John William Polidori & Sheridan Le Fanu 
7 best short stories – Vampire 

Welcome to the book series 7 best short stories specials, selection dedicated to a special subject, featuring works by noteworthy authors. The texts were chosen based on their relevance, renown and interest. This edition is dedicated to Vampire.



The vampire is now a fixture in popular fiction. Such fiction began with 18th-century poetry and continued with 19th-century short stories. Over time, some attributes now regarded as integral became incorporated into the vampire’s profile: fangs and vulnerability to sunlight appeared over the course of the 19th century. Implied though not often explicitly documented in folklore, immortality is one attribute which features heavily in vampire film and literature. Much is made of the price of eternal life, namely the incessant need for blood of former equals. The critic August Nemo selected seven short stories that were essential to the formation of the vampire’s folklore:



– The Vampyre by John William Polidori.

– Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.

– Mrs. Amworth by E. F. Benson.

– Dracula’s Guest by Bram Stoker.

– Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe.

– Clarimonde by Théophile Gautier.

– The Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker.

About the author

Robert Louis Stevenson (13 November 1850 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist and travel writer, most noted for Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and A Child’s Garden of Verses. A celebrity in his lifetime, Stevenson attracted a more negative critical response for much of the 20th century, though his reputation has been largely restored. He is currently ranked as the 26th most translated author in the world.
*
Alexandre Dumas (24 July 1802 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (French for ‘father’), was a French writer. His works have been translated into many languages, and he is one of the most widely read French authors.
*
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 7 July 1930) was a British writer best known for his detective fiction featuring the character Sherlock Holmes. Originally a physician, in 1887 he published A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and more than fifty short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction.
*
Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 18 January 1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He was born in India, which inspired much of his work.
*
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 circa 1914) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and Civil War veteran.
*
Hector Hugh Munro (18 December 1870 14 November 1916), better known by the pen name Saki, and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirize Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story, and often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. Influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling, he himself influenced A. A. Milne, Noël Coward and P. G. Wodehouse.
*
Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 June 11, 1936) was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre.