Vampire brides is a popular term that refers to the harem-like arrangement that is believed to exist between the vampire (a male) and his victims (a group of young women). The idea derived entirely from
The idea of calling them "brides" possibly derived from the incident in the novel when, following the death of Lucy Westenra, Lucy's fiance Arthur Holmwood suggested that the sharing of blood created a husband-wife relationship between himself and his now dead wife-to-be. However, it received its substance from various movies which pictured a male vampire in a continuing relationship with several female vampires. Commonly in vampire novels and movies, vampire attacked a person of the opposite sex. Most vampires were male and most of their victims, with whom they developed a close relationship, were women. This relationship has often been developed, by implication if not actual reference, in a manner similar to the popular image of the Middle Eastern harem. Frequently, the women were clothed in frilly bed clothes while the man was in formal dress. This image of the vampire brides was present in the two Count Yorga films and in John Carradine's The Vampire Hookers (1979).
The idea of the vampire brides emphasized the sexual nature of the vampire's relationship to his victims. The vampire attacked (raped) his victims and then tied them to him in a slavelike structure in which love played little or no part. In Dracula, the three women accused him of never having loved and of loving no one in the present.
As part of the 1990s wave of interest in all things related to Dracula, it has been inevitable that the stories of the brides would be explored by novelists. The first was Elaine Bergstrom in her Dracula sequel, Mina and more recently, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has been working on a trilogy telling their story.
Kiraly, Marie [pseudonym of Elaine Bergstrom]. Mina. New York: Berkley Books, 1994. Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.
