
Vampires, Burial, and Death by Paul Barber

TITLE: Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality
AUTHOR: Paul Barber
DATE PUBLISHED: 1988
FORMAT: Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780300041262
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DESCRIPTION:
"In this engrossing book, Paul Barber surveys centuries of folklore about vampires and offers the first scientific explanation for the origins of the vampire legends. From the tale of a sixteenth-century shoemaker from Breslau whose ghost terrorized everyone in the city, to the testimony of a doctor who presided over the exhumation and dissection of a graveyard full of Serbian vampires, his book is fascinating reading."
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REVIEW:
An interesting and fascinating examination of the possible causes of various vampire legends and mythologies, focusing on what happens to a corpse during decomposition. The occasional droll observations were entertaining. The author also differentiates between vampire folklore/legends and literature, which are rather different. A bit repetitive.