The vampire has a long history, cropping up in various forms over the course of millennia in many cultures across the world from the Philippine Manananggal to the Ukrainian Upir. This article though isn’t attempting to map all these manifestations. Rather, it’s looking at literary vampires—deliberately fictional constructs who prowl the pages of their novels with bloodthirsty aplomb and arose in British and German traditions in the eighteenth century and early nineteenth centuries. Contrary to all too popular belief, they weren’t all brooding white dudes of the straight and faintly aristocratic variety. Many of the first Gothic vampires were women. Allow me to introduce you.
Bedfellows of the Worm: The Early History of Female Vampires
