DRAFT

“The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” is a short story written by Arthur Conan Doyle and is one of the many stories following the famous Detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally published in the January 1924 edition of the Strand Magazine, this story follows Detective Holmes and his assistant Watson as they investigate a woman whose husband believes her to be a vampire. This is not unlike many of the other vampire stories of decades past, but one thing sticks out: the vampire in this story is not real.

When reading through vampire stories of the 19th century, we find most of them focus on explaining the vampire as a monster and exploring different traits that a vampire might have. In Doyle’s story, however, it is assumed that the reader is already familiar with what a vampire is and can recognize the traits one may have. In stories like Carmilla or even Dracula, the idea of a vampire is very new to every character in the text. They learn along with the reader what a vampire is and how they come to be. In these stories, the idea of a vampire was still rather new, meaning most people reading truly would not have known what a vampire was, or at least, it was very likely that they wouldn’t know. For this reason, much of these stories take the time explaining the characteristics of the vampire and walking the reader through each abnormality. This changes throughout time though, so much so that by the time “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” was published in the 1920’s, it was expected that anyone reading would at least know that vampires are people who drink the blood of others. 

This insinuation of common knowledge helps us to understand just how substantial and societally influential the vampire was throughout the 19th century and brings to light the entire genre that it has created. Now, there are multiple shows, fanbases, movie franchises, and book series that center around different vampire tales. It has become its very own genre, a genre that “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” barely makes it into. In this story, unlike every other vampire story in the genre, the vampire is not real. This stands out in all the works we’ve read, as in every other, the vampire being discovered as real is the climax of the story. The formulaic writing of Aurthor Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series aids us in the early assumption that surely, there is no vampire, as his stories are always mysteries. In this, we are to assume that the mystery to be solved is what is really going on, since vampires are not real. 

This brings us to a question: what genres are vampires assumed to be real, and what genres are they assumed to not be real? I would speculate that in “realist” fiction, such as classic mysteries, we would assume that any character thought to be a vampire is not truly a vampire in that universe. However, in fantasy, horror, or even science fiction, it would not be a stretch to believe that any character presented to be a vampire truly is a vampire in that universe. This explosion of genre from the world of vampirism in fiction is exciting, intriguing, and most of all, to die for.