Vikram and the Vampire

Vikram and the Vampire
Classic Hindu Tales of Adventure, Magic, and Romance

By

4
(2 Reviews)
Vikram and the Vampire by Sir Richard Francis Burton

Published:

1870

Pages:

202

Downloads:

4,311

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Vikram and the Vampire
Classic Hindu Tales of Adventure, Magic, and Romance

By

4
(2 Reviews)
Vetalapañcavimsati

Book Excerpt

asts.

I do not, therefore, agree with Blair, with the dictionaries, or with M. Deriege. Miletus, the great maritime city of Asiatic Ionia, was of old the meeting-place of the East and the West. Here the Phoenician trader from the Baltic would meet the Hindu wandering to Intra, from Extra, Gangem; and the Hyperborean would step on shore side by side with the Nubian and the Aethiop. Here was produced and published for the use of the then civilized world, the genuine Oriental apologue, myth and tale combined, which, by amusing narrative and romantic adventure, insinuates a lesson in morals or in humanity, of which we often in our days must fail to perceive the drift. The book of Apuleius, before quoted, is subject to as many discoveries of recondite meaning as is Rabelais. As regards the licentiousness of the Milesian fables, this sign of semi-civilization is still inherent in most Eastern books of the description which we call "light literature," and the ancestral tale-teller never collects a larger purse of

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I had to review this book as the excerpt gave such a poor impression of it. It was quite enjoyable. It is the story of a Indian prince who must, to free his family from a curse, remove a vampire from a cemetery and carry it/him to a wizard. The vampire is quite a funny fellow and tells a series of stories. At the end of each story, Prince Vikram must either hold his tongue or at least reply politely to the vampire's story. This proves impossible for him, so many tales end with the vampire escaping Vikrams bag and returning to his tree, only to be collected and carried away again, for the length of another story, until finally the prince learns wisdom.