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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
Ah, this perfectly reasonable and quite interesting scholarly look at vampiric folklore and possible explanations for the persistance of vampire lore from an actual scholar was the perfect antidote to the Montague Summer's (decadent Catholic-wannabe dandy who tries to convince us with his two books about vampires to be ever vigilant against Satan) book on vampires that I read just before this. It was particularly pertinent as both authors use a lot of the same source material and come to wildly different conclusions--one rather reasonable who's methodology teaches how to read pre-literate folklore better, the other batshit crazy and pulling us back toward the credulity that's always let shysters control us, dominate us, and steal a lot of our wealth by selling us one god or another.
Besides the reasonable approach and apparently valid conclusions Barber gets points for readability and a few nice zingers--he has a rather dry and winning wit on occasion. Even so he did repeat himself a bit and that made the book drag toward the end. I believe this is an expansion of his Ph.D. dissertation and that shows, as managing one's materials is easily the hardest part of writing one's first book-length study. I sympathize as I'm sure my dissertation suffers from similar flaws. Still, a good read and it gave me much fodder for my own teaching of Gothic literature in the future. I recommend it.
Besides the reasonable approach and apparently valid conclusions Barber gets points for readability and a few nice zingers--he has a rather dry and winning wit on occasion. Even so he did repeat himself a bit and that made the book drag toward the end. I believe this is an expansion of his Ph.D. dissertation and that shows, as managing one's materials is easily the hardest part of writing one's first book-length study. I sympathize as I'm sure my dissertation suffers from similar flaws. Still, a good read and it gave me much fodder for my own teaching of Gothic literature in the future. I recommend it.
challenging
informative
slow-paced
dark
informative
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Chronic illness
Minor: Torture, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder
informative
reflective
slow-paced
An interesting look at how vampires of fiction differ from vampires of traditional folklore, and the reality behind what inspired the folklore. Definitely an academic publication, but very readable. I skipped most of the last third because it was just an in-depth explanation of topics covered earlier. Still, a lot of good information is covered.
Now I understand why this book has been sited over and over. There is SOOOOO much information in this book that I have yet to read anywhere else. I can't even begin to go over the information that is in this book. And it's NOT because I haven't read many books. I own quite a few books regarding historical vampires, way more than I care to admit, and all of them I have read at least once. This is definitely on my top five favorite list. The best part is that it's not JUST about vampires, it's also about burial customs and there are even some bits of cultural information. I just finished the book and already I want to start reading it over!
This is a well-written, very academic, text (despite the many anecdotal illustrations of "vampire phenomena," aka decomposition, it's still quite dry). It's repetitive in places, though the repetition did help me to fix certain ideas in my mind, so that's both critique and compliment. The author slips in the occasional quip, so deftly, so casually, that I found myself snorting unexpectedly and wishing he'd elaborate (for example, on why a particular corpse let out a cry on its "second death" because Barber "...almost never [had] occasion to decapitate a corpse with a shovel." *Almost never*? You tease, sir!) Worth a read if you're researching the subject, though do bear in mind that the book contains frank discussion of somewhat grotesque and gory matters (as you might expect from the title).
dark
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
informative
After a certain point I mostly skimmed. It was interesting, but a bit dry.