"Bartlett, a historian specializing in eastern Europe, and Idriceanu, a philologist in Romania, explore historical, literary, and religious origins of some of the features now associated with the vampire legend, and trace the development of those features down the centuries through the evolution of themes and the changes in media. Among their topics are the vampire epidemics, landscapes of magic, the witch, the magus, the power of the mind, and the undead." - Reference & Research Book News