Drácula (Narrativa 74 nº 1) (Spanish Edition)

Review Ffrancis Gpayne Chm 0953058301

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The band of heroes who rallied against him were all pure and good. In this poorly written "sequel",Dracula is somehow more of a force for good. Not only that but now vampires turn to ash in the sunlight. And Dracula is some kind of sexual Tyrannosaurus who Mina loves now.

And Dracula didnt turn Lucy into a vampire because he's evil. Oh no he did it to save her from Van Helsings botched blood transfusion. And on and on. This novel on its own makes very little sense. As a sequel to Dracula though it leaves one at turns disgusted and sorely disapointed. Mar 05, Cyndie rated it it was amazing Shelves: I loved this book. I did not go into the book expecting to be gripped by the literary writing style of Bram Stoker and perhaps that is why I was able to enjoy the book. If you want the classic, then go read the classic. Dracula the Un-Dead is a strong book that stands on its own.

Stoker and Holt put an end to the happily ever after of the first book setting the tone for the sequel. The reflection of the horrific events imparted on the characters was invigorating and gripped me from the very first page. The characters stay true to form. The seeds for their implosion were all set into motion during the original book. Stoker and Holt give the reader just enough back-story to understand what happened in the original and even answer some of the questions I was left with.

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The story is fast-paced, with rich characters, and a good old vampire plot. No, it is not the classic, but it is definitely worth a read. Jul 26, Cheryl Marren rated it really liked it. I know that many people have readily slated this book as being ridiculous. That's up to them. I like to take books as I find them and rate them on how well written and well-researched I think they are, whether I can learm anything from them, whether they show me a new way of looking at things and finally and mostly whether I enjoy reading them.

For me, this ticked all the boxes in the affirmative. It's probably not perfect, possibly not the vision Bram Stoker would have imagined. But at the en I know that many people have readily slated this book as being ridiculous. But at the end of the day, this is a good book written with good intentions and I think it's great. Apr 01, Courtney Bowman rated it did not like it Shelves: When my dad told me that there was going to be a sequel to Dracula coming out and it was written by the great grand-nephew of Bram Stoker I got excited.

I could not wait to get my hands on Dracula Un-Dead. I was hoping that it would end the modernized verison of vampires that Stephanie Meyer created. But I was wrong. I am going to first say that I am glad that I did not buy this book, instead I found it while I was looking through the shelves at the library for a good read. With eagerness I snat When my dad told me that there was going to be a sequel to Dracula coming out and it was written by the great grand-nephew of Bram Stoker I got excited.

With eagerness I snatched the book off the shelf like someone was going to snatch it before I could. When I got home from the library I headed straight to the area where I spend most of my days reading and never said anything to anybody. When my dad came to check on me to make sure I was still living I was trying to get over the fact that the writers used Bram Stoker as a character. I was not too thrilled by that fact and I am sure Bram Stoker wouldn't be either. Some parts felt like it was a sequel to the original and other parts felt like it was a sequel to the film adaption 'Bram Stokers Dracual'.

It should say, 'Based off the Original Classic'. I have to be honest I have yet to finish this book and I am not sure if I can. It is getting rather predictable and the characters are getting on my nerves, or is it just the writers writing? Dacre is not a horrible writer, but it feels like I should be reading a movie script, not a novel. There are moments were the lack of details makes reading this novel boring and some details are well written that I can feel my heart beating out of my chest. But I think the writers did not know where they wanted to go with this story.

There are a few times where I found myself saying, "what? And why in the world is Barrymore in this story? I was thrown off for a bit with that and also Oscar Wilde being mentioned. As for the characters I was not happy with what they did to Van Helsing. Seward, I can picture him becoming an addict and spending the rest of his life chasing vampires.

I also did not like what they did to Mina and Johnathon. Why would Mina fall in love with Dracula? The fact that she kept calling him her 'Dark Prince' got under my skin each time. Johnathon would never go around with prositutes and be an alcholic. Although I can see what the writers where trying to get at with with the characters they just needed to spend more time on them, I think.

I am going to leave this review as it is, I have much to say about this book. I could spend hours pointing out the flaws and butcher the book to pieces, but it as all been said before on here. I have read many reviews where I agree with fans of the original Dracuala and they said it all: Dracula The Un-Dead is a disappointment.

Finished listening to this tale about "the band of heroes" a phrase heard endlessly over the course of this story. You won't be sorry. Everything you liked in Dracula will be missing from these pages. Where Bram Stoker used words to mount tension, adventure and mystery, Dacre Stoker fills his pages with whiney, pale characters and lots of violence. Really, I don't see a high rating for this Update. Really, I don't see a high rating for this book. Stereotypes, bad writing, crudity I'm no prude but a story, even with violence, should revolve around the story and not how much gore can be added in a few pages.

And, these last 3 discs are excrutiatingly slow. Dacre is padding his work. I find it rather disrespective for Dacre to include his great-uncle?? Dacre, remember that without Bram, you wouldn't ever have published a book. You're not that good. Maybe I'll push through tomorrow and get it over with. Oct 03, CaliGirlRae rated it did not like it Shelves: I have to say I was ecstatic to read Dracula Undead, especially knowing it was written by a direct descendant from the Stoker family and authorized by its estate.

I found myself excited when I received the gorgeous book in dark red and crinkled aged paper stain design that made it look like it was ancient. Even the pages themselves were gorgeously put together. I was a little nervous about the blurb which told where all of our heroes were. Heroes that fell from grace, sure, but maybe there's a s I have to say I was ecstatic to read Dracula Undead, especially knowing it was written by a direct descendant from the Stoker family and authorized by its estate. Heroes that fell from grace, sure, but maybe there's a spiffy character arc that puts them through the ringer and they will eventually arise to fight through it all.

As I read Dracula Undead, my excitement slowly waned. Everything that was amazing, classic and wonderful about Dracula was unraveled in a few chapters of this "sequel". Where Dracula created a sense of dread, fear and uneasiness through the power of word and mood, Dracula Undead bashes the reader over the head with gore, dismemberment, impalement and depraved characters. Bram Stoker himself even makes an appearance, which could have been interesting, but instead falls flat as a washed up has-been in a loveless marriage trying to regain his once literary status by making his famous Dracula into a play.

Played by actor John Barrymore no less. It is the last reach for struggling to regain his celeb status for the last time. Dracula himself is merely in the book despite given a description in the blurb and in the title. In fact, everyone but Dracula is in this book including Jack the Ripper style murders and investigations. Dracula Undead suffers from too many cooks in the kitchen with no idea where to go.

Once the reader gets an idea for where the story may be headed, it takes another turn as if the camera cuts away from this scene to start a completely new one and so on and so on. There are about four or five stories going on at the same time with too many characters which doesn't give the story the focus it deserves.

I couldn't help noticing that this book isn't quite a sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula, at least definitely not in mood and continuity.

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Its action packed, dark, gory blood splattered and sexually drenched pages matched that of a narrative version of a script for a big budget follow up to Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula. As I looked into the making of this book, I found out Ian Holt, co-writing with Dacre Stoker, was the main driving force for this book and he is indeed a screenwriter who plans to bring this book to the big screen next year. I don't think I'll be watching it.

I wasn't too jazzed about Coppola's Dracula and from the mixture of real life Bathory mixed with fictional characters complete with incestuous deflowering by her Aunt and a blood relation to Dracula himself , it looks like we'll be seeing more of the same as in the first film. Dracula Undead as the inklings of a well written story that falls short.

I did like the setting until it turned into Blade: Unfortunately, from the author's voice and treatment of said characters, I get the feeling that the authors didn't like the characters nor Stoker himself very much. It definitely shows in how different and cold these characters are from the original story. If this book was called something else in another world with other characters and a completely separate situation, the chance of enjoyment would be a bit higher barring the overstuffed narrative at times.

But knowing and loving Dracula by Bram Stoker, the history for how it came about and the wonderful addition it's given to horror and gothic literature, I can't recommend or enjoy this current book. There's another book similarly titled Dracula Undead by Freda Warrington that will be re-released this December. I hear it keeps the tone, continuity and care for the characters introduced in Dracula. I think that one may be more enjoyable. Dec 26, Gynger rated it did not like it. I'm unsure as to what to say about this book.

I got it for christmas as was extremely excited to read it, in fact I read it in 2 days with interruption of course. I suppose I should start of by saying that I have actually read the first Dracula and I love the story on so many levels. With this book I was looking forward to getting away of the horrid things Twilight has done to the vampire myths and going back to people that should have a vested interest in keeping the original ideals. This was I'm unsure as to what to say about this book. This was not that case. The Un-dead started with promise, while I didn't know where the female vampire story was going, it did show steward in the way I would expect him 25 years later, still chasing vampires.

And, of course, you need a descendent to carry on the fight Quincy from Mina and Jonathan. I can even justify the idea of making Dracula a good guy in "Wicked" style not that I approve as Dracula's cool calculating evil is what made him such an intriguing character to begin with, still I'm trying to give it the ben. It was like the author didn't know which direction he they wanted to go so many were taken.

I adore the story of Jack the Ripper as well but I can't tell you how upset I was when he was first introduced. I have to agree with everyone that said it just seemed like bad fan fic, that is it completely. Two guys got together and wanted to see how they could make some money on the vampire fad, sadly Stokers name had to be drug into it.

Honestly I think that he would be turning in his grave. The entire essence of the original was lost I don't understand how anyone who actually read the original liked this one but to each their own I suppose.

Similar authors to follow

Also, a final note. When they ended with the Titanic reference at the end that was it for me, there was no way to save it. I put the book down in an actual state of mourning. Oct 20, Susan Garrett rated it it was ok Recommends it for: Downloaded this from Kindle and thank the Lorhd I didn't pay hardcover price for it. What a frustrating book! The name-checking of entertainment types who have had something to do with Dracula - cheap, boring and distracting.

Another apologist version of Dracula misunderstood Wallachian Christian hero - yaaaawn. The action was frenetic - there are a few good 'race to get somewhere scenes' - but the characters' inner monologues were laughably bad. Quincey Morris son of Jonathan and Mina Harker is an arrogant, self-obsessed fool. There are failable characters and then there are idiots - this one is an idiot.

In fact, none of the characters are even vaguely recognizable from Stoker's novel. And that's the sad bit, really, because this was an attempt to regain control over the character and bring it back into the family. So maybe it was the author's way of making certain you didn't feel badly about their hideous demise? If so, it's damned awkward and annoying. Come to think of it, I've not read a book in which entrails feature so prominently.

Bathory is the big bad no spoiler and is possibly the only well-drawn and interesting character, but when push comes to shove she twirls her mustache trust me, she's probably had one and is prepared to tie the tempting bit of bait to the railroad tracks in the best Snidely Whiplash impersonation, evah! We are talking melodrama that is so far over the top, it's down the other side. The kicker is that the characters' motives and the plot never really make sense. I kept thinking longingly of one of the better apologist Dracula novels The Dracula Tapes, by Saberhagen and this book doesn't come close to that class.

If you want to read a decent Dracula pastiche, pick up The Historian. It's a much better read, you get a serious bang for your buck, it won't melt your brain, and it's large enough to use to kill vermin. Please, do not be offended by what is to follow. Did Bram Stoker himself give his approval?

That is, to me, a very negligible argument since from now on, anyone named Stoker could come up with a piece of work about vampires and call it an official sequel.

Secondly, I was wondering if you had read the Twilight series? Well, it is quite easy: The whole point in Dracula was that he was cold-hearted and a manipulator. He was not Edward Cullen. Does not the wolf feed on sheep? As all great hunters, I am alone. There is no sound sadder than the cry of the wolf, alone in the night, reviled by man, hunted to the point of near-extinction. She longed to feel a kiss from his lips. At the selfsame time, she wanted to tear herself away and run. Can any man who loves you as much as I do by truly evil?

Horror, gothic is not gore. If I want gory details, I will just spend 10 euros to see some Saw film at the cinema. My next criticism is that it feels as though you had many ideas, and were not quite sure which one to follow so you decided to embrace them all. Too many characters, including some who just pop up for several lines before disappearing to never be mentioned again.

The Jack the Ripper plot was good but overall, the story was too disorganised and at times I was at loss as to where you wanted to go. Finally, the name dropping made me smile at first: But I was really annoyed with your including Bram Stoker in the novel. It almost made me feel ill-at-ease, and it takes awkward things like the Mamma Mia! I will not even comment on the Titanic ending for Quincey. This is so Of course, I was annoyed with smaller details, such as changes made from the original novel to fit your own story.

After all, the main piece of work is that of Bram Stoker, and it seems almost irreverent to change his version to match your own. Beltz, , pages. Another Victorian Femme fatale? Reihe Literatur, , London, Palatin Grafton Books, Haunting Words, Woodbridge, Tamesis, , pages. Avec chronologie de Bram Stoker.

An Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Journal, no 5, , pp. Stage Adaptations, , Chapitre 3: Monstermania, Missisauga ON , S. Prontuario di teratologia filmica, Milano, Sugar, A Conservative or Subversive Novel? Genders, Representations, Technologies Deborah S. Thwarted Genealogies in Colonial History: Anaya, Tus Libros, 39 ,, pages. Science-Fiction Fantastique Roger Bozzetto, ed. Transylvania Society of Dracula. Carter Once Upon the Sleeping Canon: Thirteen Comparisons Patrick Johnson "I am not like other people": Patterson - Dracula and the Afterlife: A Race of Devils: Blood and Images in Dracula It's all in the blood: Looking at Lady Athlyne Carol A.

An Examination of am I so changed? Dick Collins Demonizing the Emerging Woman: The doll's name is no doubt an echo of John Polidori, the author of the first vampire narrative in literature who was accused of stealing Lord Byron's idea of the story "The Vampyre," first published in Before looking at the doll Polidoro as a vampire figure, this chapter first examines the debate surrounding the authenticity of the first vampire story's authorship that inevitably brings up the question of authority and presence with regard to the vampire story in Maluenda's novel.

Chapter six looks at one chapter from Cronicas reales , a novel by Manuel Mujica Lainez that resembles both an offical history relacion or chronicle and a personal confession to an authority figure. The source of the twelve chronicles are the published reports by the deceased historian of the von Orbs family who claims to have seen "con sus propios ojos a los espectros de los fallecidos moradores del Palacio [Heraclida], andando por sus salas, claustros y pasajes" Mujica Lainez , similar to the New World discoverers who wrote down what they saw "with their own eyes" as well as the fifteenth-century accounts about the source of Stoker's Count Foucault mentions the "medicalization" of sexuality similar here: In the case of Mujica's novel, the division between the narrator of the twelve chronicles and the source of the von Orbs family history is distinguished by distanced respect rather than monetary pursuits: Dimitri Feodorovitch Maveroff] insistia en que si alguien merecfa reemplazarlo en el sitial mullido y austero, ese alguien eramos nosotros, y fijamos aqui sus palabras generosas Manuel Mujica Lainez has "more than a dozen books to his credit as well as six or more literary prizes, both national and international" Schanzer, "The Four Hundred Years His writings have close connections with aspects of human existence even though many of his narratives take place in locales that have aspects of fantastic and far- off places.

When Jonathan Harker first ventures into Transylvania, he records his impressions as one who is observing a never-seen-before place.

Dracula the Un-Dead

The actions and episodes of the von Orbs family in Cronicas reales "revelan actitudes ridfculas, fallas, debilidades y simulaciones, ingredientes todo de la naturaleza humana" Cruz even though they occur within the kingdom of Hercules I and his descendants, a place that is supposedly 44 located near the Black Forest. As the royal family progesses through the centuries, the lineage becomes tainted with different blood such as that of the vicious murderer Benno von Orbs, one of the direct ancestors of Zappo, the vampire of chapter ten.

Destructive time exists in other works of his beside Hrnnir. But similar to some of his earlier works Aqui vivieron [] and Misteriosa Buenos Aires [] , the action in Cronicas reales "transcurre en un mismo sitio. Not only does Mujica Lainez offer a vampire figure in Chapter Ten of Cronicas reales that is worthy of examination, he also links present with past through the structure of the von Orbs family whose descendants unsuccessfully attempt to keep their royal blood untainted despite their belief that their family has remained free of "outside" blood.

Mujica's novel combines contemporary methods of testimony or confession with age-old concerns such as heredity and family honor in twelve chronicles of the human experience. He has written six novels, one of which was made into a movie and another into a play, and a collection of stories. El vampiro de la colonia Roma was published in Mexico in , and translated into English in by the Gay Sunshine Press of San Francisco, a translation that closely follows the original use of spaces instead of punctuation marks as well as the lack of capitalization.

The novel won the Grijalbo Prize for literature but was banned in London for being too obscene. In his work, Zapata delves into an area that had previously not been explored in Mexican literature: Zapata directly addresses the social issue of a marginal group "to portray unflinchingly the wrenching conflicts of human [homosexual] relationships" Foster, Gay and Lesbian. As Zapata makes use of characteristically "Onda" writing techniques throughout the novel there are references to advertising, movies, and television , the use of homosexuality as the principal discourse in Adonis Garcfa's taped monologues subverts the paradigm of heterosexual marriage from the first page.

For example, Adonis begins the novel telling about his family but does not base his actions on those of his 46 mother and father because he is unsure as to their status as a married couple. Adonis never inquired about their relationship as a couple and so it remained a silent component in his life that he assumed was the same for every male-female couple: In a sense, his abundant sexuality is in opposition to the married but short relationship of his parents, an unstable and questionable foundation on which to base his life and his future relationships as a picaresque character: Luis Zapata's novel presents a "narrative" that does not have capitalization, punctuation, or chapters each section is a tape from the casette-recorded conversation between Adonis and the unidentified interlocutor , a product of the ojida generation in Mexican literature.

The main character Adonis is a marginal being because of his status as a gay male prostitute although vampirism is depicted figuratively in this narrative, the novel refers to him as a "vampire" in a heterosexual society yet Zapata respects him and allows him to "crecer y vivir por si mismo, sin mediaciones ni explicaciones" Blanco , unlike Count Dracula who is continually scrutinized by those who do not and will not understand him. Adonis is 47 free from constant analysis and allowed to live and describe his life as he sees it. He uses a linguistic code that goes against established forms of speech and narration; the note from the author at the very beginning of the novel indicates that "la novela exige una credihilidad fonetica que se opone a las convenciones del lenguaje escrito" Blanco , emphasis in original.

This demanding novel is a refreshing reality for a vampire whose literary descendants had been subjected to "an aggregate of notions aimed at securing the right to life for a small minority of the world's population" Case 4 , the heterosexuals. This chapter suggests that Zapata refers to Michel Foucault's idea of an alternative sexual discourse homosexuality that appears from inside a prohibitive discursive framework heterosexuality excluding deviation and intolerant of sexual difference in order to subvert it through language. The lack of capitalization or punctuation in the novel as well as large spaces between the words parallel how discursive laws, prohibitions, and restrictions do not deter Adonis from literally advancing to a better living condition while having fun telling the reader about it.

For example, on tape three Adonis uninhibitedly describes how he and eight friends are stopped by the highway police and end up having sex with the policemen: On tape five, Adonis relates how he spends 48 time in jail and upon his release a guard strongly suggests he change his lifestyle. Clearly defiant, Adonis responds in reference to the tape cinta and not to the guard's observation about his life vida: Appearing from within the predominantly heterosexual tradition of Mexican narrative, Zapata's novel "makes use of what is considered [an] outrageous or scandalous [sexuality] in order to provide a refracted image of the alienation of a hypocritical social value system" Foster, Rev, of ,.

As he searches for the vampire Horacio, the narrator of Horacio: This example shows how rising up from the dead and searching for blood, only two parts of the vampire myth, endure over time and across language barriers. Not all authors of contemporary vampire stories incorporate the same aspects of the vampire myth, however. For example, Manuel Bedoya's character General Bebevidas drinks blood as an antidote to an uncureable disease, similar to the story of the "blood Countess" Elizabeth Bathory, another "version" of the vampire myth: Alain Silver and James Ursini give an account 49 50 of the female vampire figure aluded to above: The vampire-like doll in Rafael Maluenda's novel Vampiro de trapo is named Polidoro, a alteration of the name Polidori, the British author of the first vampire story published which "caused such a sensation in Europe that it inspired a sequel of poems, stories, and plays for the next several decades" Silver and Ursini 49 , an important text in the evolution of the vampire myth.

Before the appearance of the novel Dracula at the end of the nineteenth century, many Latin American authors had already developed stories using elements from many sources of vampire lore that do not necessarily involve a physical vampire figure. Significant contributions from Latin America comprise a crucial part of the tradition of world vampire literature and do not always follow the image of the vampire in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula The first vampire stories in Latin American literature are important interpretations of the vampire myth, and their appearance before Stoker's novel points to the timeless and polymorphic nature of the myth.

The vampire tradition in Latin American literature starts in the early nineteenth century with two poems, one of which is a translation of a 51 German work by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the other an interpretation of the same work. This early poetry initiates a long Latin American tradition of the vampire and vampirism in short stories, novels, poetry, and films which demonstrates how the vampire myth continues to evolve and does not remain restricted to certain behaviors or descriptions nor does it remain confined to the English language.

In these early Latin American texts, vampirism is represented as strong, eternal love, a non- corporeal force that leads the protagonists to transgress limits of existence and search for a union incapable of existing while alive. Owen Aldridge does not mention that as vampirism enters Latin American literature in the early nineteenth century, it adapts to features of vampirism already developed by authors from different countries and also adds new dimensions. An important aspect of vampirism is the element of eternal, transgressive, but dangerous love as Goethe, Heredia, and Echeverrfa develop in their works.

Christopher Craft refers to this type of vampirism as it "both expresses and distorts an originally sexual energy" between lovers separated by death. The central element in Goethe's ballad "Bride of Corinth" is hazardous love as the poem "establece un dramatico conflicto entre la repercusidn social y los instintos sexuales" Gordon, El gran libro. In Goethe, Heredia, Echeverria as well as in later twentieth- century Latin American narratives, vampirism is a controlling, consummating force, an "interfusion of sexual desire and the fear that the moment of erotic fulfillment may occasion the erasure of the conventional and integral self" Craft as love brings together those whose boundaries are established and supposed to be maintained but are crossed.

Heredia's translation appeared in October of in a journal called Miscelanea Heredia , and attests to the early appearance of foreign vampire literature in Latin America and how its interpretation involved slight but not drastic modifications of other sources. For Heredia, the female lover is not a blood-drinking vampire taking away her lover's life as Goethe had developed her. Instead of losing his life, the male protagonist in Heredia's poem shall regain it "as long as he shall be united with her" Aldridge and their love can exist, for as the poem tells the reader, "Love still burns, 53 though buried under clay" Goethe By using references to pale skin, Heredia only insinuates a vampire figure; by contrast, "in Goethe's poem the maiden clearly reveals that she is a vampire, depending on the blood of her lover for sustenance" Aldridge The vampire figures in Esteban Echeverrfa's poem "Elvira, o la novia del Plata" are also deviations from what Goethe had established, not blood-suckers but demons and ghouls who appear to feverish Lisardo, deeply empassioned by Elvira.

In Goethe's poem, a dead girl returns from her grave to be with the young man who is temporarily staying at the house of the girl's parents. While alive, "her fanatically religious mother refuses to let her marry the man she loves, so she returns to him as a vampire — with death acting as a catalytic release from the sublimation of the living" Silver and Ursini The love she was denied by her religiously zealous mother while alive brings her back from the dead.

In Goethe's poem, the traveling man asks her when they first meet why she is so pallid, but Heredia modifies what Goethe had expressed. In Goethe's version, the young Athenian asks "Why are you so pale? Heredia mentions emotions rather than her lack of skin color: Despite the young man's strong desire to be her lover, the girl warns 54 him that she is not what he thinks she is: But he disobeys her, unable to abide by her command: She comes back from the dead seeking what she was deprived of while alive, and in Goethe's poem she states that what she has done with him she will do to others until she is satisfied, that is, removing blood from her lover and others to survive: Heredia is not as graphic in his translation.

In fact, vampirism in this poem does not involve bloodsucking at all but rather undying love: In his translation, Heredia subtly repeats one aspect of vampirism found in Goethe's version, pale and cold skin, but directly emphasizes the emotional strength of love as an eternal, vampiristic force that will kill her lover: Vampires in this poem appear in Stanza 10, "one of the most complete monster catalogues in world poetry" Aldridge For Echeverrfa, then, vampires may not always suck blood, indicating a broad knowledge of the vampire legend and, like Heredia, a deviation from what Goethe had established.

In this sense, "Echeverrfa, que poco lefa a los poetas americanos, demuestra conocer la obra del [poeta] cubano" Caillet- Bois , Heredia. According to one source, this poem first appeard anonymously Echeverrfa, Paginas literarias. Esteban Echeverrfa's short piece "El matadero" is better known than "Elvira, o la novia del Plata" and demonstrates his apparent knowledge of traits of vampirism, in this case, the power of blood. The short story "El matadero" depicts the harshness and brutality of the dictatorship under Manuel Rosas whose regime inspired Echeverrfa to write the vivid account.

The bloodiness of the slaughterhouse and Echeverrfa's description of the unitario 's death are comparable to an example from Bram Stoker's novel Dracula in which a man drives a stake through the heart of a female vampire as she lies in her coffin: Two scenes from "El matadero" display similar description. Matasiete displays his prowess with a knife as he kills a steer: Broto un torrente de la herida, exhalo algunos bramidos roncos, vacilo y cayo el soberbio animal entre los gritos de la chusma When Matasiete and his federates bring the young unitario back to the slaughterhouse, the young man's slow death is not unlike that of the steer or of Lucy Westenra, Stoker's female vampire: Entonces un torrente de sangre brotd borbolloneando de la boca y las narices del joven, y extendiendose empezo a caer a chorros por entrambos lados de la mesa" Fnhevftrria, El matadero ,.

The presence of blood in many vampire stories indicates an inversion of the Christian ritual of communion as well as a reaffirmation of the power of vampirism. One critic sees a reflection of vampirism in the rite of the Eucharist: According to another critic, in history as well as in the tradition of vampirism, "blood sacrifice appears to be almost universal, often employed as a means to acquire strength or power, and the sacrament of the Eucharist is based on the transfer of power throught the sharing of blood" Holte Both associations point to the livelihood of blood as a "saving" fluid for the good as well as the evil, the Christian as well as the vampire.

The brutality of Esteban Echevern'a's writings offers more than bloody scenery since its author "aprovecha la oportunidad para denunciar la alianza de la Iglesia con el regimen de Rosas It is important to note that George Gordon, otherwise known as Lord Byron, produced "the first extended vampire story" Twitchell, Dreadful ,.

His poem "Giaour" mentions vampires as well: The spirits in Echeverrfa's poem who feed on dead bodies are "Hienas, Sanguales y lamias. Echeverrfa interprets the timeless vampire myth by using what had already existed in literature about vampires: Echeverrfa's poem presents love as a seductive, vampiristic force that Goethe had developed in his poetry. Unlike the lovers in Goethe and in Heredia, however, Elvira and Lisardo exchange passionate kisses and embraces while alive, drawn closer together with each encounter.

After her fearful vision, Lisardo tells Elvira to be his forever, their souls united by rapturous love: They share the same fateful vision that ultimately separates them and which contains the truthful statement repeated in Stanzas VII and X about the meaning of this poem, "Este emblema del infierno: Stanza 10 is where Echeverrfa introduces the vampire figures.

This is the first use of the word "vampire" within Latin American literature. In the next stanza, Lisardo wakes with a fever that causes him to see Elvira at his door. She tells him she is dead, but that she still loves him: The lovers in Goethe's poem are similar, his life force uniting with her cold, lifeless corpse: Elvira is no longer human, and as she speaks to Lisardo, she tells him that her love for him will not die, echoing again the eternal love that has drawn her to his door: Echeverrfa's character returns as the living dead, the principal feature of most vampire protagonists in literature and film.

In addition to the vampires mentioned in Lisardo's nightmare, Echeverrfa provides a living corpse similar to Goethe's bride, returning after death to be with her lover. He also uses images that remain in vampire fiction and film for the next century and a half. Lisardo notes how pale Elvira is when he sees her outside his door: What for Elvira was a dream image is described as an actual entity coming to her at night: Lisardo sees the bloodless Elvira after his delirious state, and his reaction simultaneously reflects fear and happiness: In Froylan Turcios' novel El vampiro. Rogerio receives a bite from a vampire, suffers a similar fever, and awakes to discover that his fiancee Luz is dead.

In , four years before the appearance of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. The events of the story are being recorded by a narrator who is present as James tells his story in a Buenos Aires bar. From the beginning of this story, James fears death and all things associated with it; the title of the story is Spanish for "thanatophobia" which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as a "morbid fear of death" James comes face to face with his biggest fear when he meets his stepmother, a reanimated dead person, living death.

James' fear of death 63 expresses the uncertain fears about the approaching turn of the century that "no dimanan de la imaginacidn. A constant part of James' life have been images of death, "un conjunto de imagenes que completan la atmosfera funebre que debe rodear al personaje — a causa de la obsesion por la muerte que ha declarado abrumarle.

For example, James recalls how away at school he would look out the window of his room and see, "banados de una palida y maleficiosa luz lunar, los alamos, los cipreses He does not want to meet his new stepmother but when he finally does, her eyes are blank and from her emanates the smell of death.

James cannot endure his encounter with his stepmother: Quiero partir de aquf pronto, pronto. Darfo utilizes the same technique as Heredia and to a certain extent Echeverrfa by describing physical features in detail, in this case, the pale aspect and cold touch of the woman. When James first meets his father's "new" bride, he reacts to her touch: Sentf hielo en mis huesos.

Aquella mano rfgida, frfa, frfa As she prepares to kiss him, James notes how her strange voice "brotd de aquellos labios blancos, de aquella mujer 64 palida, palida, palida In both instances, as James describes the woman, he repeats two adjectives that Heredia had used to describe the dead female: In this story, Darfo develops sounds, smells, feelings, and sights which are elements of "el tipico sensualismo impresionista-modernista [que] se pone aquf en juego para ofrecer una figura repugnante y horrible The contrast suggests the continuation of James' deceased mother's love for him, the emotion that his father slowly usurped as he spent all his time in his laboratory.

As in the previous examples by Heredia and Echeverrfa, Darfo develops vampirism as a force of love, this time removed from his mother by James' father whose replacement for his former wife is a lifeless, loveless creature. The protagonist's stepmother is not described as a creature yearning for blood nor is the word "vampire" mentioned anywhere in this story until the last sentence when James utters how he will tell "que el doctor Leen es un cruel asesino; que su mujer es un vampiro; jque esta casado mi padre con una muerta!

James refers to her as a vampire, but one critic questions her sudden appearance as such in the world of James and his 65 father, a prominent scientist: In Darfo's narrative, the usurper is the father and his "manipulaciones cientificas" time in his laboratory, away from his wife actually produce the vampire figure, James' step-mother. Like a "delicate flower," his biological mother faded to nothing because of the lack of love from her husband, and James is deprived of maternal love, something he will not take from his stepmother. His fierce reactions to her "jMadre, socorro!

In this narrative, the presence of such a being can be questioned by rules of science that, during the beginning of the twentieth century, had become more able to contrast unexplanable occurrences.

Darfo demonstrates in this short story the advance of modernism which becomes a viable argument against "old" myths such as that of the vampire. Other Latin American Modernist writers such as Amado Nervo and Froylcin Turcios attempt to forge a new poetic language representative of their time by opposing the discourse of the vampire and science-based arguments. The Latin American modernist movement is syncretic, and "en su afan por ensanchar la expresividad del espahol literario [los autores modernistas] asimilan elementos descomunales que enriquecieron la lengua.

The Uruguayan poet Delmira Agustini develops vampirism as a central motif in her poetry in order to "elaborar un eros poetico que funciona como foro de resistencia contra la represidn que experimenta en una sociedad patriarcal" Norat Her mother was a powerfully dominant and stifling force in her life, and Agustini seeks revenge against her mother by writing poems with vampiristic images such as love "situandose en semejante posicion de dominio y control" Norat 1 56 that her mother had.

In the poem "El vampiro" from the collection Cantos de la manana she bites her lover and pulls out blood, leaving her lover's heart hurt and broken. In the relationship, she becomes an active participant instead of a passive one, the vampire consuming the victim in the act of love and passion; the use of the active verbs here is crucial: Vampirism stands out in Agustini's poetry and in comparison with the other examples presented thus far; she develops vampirism not only as a bold representation of her pain and suffering she was exposed to during the "represion experimentada dentro del ambiente literario, social y familiar que le toco vivir Amado Nervo's short piece "La novia de Corinto" is another rendition of Goethe's tale in the Spanish language.

Nervo admits the extensive tradition of this story, as did Echeverrfa: Like in Heredia and in Echeverrfa, the woman's description parallels that of a corpse: En sus facciones, aun con el amor, alternaban serenidades marmoreas" Qbras completas , ,. However, unlike the two poets before him, Nervo addresses the theme of vampires in his work, even if negatively: Suprimamos esta palabra funebremente agresiva, e inclemonos ante el arcano, ante lo incomprensible Instead of attempting to promote vampirism in Latin American 68 literature, Nervo seems to reject the theme and opt to support the unrationality of the topic instead.

Another Mexican writer, Manuel Horta, wrote El tango de Gaby 1 in which appears the short fiction called "El coleccionista de marfiles," the first Latin American short story that most closely follows Bram Stoker's model used in his novel Dracula Horta The narrator recalls the bell- ringer of Tula's last story about "un millionario maniatico que hace muchos anos llego a Tula buscando marfiles In Stoker's vampire tale, Count Dracula is a Transylvanian aristocrat who goes to London to buy real estate and to find humans who fade to the pale color of marble as he drains their blood.

In Horta's story, even though the only two individuals who have access to the story are the narrator and the deceased bell-ringer, the division into seven parts of "El coleccionista" creates the feeling of a collection of different voices, similar to the narrative device used by Stoker to narrate about the vampire Count Dracula. In Stoker's novel, Jonathan Harker's diary entries first recall the encounter with the vampire, then other characters contribute their versions until there are multiple points of view telling about the events. The ivory collector falls in love with Constanza "que se consumia lentamente, victima de una enfermedad pulmonar" Horta His predilection for ivory causes him to want Constanza as part of his collection 69 because of her pale beauty: He sees her as an object of art, not a human, so her destruction carries no emotion, similar to how a vampire searches for victims without emotional attachment.

As he bends toward her to bite her on the neck, she dies.

Instead, "le dio [a ella] un largo beso en la boca sanguinolenta" Horta 52 and the disease passes to him. He leaves Tula, infected by Constanza, and "los campesinos fanaticos le vieron perderse en la lejanfa polvosa, con la escurrida capa al viento Comparable to how Ruben Dario uses strong sensory perception to contrast life and death, Manuel Horta uses colors to suggest this same opposition. The ivory collector purchases one of the oldest houses in Tula and then purchases "para su huerto las rosas mas palidas The pale white color of ivory is similar to the appearance of the collector whose "rostro de un amarillo muy palido se avivaba con el carmfn anemico de los labios y el violeta de las orejas hundidas In part five, his conduct "tomo tintes amargos" Horta 52 ; he wrote love poetry for Constanza and sent it to her on "papel color de gardenia" Horta 52 ; he envisions her "con el cuerpo transparente y bianco amortajado en sedas antiguas y esmeraldas muy palidas The use of descriptive pale colors stands in sharp contrast to vivid or strong colors often associated with powerful emotions such as passion and death, and thus this vampire story succeeds by suggestion rather than direct action as in the poetry of Delmira Agustini.

Vampirism in this story works in the opposite direction as Constanza passes the disease to the collector. This act likewise presents another female vampire figure in Latin American literature. With the exception of Nervo's ivory collector, each of the examples discussed above has a female vampire figure. This changes with Bram Stoker as Count Dracula establishes vampirism as a male attribute.

However, British Romantics such as Keats, Coleridge, and Lord Byron developed femmes fatales in their Romantic poetry, a strong point of contact for most Latin American modernist writers. Carlos Fuentes develops a female figure worthy of the title femme fatale in his novella Aura Glantz, "La metamorfosis In contemporary Latin American vampire stories female vampire figures are scarce; in each of the novels discussed in this 71 dissertation the victim is male, a unique twist to the vampire story in world literature.

As this brief survey indicates, vampirism in early Latin American literature is distinct from earlier versions such as Goethe's in several respects. His bride sucked the blood of her lover, but both Heredia and Echeverrfa do not characterize the female lover as such in their poetry. A repeated motif is sexual love as a determining, vampiristic force that affects those involved.

The vampire in Latin American literature develops along the same lines as in other traditions with noticeable differences. Latin American works about vampires differ from their North American or British counterparts in how they develop vampirism and the vampire figure. Differences in appearance or actions in Latin American vampire literature are more varied than in English and North American vampire stories. In spite of the language the vampire myth remains the same with slight modifications.

The parallels between Spanish-language vampires in literature and film and English-language versions show that the same story can be told repeatedly and provide different approaches to basically the same phenomena. Latin American novels with vampires as characters, regardless The trajectory of the vampire in Latin American culture is more dominant in film than in literature.

It is the first thorough treatment of the subject. The first Latin American narrative work of the twentieth century that has a vampire protagonist is the novel El vampiro by the Honduran Froylan Turcios, a Latin American mndernista writer whose literary career spans nearly a quarter century with novels, poems, essays, and documents to his name. In most discussions about Latin American Modernism, Turcios is not mentioned, even though "fue uno de los escritores americanos mas conocidos de su tiempo, y de los mas connotados de Hispanoamerica" Arita Palomo In addition to many writings about Honduran political and social affairs his varied writing styles ranging from poetry to essay to novel , Froylan Turcios produced the first vampire novel in Latin America at a time when the supernatural was being challenged by advances in science and technology.

El vampiro presents the possibility of another reality; one critic observes that the work "reflects a widespread tendency toward escapist writing in Central American countries His father, also named Froylan Turcios, was a successful business man, and his mother Trinidad Canelas "pertenecia a una de las familias mas ricas y respetadas" in 73 Honduras Vicenzi 3.

Froylan Turcios grew up in a wealthy family which permitted him to have access to many luxuries including foreign texts not readily available to most Hondurans of the time. As Marcos Carias has pointed out, though, the situation of the writer in Honduras is historically weak, and a solid and uniform literary heritage does not exist: It is precisely Turcios' literary knowledge outside of Honduras that allows him to write a vampire story, the first of its kind in Honduras and in Latin America.

Turcios was not deeply influenced by the Quijotfi or Gil Bias but instead by authors such as Byron, Goethe, Poe, Shelley, Keats, Baudelaire, and Wilde Vicenzi 5 , authors who had produced significant texts with vampirism as a central motif. It should be remembered that the modarnista writer not only presents a personal knowledge of the world "sino tambien de lo que ha sido sugerido por sus lecturas, campo en el cual. At the age of 18, Froylan goes to Costa Rica and his political career begins.

During several years his fame as a politician increases as do the number of responsibilities: He was the 74 director of three Honduran "diarios": Fl tiempo lasted three years; El heraldo, one; El nuevo tiempo. Between and , he directs Revista nueva. The two works that are only prose are El vampiro , discussed in this chapter, and El fantasma bianco

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