Vampires

On Magonia Review, Lynn Picknett recommends, "almost unreservedly," a new book on vampires by Richard Sugg, entitled "The Real Vampires: Death, Terror and the Supernatural":
http://pelicanist.blogspot.com/2019/07/c...mping.html

"To a large extent, this book deglamourizes the vampire. Far from being devastatingly, mesmerizingly attractive – one can even overlook the red eyeballs and dripping fangs, apparently, when in their grip – real vampires were shambolic and often, well, simply fat. And not surprisingly, they were more than a tad smelly. Ew.
But what do we mean by ‘real’? Sugg travelled widely through traditional undead countries – Romania, Serbia and Greece, for example, but also North America – to delve into the ancient myths and alarmingly recent beliefs.
...
This is a rare book, in that it straddles that almost impossible line between belief and scepticism – often successfully. While we discover that most if not all of the grotesque physical characteristics of the undead can be explained away by the normal processes of decomposition – especially in the case of victims of tuberculosis, whose rotting lungs produce quantities of bright red blood – there are trickier matters about terror-induced phenomena to consider, and very largely Sugg considers them."

On Magonia Review, Lynn Picknett recommends, "almost unreservedly," a new book on vampires by Richard Sugg, entitled "The Real Vampires: Death, Terror and the Supernatural":
http://pelicanist.blogspot.com/2019/07/c...mping.html

"To a large extent, this book deglamourizes the vampire. Far from being devastatingly, mesmerizingly attractive – one can even overlook the red eyeballs and dripping fangs, apparently, when in their grip – real vampires were shambolic and often, well, simply fat. And not surprisingly, they were more than a tad smelly. Ew.
But what do we mean by ‘real’? Sugg travelled widely through traditional undead countries – Romania, Serbia and Greece, for example, but also North America – to delve into the ancient myths and alarmingly recent beliefs.
...
This is a rare book, in that it straddles that almost impossible line between belief and scepticism – often successfully. While we discover that most if not all of the grotesque physical characteristics of the undead can be explained away by the normal processes of decomposition – especially in the case of victims of tuberculosis, whose rotting lungs produce quantities of bright red blood – there are trickier matters about terror-induced phenomena to consider, and very largely Sugg considers them."

I read this definitive work, "The Vampire: His Kith and Kin" by Montague Summer's a very long time ago.

Throughout the whole vast shadowy world of ghosts and demons there is no figure so terrible, no figure so dreaded and abhorred, yet [looked upon] with such fearful fascination, as the vampire, who is himself neither ghost nor demon, but yet who partakes the dark natures and possesses the mysterious and terrible qualities of both."
So begins this riveting study by one of the foremost authorities on witchcraft and occult phenomena. An indefatigable researcher, Summers explores the presence of vampires in Greek and Roman lore, in England and Ireland during Anglo-Saxon times, in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Romania, and Bulgaria, even in modern Greece. More than just a collection of library lore, however, this detailed examination of the history of vampirism in Europe also includes anecdotes and firsthand accounts gathered by the author from peasants in places where belief in vampires was still common.
A fascinating, sometimes terrifying book, The Vampire in Lore and Legend is a "mine of out-of-the-way information full of unspeakable tales," writes The New York Times; and according to Outlook, "a fascinating inquiry into the vampire legend . . . a storehouse of curious and interesting lore." Of great interest to any enthusiast of the supernatural and the occult, this book will appeal as well to the legions of general readers captivated by this ancient myth.
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Vampire_in_Lore_and_Legend.html?id=-0JgdoNEovMC&source=kp_book_description

From Wikipedia:

    [b]Augustus Montague Summers[/b] (10 April 1880 – 10 August 1948) was an English author and clergyman. He is known primarily for his scholarly work on the English drama of the 17th century, as well as for his idiosyncratic studies on witches, vampires, and werewolves, in all of which he professed to believe. He was responsible for the first English translation, published in 1928, of the notorious 15th-century witch hunter's manual, the [i]Malleus Maleficarum[/i].

I read this definitive work, "The Vampire: His Kith and Kin" by Montague Summer's a very long time ago.

Thanks for this. The text of that book is available at the Internet Archive (where it's said to be in the public domain in the USA):
https://archive.org/details/VampirismPdf...2102481735

Thanks for this. The text of that book is available at the Internet Archive (where it's said to be in the public domain in the USA):
https://archive.org/details/VampirismPdf...2102481735

You may like this. http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/01/early-...k.html?m=1