Synopses & Reviews
In blood-soaked lore handed down the centuries, the vampire is a monster of endless fascination: from Bram Stokers
Dracula to
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this seductive lover of blood haunts popular culture and inhabits our darkest imaginings. The cultural history of the vampire is a rich and varied tale that is now ably documented in
From Demons to Dracula, a compelling study of the vampire myth that reveals why this creature of the undead fascinates us so.
Beresfords chronicle roams from the mountains of Eastern Europe to the foggy streets of Victorian England to Hollywood, as he investigates the portrayal of the vampire in history, literature, and art. Opening with the original Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, and his status as a national hero in Romania, he endeavors to winnow out truths from the complex legend and folklore. From Demons to Dracula tracks the evolution of the vampire as an icon and supernatural creature, drawing on classical Greek and Roman myths, witch trials and medieval plagues, Gothic literature, and even contemporary works such as Anne Rices Interview with a Vampire and Elizabeth Kostovas The Historian. Beresford also looks at the widespread impact of screen vampires from television shows, classic movies starring Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee, and more recent films such as Underworld and Blade. Whether as a demon of the underworld or a light-fearing hunter of humans, the vampire has endured through the centuries, the book reveals, as powerfully symbolic figure for human concerns with life, death, and the afterlife.
A wide-ranging and engrossing chronicle, From Demons to Dracula casts this blood-thirsty nightstalker as a remarkably complex and telling totem of our nightmares, real and imagined.
Review
"The vampire of antiquity was a ghost, who became enfleshed as the revenant, the ghoul; then, particularly in eastern Europe, it turned into a blood-sucker. Under the ministrations of western novelists, he pupated into the seductive, cape-wearing aristocrat of modern myth. This process Matthew Beresford delineates with great clarity . . . fascinating."
Independent on Sunday
Review
“Aficionados of vampire culture will probably find little to surprise them in this fascinating study, but the rest of us will remain gripped throughout . . . This is a fun study but it's also, as Beresford says, a study in our fears, and ultimately, our fear of death.”
The Herald
Review
"
The White Devil is informative and entertaining, filled with grisly anecdotes and case histories, religious, social, and medical interpretations, both credible and laughable. It leaves us wanting to know more. This is serious scholarship expressed in an easy, readable prose that examines the phenomenon from its beginnings with the tribal shaman all the way through to the legendand#8217;s popularization in film and television."
Review
and#8220;[Traces] the career of the werewolf from its roots in the shamanistic cults of prehistory, through its demonisation in Christian Europe, to the reclassification of lycanthropy as a mental illness . . . The stories told in this book are arresting and often bloody: the crimes of Gilles Garnier and other self-confessed and#8216;werewolvesand#8217; of the 16th century open a window on to changing perceptions of human barbarity in the pre-modern world. . . . This excursion into a fascinating but largely unvisited area of the past is welcome.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Happily,
The White Devil reintroduces us to an old fiend we thought we knew, and shows us thereand#8217;s a lot more to the werewolf than a full moon and a lust for human flesh. . . . Beresford writes with a wolfish enthusiasm.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Beresfordand#8217;s The White Devil may cause Twihards to re-examine their love of werewolves, but for the cultural historian in us all, it is a significant work on the religious and socio-cultural development of an idea that sheds light on the basic psychology of humankind. Beresford shows us that sometimes our fear of monsters is actually a fear of the world that we made.and#8221;
Synopsis
From Ovidandrsquo;s Lycaon to Professor Lupin, from Teen Wolf to An American Werewolf in Paris, the lycanthrope, or werewolf, comes to us frequently on the page and the silver screen. These interpretations often display lycanthropy as a curse, with the afflicted person becoming an uncontrollable, feral beast during every full moon. But this is just one version of the werewolfandmdash;its origins can be traced back thousands of years to early prehistory, and everything from Iron Age bog bodies and Roman gods to people such as Joan of Arc, Adolf Hitler, and Sigmund Freud feature in its story. Exploring the role of this odd assortment of ideas and people in the myth, The White Devil tracks the development of the werewolf from its birth to the present day, seeking to understand why the wolf curse continues to hold a firm grip on the modern imagination.Combining early death and burial rites, mythology, folklore, archaeological evidence, and local superstitions, Matthew Beresford explains that the werewolf has long been present in the beliefs and mythology of the many cultures of Europe. He examines prehistoric wolf cults, the use of the wolf as a symbol of ancient Rome, medieval werewolf executions, and the eradication of wolves by authorities in England during the Anglo-Saxon period. He also surveys werewolf trials, medical explanations, and alleged sightings, as well as the instances in which lycanthropes appear in literature and film. With sixty illustrations of these often terrifyingandmdash;but sometimes nobleandmdash;beasts, The White Deviloffers a new understanding of the survival of the werewolf in European culture.
About the Author
and#160;Matthew Beresford is a consultant archaeologist specializing in community archaeology, education, and research based in Chesterfield, Derbyshire in the UK. His publications include From Demons to Dracula: The Creation of the Modern Vampire Myth, also published by Reaktion Books.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part One: The Cult of the Wolf
1and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Of Man and Beast: The Prehistoric Cults of Europe
2and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Wolves of Rome: Classical Accounts of the Werewolf Myth
3and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Fits of Fury: The Wolves of Germania
Part Two: Magic and Mayhem
4and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Medieval Wolf
5and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; A Cruel and Savage Beast: The Werewolf in Folklore
6and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Of Wolf and Man: Werewolf Cases from Europe
Part Three: Darkness Visible
7and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Methods to the Madness: Medical Explanations of the Werewolf Myth
8and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Evolution Creates Dissolution: The End of the Myth?
References
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index