To Saint-Germain, the taking of blood is an erotic experience, making this character the quintessential Demon lover. This author's answer to the question of why a vampire who can feed on animals needs human blood resembles Saberhagen's theory. Yarbro postulates that he suffers little or no discomfort from the sun as long as he wears shoes with his native earth in the soles. Like Stoker's Dracula (and Saberhagen's), Saint-Germain can function by daylight. He cannot transform into animal shape, as Dracula can (though he can control animals), but in most ways conforms to the powers and limitations of the traditional vampire. Rather than recoiling from Christian symbols, in Hotel Transylvania Saint-Germain wields a consecrated Host to repel a coven of Satanists. Saint-Germain may be described as Dracula with a difference.Īnother Transylvanian Count who lives on blood, sometimes transforms his victims into his own kind, casts no reflection, and rests on a bed of his native earth, Saint-Germain embodies the opposite of the unholy evil Stoker ascribes to Dracula. If Rice's fiction may be characterized as epic, Yarbro's is romance.Īgainst her meticulously researched historical backgrounds, intimate exploration of human (whether living or Undead) emotions and relationships claims central importance. Though not so well known to non-specialists as Rice's characters, Yarbro's Saint-Germain is probably the best-loved of contemporary vampires. Hotel Transylvania, by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (Saint Martin's, 1978):
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