Amanda Grange |The Vampire Myth

Hi, it’s good to be here on the Fresh Fiction blog, thanks for inviting me along to chat about vampires, it’s a great time of year to be doing it! There are many kinds of vampires, and in Mr. Darcy, Vampyre I add to the myths whilst retaining some of the traditional aspects.

The vampires of folk legends are usually described as ugly and bloated. They wear shrouds and return to their home neighbourhoods where they cause trouble as restless spirits. They are created by animals jumping over their corpse, or by evil spirits taking over their corpse as well as by being bitten by a vampire. Typically, they wore shrouds and were usually described as bloated with a ruddy complexion. So they were very different to the kinds of vampires portrayed in modern fiction, which have been altered and adapted continuously over the last two centuries.

The idea of a vampire being a wealthy, charismatic, mysterious but troubled entity started with Byron’s "Fragment of a Novel," where the vampire is "a man of considerable fortune and ancient family . . . It was evident that he was a prey to some cureless disquiet; but whether it arose from ambition, love, remorse, grief, from one or all of these, or merely from a morbid temperament akin to disease, I could not discover."

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Fresh Pick | COLONEL BRANDON'S DIARY by Amanda Grange

July 2009
On Sale: July 7, 2009
Featuring: James Brandon; Marianne Dashwood
304 pages
ISBN: 0425227790
EAN: 9780425227794
Paperback
$14.00

Romance Historical
Buy at Amazon.com

Colonel Brandon's Diary by Amanda Grange

A vibrant retelling of Sense and Sensibility, Grange’s sweeping epic breathes new life into another of Austen’s best-loved novels.

"Colonel Brandon's Diary" continues Amanda Grange's popular series of Jane Austen retellings.

At the age of eighteen, James Brandon's life is set fair. He is in love with his father's ward, Eliza, and he is looking forward to a lifetime of happiness with her. But his world is shattered when Eliza is forced to marry his brother and James joins the army in despair. Whilst he is in the East Indies, Eliza is badly treated and she seeks consolation outside her marriage, leading to divorce and destitution.

Returning to England, Brandon finds her in a debtors' prison. He rescues her from her terrible position, but she is dying of consumption and he can do nothing but watch and wait. Heartbroken at her death, he takes some consolation from her illegitimate daughter, whom he raises as his ward. But at the age of fifteen, the young Eliza goes missing.

Oppressed by the thought of what could have happened to her, he is surprised to find himself falling in love with Marianne Dashwood. But Marianne is falling in love with Willoughby...

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