Vampire (Ewers novel)

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Vampire
Author Hanns Heinz Ewers
Original titleVampir
LanguageGerman
Publisher Paul Steegemann Verlag  [ de ]
Publication date
1921
Publication placeGermany
Published in English
20 September 1934 [1]
Pages478

Vampire (German : Vampir) is a 1921 novel by the German writer Hanns Heinz Ewers.

Contents

Plot

The novel is set in the United States during World War I and follows a German propaganda operative, Frank Braun, who struggles with a mysterious ailment and spends time with his devoted half-Jewish mistress. It was the last of Ewers' three novels about Braun. It was in parts inspired by Ewers' personal experiences as a pro-German propagandist in the United States during the war. [2]

Publication

Paul Steegemann Verlag  [ de ] published the book in 1921. An English translation was published in the United States in 1934 with several passages cut out. The American scholar Lisa Lampert-Weissig describes them as "passages depicting pedophilia, as well as Ewers' anti-American rhetoric, and his offensive racist language concerning people of color". [3] Lampert-Weissig writes that the novel presents an example of the connection between "vampirism and early twentieth-century discourses of race", complicated by Ewers' combination of overt philo-Semitism and German nationalism. [3]

References

  1. "Vampire". Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved 18 July 2025.
  2. Lampert-Weissig, Lisa (2015). "The vampire as dark and glorious necessity in George Sylvester Viereck's House of the Vampire and Hanns Heinz Ewers's Vampir". Open Graves, Open Minds. Manchester: Manchester University Press. doi:10.7765/9781526102157.00011. ISBN   9781526102157.
  3. 1 2 Lampert-Weissig, Lisa (2013). "Taking Dracula's Pulse: Historicizing the Vampire". The Vampire Goes to College: Essays on Teaching with the Undead. p. 38. ISBN   9780786475544.