The Vampire in French Literature:
While the English were writing and adapting vampire stories of their own, so were the French. Some of the most popular French vampire stories were written by Paul Féval, père (1816-1887). Féval was one of the most popular French authors in the 19th century specializing in "swashbuckling" novels and crime fiction. In fact, his novel Jean Diable (1862) is claimed to be the very first modern detective novel. Féval wrote many works but lost most of his money in a financial scandal. After this catastrophe, Féval became a born-again Christian and wrote only religious novels until his death. Before this, Féval wrote a series of novels titled Le Chevalier Ténèbre (1860), La Vampire (1865) and La Ville-Vampire (1874). In La Vampire, Féval created the character of Countess Adhemma, who is seen as the model for all modern depictions of the female vampire as a hyper-sexualized, "libido run wild," such as Lucy Westenra is Stoker's Dracula. Even more fascinating, Féval's La Ville Vampire (or Vampire City) features the Gothic writer Ann Radcliffe herself as the protagonist. In the novel, Radcliffe leads a group of people to vanquish the evil vampire lord Otto Goetzi in Selene, a city of vampires. The band includes Merry Bones, Grey Jack, Dr. Magnus Szegeli, and Polly Bird. Therefore, this text features the trope of a group going to vanquish the main vampire, which predates Dracula by twenty years. Furthermore, it features the group being led by a woman, which resonates with the later 20th and 21st century vampire slayer as young woman featured in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series.