Vampires: The World of the Undead

From left: US and UK editions.

The work was originally a reaction to Francis Coppola's 1992 film Dracula.[2] After the film, media coverage around vampires was in full swing, and Gallimard, for their 'Découvertes' collection, was looking for an author to write a book about vampires. It was Jean Marigny, noticed by his dissertation on vampires in Anglo-Saxon literature, whom would be chosen. After a few weeks of intensive work to match the release of the book with the release of the film in France (in 1993), Sang pour sang was born.[3] It was an immediate success that the book has sold 130,000 copies and was reprinted several times. It has been translated into American and British English, Japanese, Russian, Slovene, Spanish, South Korean, simplified and traditional Chinese. A revised and updated French edition came out in 2010, driven by the success of the Twilight series.[4]

Vampires: The World of the Undead. Clockwise from upper left: The Triumph of Death, 15th-century Flemish painting (p. 30); The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli, 1782 painting (p. 64); Vlad the Impaler, woodcut, l: c. 1550, Nuremberg, Germany, r: 1500, Strasbourg, France (pp. 28–29).

The book is part of the Culture et société series (formerly belonging to Traditions series) in the 'Découvertes Gallimard' collection. According to the tradition of 'Découvertes', this collection is based on an abundant pictorial documentation and a way of bringing together visual documents and texts, enhanced by printing on coated paper; in other words, 'genuine monographs, published like art books'.[5] It's almost like a 'graphic novel', replete with colour plates.

Here the author traces in four chapters the history and evolution of this creature in legends and literature, from antiquity to the gaslit streets of London: the origins of the myth, the reference to Greek mythology in particular, confusion with the undead, fears related to plague in Medieval times... (chap. 1, 'Blood Lust', pp. 13–29); the Church officially recognises the existence of the living dead (chap. 2, 'The Consecrated Vampire', pp. 31–43). The golden age of the vampire is in the Enlightenment era where such beliefs should be banned (chap. 3, 'The Golden Age of Vampirism', pp. 45–63). Then in the Victorian era the vampire becomes an indisputable character of theatres and nightlife (chap. 4, 'The Reawakening of the Vampire', pp. 65–95). It is not Bram Stoker's Dracula, but The Vampyre of John Polidori is the first published modern vampire story, the book is therefore dedicated to this Romantic writer. Marigny explains in the book that Stoker was inspired by Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla for his own novel. The book addresses, among other topics, the cult of blood, Vlad the Impaler, Countess Báthory, superstitions, reaction of the Church to vampirism, vampires in cinema and the most incredible vampirism affair at London's Highgate Cemetery, in the 1970s.[6]

The second part of the book, the 'Documents' section, contains a compilation of excerpts divided into seven parts: 1, Dracula, the tyrant (pp. 98–99); 2, Vampirism through the centuries (pp. 100–109); 3, The rationalist response (pp. 110–113); 4, The vampire in poetry (pp. 114–115); 5, The vampire in prose (pp. 116–127); 6, A night in Count Dracula's castle (pp. 128–129); 7, The vampire in film (pp. 130–131). These are followed by a filmography (pp. 132–137), further reading (p. 138), list of illustrations (pp. 138–141) and an index (pp. 141–142).

On Babelio, the book has an average of 3.85/5 based on 31 ratings;[7] and an average of 7.9/10 based on 12 ratings, on SensCritique.[8] Goodreads reported, based on 50 ratings, the UK edition gets an average rating of 3.96 out of 5,[9] and the US edition 3.47/5 based on 43 ratings,[10] indicating 'generally positive opinions'.

The French daily Le Monde wrote, '[the book is] a very beautiful-illustrated, very informative and very playful little work, a vademecum to the land of blood drinkers.'[11]

On Vampirisme, the review says: 'This work by Jean Marigny, published in 1993, is a model of its kind. Here the author traces the chronology of the vampire myth, from antiquity to the present day. [...] The book is also very well documented, very well illustrated, and embellished with some most interesting appendices, whether they are anecdotes about Dracula, retranscription of some most famous reports confirming the existence of vampires, excerpts from novels and poetry, even from prayers for hunting vampires. In short, if you want to go deeper into the subject and learn more about vampirology, this is the book for you.'[12]

• Official website (in French)
• Presentation of Sang pour sang, le réveil des vampires in Un livre, un jour on YouTube (in French)