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to drink the blood of humanity in exchange for eternal life. This is a very different image than the mindless "revenant" vampires previously written of, or the poltergeist-like vampire wanderers in "Christabel" and "Carmilla".

Since it would be nearly impossible to chronicle every vampire story ever written (and you'll note, I've only mentioned the English ones in here, anyway - there were several German versions of the vampire story long before Coleridge), let's jumpstart to the biggies that came Post-Rice into our world, shall we?

There is Christopher Moore's "Love Story" series (1995 and still going, I believe) where a vampire woman and a human man work together to solve a vampiric mystery in a twisted, nocturnal love trist. A few years earlier in 1993, Laurell Hamilton kicks off her "Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series" which is still going strong today with about 20 books in the bundle. Of course, she was a little late for the origianl Vampire Hunter, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which aired as a movie written by Joss Whedon (starring Kristi Swanson and 90210 heartthrob, Luke Perry) a year earlier, in 1992: Buffy, the original vampire hunter. This naturally brings me to the massive collection of Buffy fanfiction, a series of YA books about Buffy the Vampire Slayer and her vampiric compatriots (Spike, Dru, Darla, Angel, even "Chanterelle" the mushroom girl) come out to play in both novel and graphic novel format following the huge success of the television series (also written by Joss Whedon - the series aired in 1997, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as the lead).

Now, I know there are so, so many more vampire stories, but I think I've touched on the most integral to our current, popular image of the vampire. Hope you found something interesting in this essay on one of my favoritest subjects: vampires. As if you couldn't tell...how many other people know the first thing written in English about vampires? I challenge you to quiz your friends. How many of them say "Dracula"?

Learn more about this author, Araminta Matthews.
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