The sixth book in a series on the occult by this Professor Emeritus at Brooklyn College, this anthology takes as its starting point the question of death, or rather, survival after death, and goes on to investigate the occurrence of the vampire metaphor in a wide range of human cultures. Vampire literature is an extraordinarily fecund genre - check out Professor Ashley's bibliography, one section of which lists a plethora of newly-published titles from the first half of 1998 alone, though even the most devoted believer would surely confess to some scepticism when faced with My Dentist Is a Vampire, by M.T. Coffin - whose primary characteristics seem to be, besides the inevitable fascination with creatures of the night, a delight in the mechanics of storytelling and a finely-tuned, self regarding sense of humour. Professor Ashley's book, a good-natured pot-pourri of esoteric lore, newspaper re ports, gothic tales and odd (some extremely odd) books and films, fits the tradition like a glove.
Arminta Wallace