Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality

I actually thought I was ordering another book, but I'm quite glad that I got this one! The author is working from the naturalistic, forensic side of vampires and other revenants, something that at best gets only one chapter in other books. He clarifies the common misconceptions about 'vampires', and while using the term for simplicity's sake discusses all the sorts of European walking dead. The forensic details are quite scientific and factual (read: graphic), and although I have a strong stomach there was one fleeting moment where I went, "yuck". The book is not written to shock, however. The author even occasionally throws in a bit of dry humour, my favorite being his discussion of his dog's "spirit of scientific inquiry" in digging up dead things in the back yard. I have loaned my copy to a friend who is an amateur criminalist and forensic-freak, and hope that the information in it will help us in our discussions on a certain murder investigation. As it is several years old I would suggest someone who wants cutting-edge this-year forensic science to go elsewhere. But for the vampirologist, anthropologist, or the curious, this is a great read. My friend had better give my copy back!

A lot of information in this book I'd heard from different sources over the years, but this one puts it all together. In one short volume, the entire vampire superstition is quickly and succinctly explained away. Evidently, the vampire myth is worldwide because of the way all human bodies behave after death. Simple as that. Details are given on a case-by-case basis as well as a plethora of rather gristly facts on decomposition, the problem of disposing of dead bodies, and the scientific (as well as superstitious) beliefs of cultures through time. There is nothing romanticized here, no black capes, no hypnotism, no pale aristocrats, no immortality. The imagination is nonetheless stimulated. One can only imagine the terror of a pre-scientific community suffering from a plague, digging up grandpa and discovering that he looks a lot more fat and healthy since he died last month. Something is horribly wrong... This is a great book, really well thought out and well presented. But if you're looking for "real" vampires, try the fiction section.

This is a super review of vampire mythology, the factual literature behind it, and the science of decomposition, all of which adds up to a logical explanation for the vampire legends of yore. As a die-hard vampire fan, I loved this well-written, scholarly explanation. You'll eat it up!

I stumbled over this book in our public library. What a find!Mr. Barber has written what looks on the surface like a doctoral dissertation. The chapters are arranged as though to present and defend a thesis. But the content is so engagingly written (to the point of laugh-out-loud funny), it's difficult to put the book down, even when it exhaustively explains the details of bodily putrefaction. This is a must-have for anyone interested in REAL vampire folklore and superstition roots!

Anyone who has read Nina Auerbach's Our Vampires, Ourselves needs to investigate this marvellous book by Paul Barber, a rare scholarly study that is written with verve, wit, and charm. Barber reminds us that the undead of folklore have precious little in common with Bram Stoker's Dracula or Anne Rice's Lestat -- those are completely modern concoctions. The traditional vampire is, in fact, a corpse. And not a corpse in any too good shape, either! Barber includes more information about the body after death than you could ever have imagined, and yet somehow manages to maintain a jolly tone while he discusses the details of decomposition and other potentially gut-churning subjects. I laughed out loud at lines like these: "However tragic your death may be, it would be far more tragic if you were to take me with you." This is a great book!