Vampire (Ewers novel)

Vampire (German: Vampir) is a 1921 novel by the German writer Hanns Heinz Ewers.

Vampire

Author	Hanns Heinz Ewers
Original title	Vampir
Language	German
Publisher	Paul Steegemann Verlag [de]
Publication date	1921
Publication place	Germany
Published in English	20 September 1934[1]
Pages	478

Plot

The novel is set in the United States during World War I and follows a German propaganda operative, Frank Braun, who struggles with a mysterious ailment and spends time with his devoted half-Jewish mistress. It was the last of Ewers' three novels about Braun. It was in parts inspired by Ewers' personal experiences as a pro-German propagandist in the United States during the war.^[2]

Publication

Paul Steegemann Verlag [de] published the book in 1921. An English translation was published in the United States in 1934 with several passages cut out. The American scholar Lisa Lampert-Weissig describes them as "passages depicting pedophilia, as well as Ewers' anti-American rhetoric, and his offensive racist language concerning people of color".^[3] Lampert-Weissig writes that the novel presents an example of the connection between "vampirism and early twentieth-century discourses of race", complicated by Ewers' combination of overt philo-Semitism and German nationalism.^[3]