The four selections in “Historical Vampires,” which are all excerpts from non-fiction accounts of vampires in folktale and legend, are extremely interesting – it’s a shame that the whole section is a mere seventeen pages long. It’d be interesting to read more writings from such as the legendary charlatan Madame Blavatsky, and the folklorist Agnes Murgoci, whose book “Rumania and the Rumanians,” although sometimes accused of inaccuracy, is responsible for much of the Western vampire myth we are familiar with today.

The second section, “Romantic and Victorian Vampires,” concentrates on nineteenth-century stories. It covers the obligatory classics: excerpts from “Dracula” and the penny-dreadful “Varney the Vampire,” a story by Polidori and the entirety of Le Fanu’s short novel “Carmilla.” In addition, there are some less well-known but quite excellent stories such as a translation of Theophile Gautier’s “La Morte Amoreuse,” Eliza Lynn Linton’s “The Fate of Madame Cabanel,” and Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s “Good Lady Ducayne,” among others.

This section also includes a very interesting – but seemingly misplaced – essay by the editor about a true-life scandal involving a painting by Pre-Raphaelite painter Philip Burne-Jones. Although the painting was entitled, “The Vampire,” the essay has more to do with society than vampires themselves (or even their perception in society). Nonetheless, this was one of the most interesting pieces in the book, and well worth reading for anyone interested in the Pre-Raphaelites.

“Vampires in the Twentieth Century,” as one might guess, introduces stories that were written in said century. These sixteen more recent stories are of varying quality. Names that are familiar to horror fans will be found: M.R. James, Henry Kuttner, Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson and Fritz Leiber, whose “Girl With the Hungry Eyes” is a classic, if non-traditional vampire story. Examples of vampire stories from authors one might not expect are also featured, such as a Sherlock Holmes tale by Conan Doyle dealing with a suspicion of vampirism, and the supernatural tale “Bewitched,” by Edith Wharton. An odd article published in (apparently some sort of entertainment tabloid) in 1929, accusing Bela Lugosi (the actor) of having been attacked by a true vampire, is also included.

The final section, “Postmodern Vampires,” could very well have been omitted, in my opinion. It includes two pieces on modern people who believe themselves to be vampires, (Yawn, tired, even Oprah doesn’t want to talk to you any more) and three more surreal short stories, none of which really impressed me – although I know that there are some Caitlin Kiernan fans out there who will definitely want to search out her contribution, “Bela’s Plot.”

Overall, the contents are enough to make this book worthwhile, but the presentation of said contents is nearly enough to make me advise against the book altogether. Firstly, it’s unnecessarily large and heavy – designed more for coffee-table presentation than ease of reading.

Secondly, in anthologies such as this, it’s traditional for the editor to write an introduction to each selection, which generally appears as normal text directly preceding each piece. In this book, these introductions, and other extraneous material appear in sidebars alongside the text on every page. I think the intention was to make the book look, at first glance, more like a scholarly text. However, in a textbook, sidebars refer directly to material found on that page. In this book, Skal simply uses it as a place to put more text. Some of the sidebars actually contain whole other essays or excerpts from stories, which continue on for several pages of sidebar! This is unbelievably distracting, and makes it nearly impossible to actually read the book. In addition, the text in the sidebars was badly proofread, and typos and such errors such as mis-alphabetization are common. (Luckily, this is not the case with the main text.)

Finally, although the book has a wealth of illustrations, the illustrations don’t always relate to the piece they accompany, and the quality of the reproduction is disappointingly low.

If you’re looking for an anthology to slake your thirst for vampire tales both classic and modern, or to gain an overview of the vampire as portrayed in Western literature, you may find this book useful. However, if you’re going to go out of your way to get a vampire anthology similar to this one, I’d recommend the one that’s been on my shelves for over a decade: The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories, edited by Alan Ryan. It’s got at least nine of the same exact stories, plus great selections from Lord Byron, C.L. Moore, August Derleth, Tanith Lee, and more (at least 600 pages of blood lust in a conveniently-sized format). Plus, my edition has a dust jacket featuring art by Edward Gorey!