make the characters seem more real by having them 'write' the book. It's a really neat device and I really like it. But I digress. Not too much really happens in this chapter. Jonathan goes off to find out about the boxes of earth, and Mina meets Quincy Morris and Arthur Holmwood. She becomes good friends with them both.
Chapter 18: In this chapter Mina meets Renfield, and he seems more sane than he has ever been. She seems to have some sort of a positive effect on him. Everybody reads the compilation of the texts and diaries and then they all meet together to discuss a course of action to rid the world of Count Dracula. They talk about what his strengths and weaknesses are, and also vampire 'cures.' I suspect that Dracula was eavesdropping in bat form, however. At least Quicy got him to leave by shooting at him before he heard too much. Renfield later calls in Mina to talk with her and he begs everyone to let him go that night. The fact that he was denied this request is very important to the story later on.
Chapter 19: The men (Jonathan, Quincy, Arthur, Van Helsing, and Dr. Seward) go into Carfax to see what they can find while Dracula is away. Rats were called from every cranny in that old house and chapel. It is lucky that there were dogs at the command of the protagonists to chase out all of the rats. Later when the men come back to the asylum, Renfield is in distress. This is also extremely important, as is the fact that Mina is pale when Jonathan sees her later that night. What happens is Dracula is invited in, semi-unwillingly, by Renfield, who then regrets his decision. Dracula then proceeds to visit Mina for a while before the men notice. The men decide to leave Mina out of their counsels, since they think that the stress and worry of these is what is making her pale and lethargic. Mina dreams of Dracula coming to visit her in the night, and little does she know that this is more than a dream. The next night she makes the mistake of taking a sleeping drug.
Chapter 20: Jonathan goes about tracking the locations of the boxes that were moved from the house. The men decided that when they go to sterilize Dracula's living places, they should do them all at once. Some of the box-movers were helpful, but all of them required bribes. Renfield is acting reasonable again, and Dr. Seward tries to figure out what he means when he says various things about not being zoophogous anymore. Dr. Seward finally realizes that the Count probably recently visited Renfield. Everyone is off doing their own thing in order to get matters ready to kill Dracula. At the very end, Renfield is found all bloodied in his room. This is probably Dracula's work.

Dracula Chapters 12-15

Chapter 12: Unfortunately, Lucy has another one of her relapses, this time worse than any of the previous ones. Later in the chapter, when she is actually dying, she keeps switching between the 'vampire self' and her normal self. towards the very end, she calls Arthur over to say goodbye in an attempt to seduce him and make him like her. When she comes back to consciousness and realizes what she did, she is grateful to Van Helsing for not allowing Arthur to kiss her. When she finally dies, she gets back some of her previous beauty. This is a sure sign that something's not right, as Van Helsing realizes. Mina's letter to Lucy is sort of sad for two reasons: Mr. Hawkins died, and also her letter will never be answered by Lucy. The letter written to Dr. Seward by the temporary overseer of the madhouse was pretty interesting. It's not a good thing that the boxes of earth are getting moved around. It's unusual that Renfield would not want the boxes to be moved, since these would allow Dracula to move around London freely. As of this point in the book, Renfield is still under Dracula's control.
Chapter 13: It's pretty bizarre that Lucy's beauty keeps growing in death, which means that she is now almost definitely a vampire. It's a good thing that Van Helsing is gathering up all of the papers, since they will come in handy later on. Dr. Seward got quite a shock when Van Helsing mentioned his desire to cut off Lucy's head and take out her heart, since he doesn't yet realize what has happened to her. Poor Arthur, having to go through all of this. The worst hasn't yet come for any of the characters. Even the normally stoic Van Helsing breaks down at some point. I think Quincy Morris is the only one who doesn't. Mina finally finds out that Lucy and Mrs. Westenra have died, and Jonathan sees Dracula while he and Mina are taking a walk. Luckily he seems to forget the incident later on in the chapter. The occurences of children being attacked by the 'bloofer lady' is not a good sign for anyone, seing as this lady is Lucy.
Chapter 14: Mina decides it is for the best for her to read Jonathan's journal and is greatly disturbed by what she sees. She also recieves a second telegram from Van Helsing (the first being the one that let her know that Lucy and Mrs. Westenra are dead) and meets with him. She gives him a typewritten copy of Jonathan's journal and speaks with him about the strange occurences. Van Helsing lets her know that what Jonathan wrote about in the journal was indeed true, and this knowledge basically cures Jonathan, since the not knowing is what got to him and made him sick for so long. At the end of the chapter, Van Helsing tries to explain to Dr. Seward what happened to Lucy, but Dr. Seward is unwilling to believe at this point in the story.
Chapter 15: Dr. Seward is still quite angry with Van Helsing for saying what he did about Lucy (how she was now a nosfaratu), but he goes along anyways when they go to talk to one of the children attacked by the 'bloofer (beautiful) lady.' Later that night, they go to Lucy's tomb and open her coffin, only to discover that she is not there. They then go and wait for her to come back. A white figure holding a child comes back to Lucy's tomb, and Van Helsing is able to get the child before the figure can hurt it. The next day, they return to Lucy's tomb and see that she is in her coffin, looking more beautiful than ever. Dr. Seward finally starts to believe Van Helsing's theory that she is a vampire. Van Helsing is determined to kill her, but not without Arthur's consent. Van Helsing goes later to block off her tomb at night and leaves a just-in-case note for Dr. Seward. Towards the end of the chapter, the four men (Arthur, Quincy, Dr. Seward, and Van Helsing) meet to talk about what to do with Lucy. Arthur has a really hard time with this, but eventually he is willing to accept what needs to be done.

Dracula Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Well, it all seems to be going so well, until Dr. Seward and Van Helsing find out that Mrs. Westenra removed all of the garlic flowers from Lucy's room and opened up her window, which is exactly what Van Helsing told Lucy not to do, but neglected to tell Mrs. Westenra for fear of causing her undo stress. I feel bad for all of them, since they're all trying to do what's best for Lucy. This time it's good old Van Helsing that has to give Lucy the blood transfusion. I guess that Dr. Seward hasn't figured out that Lucy's being attacked by a vampire because he's so science-minded and would have trouble believing myths and legends. That's so unfortunate at the end of the chapter that there was a fatal miscommunication! That would have been so terrifying to be in Lucy's shoes! As for the wolf escape, that was quite interesting to read about. The zookeeper's English was a little hard to understand at first, but after getting used to it it's not so bad. Dracula was going around stirring up trouble again. At least the wolf was unharmed. Moving on to Renfield; that's pretty disgusting that he would go and cut Dr. Seward and then drink his blood.

I'll have more later. I've read through chapter 20, but my blogging is lagging a little bit. I'll try to have it soon!

Dracula Chapters 6-10

Chapter 6: Ah, good old Mr. Swales and interpreting his English. It makes more sense if you read it quickly rather than slowly, by the way. He's a swell old character, and it's fascinating to hear his stories and theories about life. It' s pretty sad at the end of the chapter when he tells Mina that he believes his time is soon to be at hand. That Russian ship is pretty important later on. The case of Renfield- is there anything more disturbing and fascinating to read about in this book? Probably, but it is a valuable part of the book all the same. Renfield is so unpredictable and yet intelligent, which makes him so dangerous. I wonder what would happen if he were to ally himself with Dracula? *hint hint* That Mina is one smart person in how she could tell that something was up with the letter that she recieved from Jonathan. If only she could figure out what was wrong with it...
Chapter 7: This whole chapter tells of the storm and the ship washed ashore with a dead man tied to the wheel. It's a pretty ominous chapter, if you ask me. Reading the ship's log was my favorite part of this chapter. Can you imagine being on a boat with its occupants being picked off one by one? At least the captain had some sort of an idea as to what he was dealing with and tied the Rosary to his hands so that Dracula (of whose presence on the ship he wasn't aware of until far into the voyage) couldn't touch him. The black dog who runs off of the ship is, of course, Dracula. How else could it have disappeared without a trace? It's also characteristic of Dracula to summon storms if he so desires to accomplish some dark task. Poor Mr. Swales, being killed by a vampire and all. At least he knew that his time was coming and he was ready for it, but that doesn't make it any less terrifying.
Chapter 8: Lucy's sleepwalking experience must have been quite an ordeal for both Mina and Lucy to go through. Hopefully no permanant damage is done to Lucy. Hopefully Lucy's and Mrs. Westenra's health(s?) hold out, since each seems to be relying on the other staying well in order to survive. It's strange that Lucy doesn't really remember here sleepwalking experiences. Uh, oh! Dracula's dirt has arrived at Carfax, which is right next to Dr. Seward's insane asylum. Renfield escapes and runs to Carfax, so there's almost difinitely some sort of communication going on between him and Dracula. At least Mina finally knows about Jonathan and where he is. Unfortunately, he's recovering from deleria, but he's alive and in a safe place. I'm glad that Mina and Jonathan can finally marry!
Chapter 9: What a sweet reunion between Mina and Jonathan! That was a pretty great wedding present, with Jonathan's diary all wrapped up to prove that they trust each other. I suspect that they may need to look into it sometime, though. There's definitely something up with Renfield and the sun going down and his second escape. He seems to know that the time is coming for Dracula to brak out and start preying upon the citizens of London or somesuch. I'm glad that Lucy's finally keeping a journal so we can see her thoughts on the situation. The doctors and everyone seem to be perplexed as to why she is showing clear signs of blood loss, but they can find no lacerations nor signs of anemia. We finally meet Van Helsing, who is traditionally fabled as a vampire hunter! As of this point of the story, he doesn't go around slaying vampires for fun, he's just a super-smart physician that knows a lot and trusts his intuition. I'm glad that they brought in Van Helsing to evaluate the situation.
Chapter 10: Oh, poor Lucy! She's doing so much worse and is right on the edge of death! That last-minute blood transfusion really saved here. If only someone could stay with her every night, since Dracula seems to strike only when she is alone. Unfortunately, that is not possible, since everyone needs to sleep. Van Helsing is one of my favorite characters in this whole book. He knows what he is doing, and he's entertaining. When they find Lucy in need of a blood transfusion a second time and they see the puncture wounds in her throat, Van Helsing seems to catch on as to what is happening and goes to get some preventive measures, such as the garlic all around the room and around her neck as she sleeps. The chapter ends with such suspense, as Van Helsing is confident that his remedy will work and Dr. Seward is questioning it, since last time he thought that Lucy would by alright, she ended up even worse than before.

Dracula Chapters 1-5

Chapter 1: It was really interesting to read this after having read the alternate introduction to the book. It was nice to be able to compare the two versions of how the story began. I really like how the story is in all sorts of formats (letters, journals, accounts) and how it begins with a journal entry from the main character, Jonathan Harker. Learning the setup and the lay of the land and all of the people who occupy that land is pretty interesting. When Jonathan makes his comment about how his 'smattering of German' is his means of communication, I was reminded of when my Grampa would tell me stories about when he would communicate with people through his broken German and their broken German and with that they would be able to figure out what the other meant. This chapter also describes some of the superstitions that go on near the Carpathian mountains. The setup of teh book really grabs the readers' attention and holds it throughout the introduction. It's a great start!
Chapter 2: This chapter gives a nice introduction of characters, as we learn more about Jonathan, our protagonist, and we meet Count Dracula, the antagonist. It's really well-written how the realization that he is trapped in a prison slowly and gradulally dawns on Jonathan. The Count is pretty sly about seeming to be just a noble going about his business and learning all he can. Little does Jonathan know of Dracula's sinister reasons for wanting to do this business.
Chapter 3: Learning some history of Transylvania was super exciting and interesting! This is when Jonathan asks Dracula about himself and how he came to be the master of his keep. I'm surprised that Jonathan doesn't think that all of Dracula's questions and reactions to the description of the house he was to by were pretty fishy. I felt so bad for Jonathan when Dracula made him write those letters to his friends and family to let them know that he was doing well, even though he wasn't. I bet at this point he wishes that he would have listened to the peasants who warned him not to go to the castle. Why would Jonathan go and ignore Dracula's warning not to sleep anywhere outside of his own room? Obviously in a castle such as this there must be a good reason for this sort of warning. Those women must have been pretty terrifying, and it would be even more frightening to know that they will come after him at any chance that they can get.
Chapter 4: Here Jonathan's attempts to escape become more and more desparate. Wouldn't it be terrible to have to write your own death note like Jonathan was forced to by Dracula? Anyway, those Szgany were pretty mean, going and turning Jonathan's letters in to Dracula. It would also be so frustrating to not be able to do anything about the Count galavanting about, acting as Jonathan and making it seem as if he is alive and well, albeit a monster. Those boxes seem pretty mysterious and sinister. I can't belive that Jonathan actually goes down into the old chapel and searches Dracula's body for a key. That would take some real courage! That was pretty cruel of Dracula to offer Jonathan some false hope of leaving early by opening up the door for him and then summoning the wolves that if Jonathan did leave, he would be torn to shreds. Hopefully things start looking up for Jonathan soon!
Chapter 5: This was a nice little repreive from all of the suspense that was building up. It fits with the book and it's a good chapter, but I don't think that it exactly fits with this particular reading assignment. It's nice to meet Mina and some of her friends, as well as learn a little about life back in England. Some of the letters seem pretty frivolous, especially the ones from Lucy about her three marriage proposals, but these characters are extremely important later on, so don't discredit them. Some of these important characters are introduced here, and not again later in the book, so if you missed it here, you might want to go back and re-read this chapter. It seems like the purpose of this book is mostly a character introduction for the ones not in Dracula's castle.
I'm really liking this book!

Vampire Secrets

Well, the person I researched was Countess Elizabeth Bathory. She was a really creepy nutcase. It makes me glad I didn't live in her era! It seems like some of her insanity may have stemmed from the fact that she didn't have a really happy childhood or home life or marriage. It's really interesting that she went around murdering virgins and bathing in their blood, yet was still a very loving mother. Who would think that would be possible? There's also the fact that her children allegedly didn't know about this activity until her arrest. It seems like her fate is just another case of where the rich, wealthy, and powerful get off the hook a little when it comes to justice. I mean, she was only under house arrest after all that she did!
Here's a link to an article on her: http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/bathory/countess_1.html

As for the movie, this was a really informative, albeit really creepy documentary/special. I'm glad that the History Channel looked into this, though it is a little surprising that the producers would choose this topic. A few nights after I watched this, I kept having to check over my shoulder and listen for random noises! I learned a lot about vampires, and some feasible theories about how these legends got started, especially the segment about the one murderer in Scotland who was hung but never actually died, and then returned to his village. I'm really glad that we watched it, but even as I'm blogging here late at night I'm getting a little creeped out!

Dracula's Guest

This was really well-written and interesting. I like it a lot. Having read Dracula already, I am able to compare the two introductions. As a stand-alone chapter, I like Dracula's Guest more, but for the flow of the book, I prefer the chapter that Bram Stoker chose. Something that was fascinating to read was the side narration. It helped explain about the backstory of Dracula. It was really gruesome to read about, but the information about the real Dracula was valuable. It was also intruguing to read about the Translvanian folklore. Romania is such a mysterious place that can be easily romanticized. This was definitely worth reading and should be read along with the actual story whenever colleges and high schools teach the book.

Vampire in Venice

This was a fascinating article about how people actually dealt with vampires. I'm surprised that archeological evidence of vampire slayings weren't found before. In the "Historical Evidence" section of the book that we're reading, the corpses of "vampires" are described as bloated with blood seeping out the mouth and other openings in the body. This was the case in pretty much all of the stories. The Polish legends were the ones, I believe, that thought that vampires would be swimming in their coffins in the blood of their victims. Back to the article: as creepy as it is to dig up and reuse a mass grave, it does make sense if the number of dead people isn't much less than the number of people still living. Medieval science and medicine would have no way of knowing how a body naturally decomposes, so it does make sense that the response to seeing a "vampire" is to shove a stake through the heart, a brick in the mouth or whatever to kill it.

Vampire Knight

I love this manga!!! I had actually started to read the series about a week or so this was assigned, so the timing worked out perfectly. I probably wouldn't have finished it so quickly if not for the assignment, but that's fine. The biggest problem was in the 6th-8th mangas, where it was necessary to read them online since they're not out in the U.S. yet. I despise reading online (I love the tactile stuff), and there were several garbled translations that made things hard to understand at times. Other than that it was fantastic! The artwork was beautifully drawn, and the storyline was really good. This definitely goes by the view of the "modern day" vampire. It did put a fresh perspective on a fairly new concept of how vampires organize themselves (I guess the Senate is sort of like the Volturi in the Twilight series, but better). I know that there are a lot of mangas about high schools, and there are many stories about vampires, but Vampire Knight was able to combine these two without seeming cheesy or unoriginal.

The Vampyre: A Tale

This story was one of those where you just cringe at the end about how unhappy and unfulfilled the ending was. At first this story was sort of hard to follow, but it got better as it went on. It was an enjoyable story; however it was pretty depressing. I guess that this tale would have set the foundation for the ''modern-day'' vampire- superhuman and attractive. I'm surprised that more of the characters in the book didn't figure out that Lord Ruthven was a vampire... It was pretty creepy how even after Lord Ruthven "died," he still was able to communicate to Aubrey his desire for Aubrey to keep his promise. Creepy! You have to wonder if Lord Ruthven married Aubrey's sister the day before the promise had run its course just to tick him off. I wonder why Aubrey doubted Ianthe and her parents about the existence of vampires? This is what ended up causing her death, and consequently, her parents' deaths. I'm just glad that there was a little bit of happiness in this story- when Ianthe and Aubrey are able to be together. I thought that this was a pretty good reading selection!

Historical Evidence Stories

I found these stories to be really fascinating, and it just sort of goes to show that vampire legends have sprung up everywhere and through all times in human history.
The Book of Vampires- I thought that the most interesting part of this story were the margins with all of the names for vampire throughout different cultures. It explained a lot from when I've read other books and certain terms were used, such as incubus and chupacabra. It helped me understand how all of the languages around where the vampire stories originated are similar. I also found the methods that the Wallachians used to get rid of vampires and their ways of determining if someone is a vampire to be fascinating. It also defines what a vampire is.
The Phantom World- It seems as if this story is telling different accounts of how people have become vampires and what they ended up doing, as well as how the village folk dealt with the problem of someone coming back from the dead. In all of the reports, the corpse of the vampire is found to be bloated and overflowing with blood and it appears to be just dead. The body is also dealt with in a similar and gruesome manner.
Tale of a Russian Vampire- I found this to be the most novel-like account of the four stories. It read the smoothest. Anyway, in this story there was an older man who was jealous and mean who wed a young and pretty girl, denying her true love. This seems like a general character setup for a vampire story, since most seem to involve an older man and a pretty girl. The way in which the girl acted after her late husband kept coming back to suck her blood was similar to how the female protagonist in Dracula acted. It had a pretty brutal ending, but at least the vampire was dealt with!
Vampires of Roumania- This story was the one I found a tad bit hard to follow. From what I understand the girl's lover turned into a vampire and killed her parents and threatened to kill her after she saw him coming out of his grave one night. He killed her, and she was buried in a supersticious manner. A little while later, she turned into a flower and was picked by the emperor's son and eventually turned back into herself and they got married and lived happily ever after. It was an interesting story, if not a little confusing. The second story in here was also quite interesting. I felt pretty bad for the girl at the end of the story. Who knew you could become a vampire just by being around them?
All in all, I really liked these selections and I look forward to reading more in the book.

Ligeia

This one's also late.... This one was quite obvious about how it hinted about vampires. First off, there was the narrator's description of Ligeia: huge eyes, pearly white teeth, pale skin, raven black hair, knowledgeable above most others. She would enter a room and he wouldn't even realize it until she started speaking to him. Also, her family was an ancient, highly-respected line of people. This hints at vampirism do to the physical aspect, as well as the fact that since she knew all of the classical languages and everything, she's probably been around a really long time. The poem she recited on her death bed also hints at the fact that she knows what's coming, and it's not going to be eternal salvation. Once Ligeia dies, the narrator marries Lady Rowena, and he hates her. She doesn't love him, either. She gets sick mysteriously, and her doctors can't figure out what's wrong with her. She becomes over-sensitive to sounds and light (like vampires are). During her sickness, she drinks some wine which the narrator sees some 'ruby drops' fall into, but he can't fathom the source. One of the most obvious clues about vampires is the scene at her death bed, in which she keeps dying and then suddenly coming back to life. Eventually, she gets up and starts walking over to the narrator. At this point the narrator becomes suspicious and finds out that it is Ligeia, somehow manifested in the former body of Lady Rowena.
Out of the three works of Poe, this one most obviously points to vampires.

The Oval Portrait

Sorry this is late... this week's been pretty crazy. Anyway, after reading The Oval Portrait, I was still unsure as to how it hinted at vampires. I guess that the narrator was so drawn to the portrait, but I really have no idea.

The Fall of the House of Usher

In this story, Poe hints at vampires most obviously in the part of the story where there is a heavy storm and the narrator hears the noises. While he is reading, there are awful noises coming from somewhere in the depths of the mansion. Usher realizes that these noises are the sounds of Lady Madeline, his twin sister, escaping from the coffin/chamber/vault that the narrator and Usher had buried her in eight days prior to this. Usher describes how he had been hearing these noises for the past few nights, but hadn't mentioned that they mistakenly buried her alive. Suddenly she's in the room and falls over and kills Usher, and the narrator flees the house. There are other hints at vampirism, such as when Usher becomes withdrawn and tells the narrator to stay in his room at night. I'm almost positive that there are other signs in the story that I missed, but those are the two main examples that I could find.

Vampire Website

I found this website http://vampirewebsite.net/ The author seems to seriously believe in all of this stuff... The content is pretty good, but the grammar isn't great. It's really an interesting site. Personally, I don't believe most of it, but I generally don't believe in supernatural stuff.

Assignment #1

I've read a few books on vampires. One of the books not on the list is Pests or something like that. It's about vampires living in New York City and how there's a vampire infestation. It's almost impossible to contain the outbreak, since it's carried by rats, I think. It's been a while since I've read it. Another book I've read was called Cold Ones, I think. It was about this social group of elite teenagers that hang out at upscale nightclubs and one by one they find the dead corpses of their classmates. I think there was a good group of vampires that ran the city and an evil group that did all of the killing. Sorry that the details are pretty vague... In both of these books, the vampire is pretty much your typical blood-sucking monster.
Of the books on the class list I have read Twilight and Dracula. Dracula is a pretty good book, and it seems to be the general foundation for all modern vampire books, as in it seemed to have set the precedents for 'American' vampires. It's a bit challenging at first to get the hang of the old-timey writing style, but once that's done it's not so bad. The storyline is actually pretty great. I thought that Twilight was a pretty good quick escape from reality, but not something to take too seriously. It was definitely a fun little tryst. The vampires here are quite different than those in the traditional 'American' stories and legends, like how they have extendo-fangs and can function pretty well in society. The Cullens are almost more like the Tucks from Tuck Everlasting than they are like vampires.
As far as what I know about vampires, I know the general stuff about how they suck blood and only come out at night and sleep in coffins and hate garlic, but I haven't heard of too many other types of vampires. The theory about how the idea of vampires got started that I'm most inclined to believe is the one about the diabetics and how their gums would recede and they would eat a lot and pass out. Another think that I've heard is that cats have something to do with the process of becoming a vampire, but I'm not sure what.
My personal thought of what the term 'vampire' embodies is that of the tall, pale, swooping figure with red eyes and extended fangs. In other words, I think of the traditional Dracula-esque vampire. I tend to think of the vampire as a blood-thirsty creature of terror.
That's about all of the vampire stuff that I've heard, so comment away!

Woo!

Yay! First post!!!