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Monsters in numberless quantities haunt the pages of horror novels, but none is more popular than the Vampyre. Why? Probably the versatility of the Vampyre. Most other monsters have severe limitations in how they can be portrayed. A thing from a swamp is destined to lurch around isolated farmhouses or in the sewers of some big city. By its very nature, it will be difficult to portray in meaningful relationships with people. In the majority of cases the monster's role will be that of the one dimensional evil character menacing the protagonists, but vanquished in the end. Other fictional creatures of horror suffer from similar problems.

The Vampyre, on the other hand, has almost endless potential for variety in its interactions with people and can vary from the evil one-dimensional monster to the psychic Vampyre working as a Nazi concentration camp guard, to the otherwise average person struggling to retain what little humanity is left to him as a Vampyre, to the delightfully charming and romantic Saint-Germain type of Vampyre. It is this endless variety and, above all, the ability to be human with all the strengths and weaknesses inherent in that humanity, which makes the Vampyre of fiction so popular.

This fascination with the Vampyre has been with us for centuries, fictional stories having appeared since classical times. But it wasn't until Europeans began writing about Vampyres that Vampyre fiction began to have an impact on the current form of our legends.

One of the more important early stories to appear in Europe was"The Vampyre" by John Polidori, published in 1819 and based on an idea by Lord Byron. A mysterious nobleman, Ruthven, tours Europe with a wealthy young man named Aubrey. Aubrey eventually realizes that Ruthven is a very unpleasant man, but thinks he has seen the last of him when he is killed by bandits in a mountain pass in Europe. When Aubrey returns to England, he finds that Ruthven is alive and is engaged to Aubrey's sister. The agonizing part of Aubrey's dilemma is that, even though he now realizes what Ruthven is, he cannot stop the wedding plans because Ruthven made Aubrey swear not to reveal "knowledge of my crimes or death" for a year and a day. Now, because of this oath, Aubrey cannot even warn his sister of her imminent doom, with the result that Ruthven kills the sister on the wedding night and then disappears.

Being held to an oath like this even at the expense of a person's life was a concept frequently found in older stories. And while it may seem silly today, the modern equivalent is still with us in the form of the priest or lawyer who is unable to tell the police of the confession of a murderer. The resulting suspense when the hero knows and has proof but cannot tell anyone, can have the reader on the edge of his or her seat.

In 1836 Theophile Gauthier wrote "La Morte Amoreuse," which has been translated into English under various titles, including "Clarimonde." A priest becomes obsessed with a beautiful Vampyre. The story has a rather dreamlike quality in which it becomes difficult for both the priest and the reader to differentiate between reality and the priest's fantasies.

"Varney the Vampyre" by Thomas Preskett Prest or James Malcom Rymer appeared in 1840. This penny dreadful, consisting of romance, mystery, and blood, was almost the nineteenth century equivalent of a soap opera and was as popular as many soaps are today.

Then in 1872, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu wrote the landmark story "Carmilla." This was one of the first stories to feature a three- dimensional Vampyre with human emotions and feelings. The plot concerns a young woman named Laura who lives in an isolated castle in Austria. Nearby is a deserted village and a ruined castle whose last owner had died a century before. One day a beautiful stranger called Carmilla comes to stay after a carriage accident. She and Laura become fast friends, with undertones of lesbianism. One can see that even as Laura becomes weaker, Carmilla has a real affection for Laura. Finally the truth comes out: a grave in the chapel near the ruined castle is opened, and it is proven that Carmilla and the long-dead owner of the ruined castle are one and the same. The Vampyre is destroyed in the traditional manner.

However popular some of the these other Vampyre stories were, the most famous and influential one is "Dracula" by Bram Stoker. Since its appearance in 1897, countless other books and films have been based on it. Even though many films have diverged considerably from the book, most people are familiar with the plot.

To summarize drastically, Dracula hires a solicitor to purchase some property in England prior to his relocating there. Leaving the young solicitor, Jonathan Harker, trapped in his Transylvanian castle, Dracula takes his 50 boxes of earth and moves to England. Shortly after his arrival he attacks Lucy, the best friend of Harker's fiancee, Mina. Dr. Seward, who owns the insane asylum next door to Dracula's new London home, is called in to look after Lucy. He is baffled by her symptoms and calls in Dutch scientist Van Helsing.

Van Helsing soon recognizes that a Vampyre is at work, but he is still unable to save Lucy, and she soon begins her own nightly wanderings as an undead Vampyre. After dispatching the unfortunate Lucy, the group of young men, led by Van Helsing, begins to hunt down the Transylvanian count. Meanwhile, Dracula next turns his attention to Mina and exchanges blood with her. The others hound Dracula until they have destroyed all but one box of Transylvanian soil. Pursued by the protagonists, he flees back to his homeland and is killed almost at his castle gates.

Why has Stoker's story endured while others have been forgotten? Part of the answer lies in the vivid imagery and suspense. While many nineteenth century stories are wordy and tedious, this book catches the attention of the modern reader with spine-tingling suspense and description. One of the most memorable parts in the book is Harker's description of Dracula's descent headfirst down the outside castle wall. But an even more important part of the answer lies in the fact that Stoker managed to do what no one else had previously done. He created an incredibly evil character who was at the same time proud, noble, and self-confident in his powers. And yet the reader sees a hint that Dracula may still remember how it felt to be human.

There are many loose ends and unanswered questions in "Dracula" as well. Because it is written in diary form, the characters can only tell what they know, which leaves intriguing questions about the identities of Dracula's three women unanswered because Harker, who wrote the diary entries concerning them, knew nothing about the three Vampyres. These and other unanswered questions have provided fertile territory for other writers to fill in the gaps as they saw fit.

The novel is charged with sexual undercurrents and tension, particularly in such scenes as the one with Harker and the three women, or Mina drinking Dracula's blood. This too holds the reader's interest.

Since then, most Vampyre novels have been strongly influenced by "Dracula" to a greater or lesser degree, but certain interesting trends have developed in recent years. It would be impossible to describe every book which has appeared -- there are far too many of them. But some representatives of the new trends in Vampyre fiction stand out above the rest, and it is some of these which are discussed in the remainder of this article.

Until a few years ago, the general trend has been to cast the Vampyre in the role of the evil one-dimensional monster whom one or more protagonists must overcome in order to save themselves and their loved ones. A lot of truly forgettable books have been written in this vein, but some real chillers have appeared as well.

One of the best-known of these was "'Salem's Lot" by Stephen King. A Vampyre moves to a small town in the U.S. and begins attacking the townspeople. Despite the efforts of a group of people, the vampirism spreads until almost the entire town is undead. King's Vampyres never really acquire personalities, remaining one- or two-dimensional characters at best. But the protagonists, who include a writer, teacher, priest, schoolboy, and doctor, are beautifully developed. Their interactions with each other and with the events happening around them make this a difficult book to put down.

A similar plot appears in Robert McCammon's "They Thirst", which appeared in 1981. Vampyres move into Los Angeles and gradually take over the city. McCammon goes one step further than King in a number of ways. First, not only are the protagonists well developed, but even the Vampyres have personalities to some extent. The Vampyre girl killing her boyfriend and then tenderly wrapping his body in bedsheets to protect him from the sun until he returns from the dead the next night comes to mind. The backdrop of a large city besieged by Vampyres along with vivid descriptions of bloodsucking street gangs and radio announcers telling their Vampyre listeners to go and feed on the humans holed up in the shopping malls all add to the suspense and atmosphere.

The 1970s brought a new and fascinating trend in which Vampyres were portrayed in a much more human and sympathetic way. The first author to really break out of the old mould was Anne Rice with "Interview with the Vampyre" (1976). Told from the viewpoint of Louis, it details how he became a Vampyre and his "life" with others of his kind. For the first time, the reader sees the hopes, fears, and personality conflicts between Vampyres portrayed as people rather than as objects of horror. Unlike previous books, "Interview with the Vampyre" almost entirely omits normal humans from the story.

The sequel, "The Vampyre Lestat", is even more interesting. Lestat's personality is more complex and the plot more involved. The second book, narrated by Lestat, paints a very different picture of this charismatic character than the one painted by the resentful Louis in "Interview". The series continues with several more books, each of which expands on the lives, hopes, dreams, and fears of Rice's androgynous creatures of the night.

While Anne Rice's books marked the beginning of a fresh trend in Vampyre fiction, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro moved off in her own unique direction, beginning with "Hotel Transylvania" in 1978. Many of her books chronicle the experiences of her charming and dapper Vampyre protagonist, Saint-Germain, with a few books featuring Vampyres Atta Olivia Clemens or Madelaine de Montalia. Each book takes place in richly described cultures ranging from ancient Rome and China to the modern day U.S. The personalities of the Vampyres combined with the vividly detailed historical background makes these stories unique.

In George R. R. Martin's "Fevre Dream" (1982) we see the interaction of Vampyre and human on equal terms, as a human and Vampyre team up against a rival group of Vampyres. The action takes place on the Mississippi River at the height of the riverboat trade. A haunting quality and vibrant characters make this book memorable.

Some books which, for want of a better term, could be called suspense-horror, have also made their mark. Garfield Reeves-Stevens's "Bloodshift" is an excellent one concerning a power struggle between two factions of Vampyres. The book deals nicely with the interaction between a retired hit man and the female Vampyre he is hired to kill, but instead teams up with against his Vampyre employers. The plot is further complicated by the CIA and a group of Jesuit priests, each of which have their own reasons for going after the Vampyres.

Lee Killough's "Blood Hunt" (1987) and the sequel "Bloodlinks" (1988) concern a policeman who tracks a trail of dead bodies to a woman Vampyre. She attacks and kills him in the first book, and he revives as a Vampyre in the morgue. His struggle to adapt to his new "life" while hunting down first the woman, and then someone who is killing both humans and Vampyres, makes for two fast-paced books.

Humour has been sadly lacking in most Vampyre fiction. Fortunately, P. N. Elrod's "Vampyre Files" series helps fill the gap with six very entertaining books. Beginning with "Bloodlist", the series takes place in the 1930s and features a hard-boiled newspaper reporter who is murdered by gangsters and comes back as a Vampyre in the first book. A well-balanced blend of suspense and humour combined with a Mickey Spillane atmosphere all make these books delightful. The humour is evident even in the blurb on the back of the first book, in which the protagonist waxes enthusiastic on the advantages of being a Vampyre, summing it up with ". . . and best of all . . . You can hunt down your own murderer". For well-written enjoyable fun, this series is hard to beat.

In the late '80s and early '90s a new trend of gritty Vampyre stories began to appear. These Vampyres are not at all romantic; many are streetwise, earthy, or corrupt, and in some cases just plain evil. One of the best-known was Dan Simmons's "Carrion Comfort", whose psychic Vampyres are truly hideous, ranging from an ex-Nazi concentration camp guard to murderous corrupt FBI employees. Some of the Vampyres don't just prey on the humans -- they torture them too.

Nancy Collins has also produced down-to-earth Vampyres in "Sunglasses After Dark" (1990) (and the sequels, published most recently in the volume "Midnight Blue"). The book opens with the Vampyre protagonist heavily sedated in a straitjacket. Reviving from the drugs to some extent, she escapes the insane asylum determined to find out who had her captured. Meanwhile, through flashbacks we learn her past. The daughter of an incredibly rich family, she disappeared without a trace several years before while on a holiday in England. Attacked by a Vampyre, she revived as a Vampyre with amnesia and became a hooker. In many ways this Vampyre is a fairly decent person, but streetwise and tough as nails too, giving a much more realistic picture of what might really happen to someone in her situation. Combined with a good plot and characterization, this and the sequels are excellent.

Poppy Z. Brite's "Lost Souls" is aptly named, as it describes in rich gothic detail the lives of a group of people in the small town of Missing Mile. As they drift without purpose through the days and nights, their lives parallel those of a group of equally purposeless nomadic Vampyres. The reader follows the dark meanderings of the plot as the two groups, human and Vampyre, come together.

A book with a most unusual premise is Lois Tilton's "Vampyre Winter". The scene is the post nuclear war U.S. Blaine, the Vampyre protagonist, emerges from his vault in Chicago within hours of the city's destruction in a nuclear attack. As he moves to the countryside, Blaine finds that twilight now lasts 24 hours a day, so he can hunt and move around unhindered. Society has been reduced to a brutal struggle for existence in which bands of radiation-contaminated marauders wander around attacking farmhouses and small towns occupied by people hoping to keep their dwindling supplies of food while avoiding contamination. The comparison of this ruthless Vampyre with the equally ruthless people around him makes one think. Eventually, realizing that the uncontaminated people must be preserved if he is to survive, Blaine gathers some people together, providing food for them in exchange for blood and protection from the marauders. He eventually ends up in a similar mutually beneficial relationship with some of the nearby towns. The townsdwellers are his food source, and he with his immunity to radiation is able to roam freely and help protect them against marauders. A most unusual book showing a fascinating symbiotic relationship of human and Vampyre.

Kim Newman's "Anno-Dracula" creates an alternative history in which Van Helsing and his cohorts failed to kill Dracula. Instead Dracula is the official Prince Consort of Queen Victoria, and Vampyres make up a sizable portion of London's population. The book is filled with historical and fictional characters who become embroiled in the various plotlines.

Nancy Kilpatrick's characters in "Near Death" are streetwise and hard as nails, yet curiously fragile in some ways. Filled with sensuality and violence, the story grabs the reader and won't let go.

Over time authors have added new dimensions to the increasingly versatile Vampyre. What will the future bring? We can only wait and see, but so far there appears to be no lack of innovative takes on this most popular of monsters.