In Which the Lore and Lure of Death and Vampirism are Displayed

Dracula: The Connoisseur's Guide
by Leonard Wolf

In the 100 years since its publication, Bram Stoker's Dracula has never been out of print. Once introduced to the world by the silent film classic Nosferatu in 1921, Dracula became an enduring icon of fear, forever immortalized as a frightful embodiment of evil and forbidden sexuality.

Now, in this fascinating and entertaining account, Wolf examines the various interpretations of the immortal vampire in print, film, television, theater, and literature, including an extensive outline of Bram Stoker's life and his literary masterpiece, Dracula. Wolf explains how the story of a sexually sadistic undead creature/man who feeds on blood worked its way into mainstream society and how it is now used as a ubiquitous marketing tool for products from hair tonic to children's breakfast cereal.

The sourcebook includes:

• An exploration and the history of vampire myths, including the tale of Vlad the Impaler
• An overview of vampire films from the silent classic Nosferatu to Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula
• A discussion of vampire bats and the lore of blood
• A complete bibliography, filmography with movie stills, telefilmography, and a theater chronology
• Maps of Transylvania, London, and Whitby
• A calendar to coincide with the "real time" actions of Bram Stoker's Dracula, complete with sunrise and sunset times as well as the all-important phases of the moon
• And much more...

Chapter 1

Leaving all folklore aside, what might have originally prompted rational people to believe in the possibility of vampires? The answer is near, and it has to do with such simple matters as the state of the soil in which a body is buried, the climatic conditions prevailing at the time of the burial, and even on the diet on which the deceased was nourished. Each of these variables can have some influence on the rate of a body's decomposition, which means that not all bodies decompose at an absolutely predictable rate.

The body of St. Cuthbert, who died in A.D. 687, staved off decay until the nineteenth century when, inexplicably, like a movie vampire after it has been staked, it was suddenly "reduced to a skeleton."

If, then, in a community where there was reason to believe that there was a vampire loose, a suspected body was dug up and found not to be decayed, it is not surprising that a superstition-prone populace would conclude that it had a vampire on its hands. Commenting on the willingness of the diggers to believe in the vampirism of such corpses, Paul Barber writes:

"Note that what is being said here is that if the body remains as it was, then it is a vampire, whereas if it changes - then it is a vampire."

He tells us:

"...that most of the material on the subject was collected in past centuries and shows a natural bias for the dramatic and the exotic, so that an exhumation that did not yield a vampire could be expected to be an early dropout from the folklore and hence from the literature."

One more evidence that a body had been vampirized was the groan uttered by the corpse as a stake was driven through its body. The scientific explanation is that in the course of decomposition, gases build up in the body cavity so that the entire body can take on a plump appearance. The groan "uttered by the corpse" is merely a consequence of the gas either escaping from the point of entry of the stake or being shoved upward into the throat.

In Dracula, we read that as Lucy's body was being staked, "the blood from the pierced heart welled and spurted up around it." We may wonder how blood from a corpse can possibly spurt. In a normal death, the blood in the body coagulates very quickly. However, when the death is the result of "a sudden end to the functions of either the heart or the central nervous system," the blood can reliquefy. This fact has some bearing on the folklore of the vampire because one of the ways in which one can become a vampire is by committing suicide, and the deaths of suicides are likely to be violent or sudden.

If only corpses would behave as they should, there would be less vampire legendary in the world. The trouble is that dropping dead is only the most immediate signal that the end has come. At that moment, the body has experienced "somatic death." It's what we see crumpled in a heap against the base of the wall after the members of the firing squad have pulled their triggers; or when, as we sit at their bedside, we see those we love closing their eyes for the last time.

Visually, somatic death is more tolerable than the "molecular" death that begins moments later. In a peaceful death, it's the look that undertakers strive to preserve: a calm stillness, eyes closed, with a vague serenity inhabiting the features. An inanimate version of the departed self. If the death has been violent or for some other reason disfiguring, it's the look the funeral directors try to re-create. Molecular death on the other hand, has nothing to do with society, with culture or mores, with vanity or pride. It's what happens when the body is taken over by the natural processes that, by means of teeming billions of bacteria, transform all that was human, all that was made in God's image, back again into the soil from which we have been made.

It is an unsightly process, and there are plenty of good reasons for getting the body out of sight as soon as possible as death gives way to decay.

The signs of molecular death include a greenish color over the abdomen; swelling and discoloration of the face, scrotum and vulva; abdominal swelling produced by gas; blood seepages; and the bursting open of body cavities. While all of these processes are going on, the body stinks.

Copyright © 1997 by Leonard Wolf.