Vampire literature is an amazingly varied genre of writing, providing elements of everything from the penny dreadful horrors to powerful doses of myth and eroticism. Because it contains its own mythology and its own set of rules, it has also proved a psychologically attractive genre for many writers from its Romantic inception to the present day.

This anthology includes Bram Stoker's detailed research notes for "Dracula", the culmination point of vampire literature. The author has written a full introduction, exploring the historical and imaginative implications of vampire mythology in the arts from the medieval Count Vlad to President Ceaucescu.