Blood-sucking creatures of the night, the undead that stalk the living, vampires have haunted our imagination since time immemorial. This book brings together eight tales of horror that have terrified generations and inspired the most recent flowering of vampire literature, including Stephenie Meyer's bestselling Twilight series. You will discover classics of the genre including John Polidori's The Vampyre, written by Lord Byron's physician, as well as Carmilla, the novella that inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula and provoked a scandal with its lesbian vampire undercurrent. The collection also features a disturbing work by the genius of French short story writing, Guy de Maupassant, as well as Arthur Conan Doyle's tale of an encounter between Sherlock Holmes and a vampire. There is a nightmarish account of the undead by the acknowledged master of supernatural stories, E.F. Benson, and a tale of the terrifying resurrection of a dead lover by one of the founders of the Romantic movement, Johann Ludwig Tieck. Vampires also features the short story 'Dracula's Guest' by Bram Stoker, believed by many scholars to be the original first chapter of his novel Dracula, excised from the manuscript by the publisher. This fascinating and entertaining collection is an essential addition to every vampire fan's bookshelf.