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]