Before Dracula. Vampires in 19th Century Fiction (1801–1897)
Version vom 10.2.2015
“For somewhere in that sacred island dwelt / A nymph, to whom all hoofed Satyrs knelt; / At whose white feet the languid Tritons poured / Pearls, while on land they wither’d and adored. / Fast by the springs where she to bathe was wont, / And in those meads where sometime she might haunt, / Were strewn rich gifts, unknown to any Muse, / Though Fancy’s casket were unlock’d to choose. / Ah, what a world of love was at her feet!” (John Keats: Lamia)
“I cannot, for my soul, remember how, when, or even precisely where, I first became acquainted with the lady Ligeia. Long years have since elapsed, and my memory is feeble through much suffering. … Yet I believe that I met her first and most frequently in some large, old, decaying city near the Rhine.” (Edgar Allan Poe: Ligeia)
“As I leaned against the door it moved slightly and opened inwards. The shelter of even a tomb was welcome in that pitiless tempest and I was about to enter when there came a flash of forked lightning that lit up the whole expanse of the heavens. In the instant, as I am a living man, I saw, as my eyes were turned into the darkness of the tomb, a beautiful woman with rounded cheeks and red lips, seemingly sleeping on a bier.” (Bram Stoker: Dracula’s Guest)
