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Rating: 
Summary: Early Work on Vampire Myths and Legends
Review: This is a re-titled reprint of Montague Summers' 1928 work "The Vampire in Europe", one of the most complete early studies of European vampire myths and legends. This book documents many of the legends regarding vampirism dating from ancient Greek and Roman times. It covers a vast geographical area of Europe, including England and Ireland, and includes topics on the creation, powers, and desctuction of vampires as recorded in various folklore and myth. Summers' surprisingly informative footnotes make this an interesting starting point for those wishing to delve deeper into the mythology of vampirism. Summers' writing can be verbose at times, and he tends to quote entire passages in full from his sources, which can sometimes be a benefit but at others an annoyance. However, the sheer amount of information contained here can be worth the effort. Montague Summers was an eccentric 20th century occult historian who was one of the first authors to do serious studies of the occult and its role in history. Summers' went on to write another interesting book on vampirism "The Vampire: His Kith and Kin" in 1929 which may be of interest to readers of this book. He is also the author of a large body of works on the history of witchcraft and demonology including translations of many early 16th and 17th century works on the occult.
Rating:
Summary: Early Work on Vampire Myths and Legends
Review: This is a re-titled reprint of Montague Summers' 1928 work "The Vampire in Europe", one of the most complete early studies of European vampire myths and legends. This book documents many of the legends regarding vampirism dating from ancient Greek and Roman times. It covers a vast geographical area of Europe, including England and Ireland, and includes topics on the creation, powers, and desctuction of vampires as recorded in various folklore and myth. Summers' surprisingly informative footnotes make this an interesting starting point for those wishing to delve deeper into the mythology of vampirism. Summers' writing can be verbose at times, and he tends to quote entire passages in full from his sources, which can sometimes be a benefit but at others an annoyance. However, the sheer amount of information contained here can be worth the effort. Montague Summers was an eccentric 20th century occult historian who was one of the first authors to do serious studies of the occult and its role in history. Summers' went on to write another interesting book on vampirism "The Vampire: His Kith and Kin" in 1929 which may be of interest to readers of this book. He is also the author of a large body of works on the history of witchcraft and demonology including translations of many early 16th and 17th century works on the occult.
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