Dracula's Guest

Starred review from April 15, 2010
Sims, editor of this brilliant collection, gathers stories of the undead written during what he loosely terms the Victorian era. Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901, although the range of these published tales is wider, approximately 1738 to 1890. In an entertaining introduction, he writes of the themes and images that occur in this collection: the bloodsuckers presented here are predators who can be turned away only by Christian symbols, garlic, and little else. Do not expect sparkling "Twilight" vampires or even the good-guy types that sometimes appeared in the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" franchise. Stories include classics by such writers as Lord Byron, Bram Stoker, and M.R. James, as well as lesser-known authors like Johann Ludwig Tieck and Thophile Gautier. The anthology is arranged to show how vampire tales and myths evolved. The last story, Stoker's "Dracula's Guest," was never part of the novel, but it still has that wonderful, over-the-top atmosphere. VERDICT An excellent addition to popular fiction and literature collections.Patricia Altner, Biblioinfo.com, Columbia, MD

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