"So far as I understand the matter, a vampire is an animated corpse which sucks the blood of the living."
“This discussion about vampirism (...) reminds me of a ghastly story which I either heard or read a very long time ago. But I think I heard it, because I seem to remember that the person who told it said that the circumstances had actually happened, and mentioned the name of the family and of their country seat where it took place. But if this story is known to you as being in print, please to stop me and prevent my going on with it, because there’s nothing more wearisome than to tell people things which they have known for ever so long.”
— Cyprian
A 1821 horror tale, written by E. T. A. Hoffmann and inspired by "The Story of Sidi Nouman". Originally published as part of the story collection The Serapion Brethren, it has since been published on its own as a self-contained short story.
After Sylvester brings up John William Polidori's then recently published story The Vampyre (wrongly credited to Lord Byron) to his friends, a discussion of vampirism ensues. One of said friends, Cyprian, then goes on to tell a story he claims to have heard from a friend, about very real vampires who terrorised an unspecific foreign land not too long ago.
Said story tells the tale of Count Hippolytus, a man too busy with his extensive renovation of his newly inherited estate to have any thoughts about romance, until he's visited by an elderly baroness and falls head over heals in love with her daughter, Aurelia. The pair are soon wed — something not even the unexpected death of the Baroness can stop — but Hippolytus soon realizes that there's something peculiar about Aurelia. Why does she never seem to eat? And why does she always take strolls around the graveyard in the middle of the night?
As the original publication left the story untitled, it has since been known under a variety of different titles, including Tale of a Vampire, Cyprian's Narrative, The Hyena or simply Aurelia. It is believed to have inspired elements of "Carmilla" and the cemetery scene in Hans Christian Andersen's version of The Six Swans.
In 1982, the story was adapted by Giulio Questi into an Italian TV movie, as part of the anthology series Il fascino dell'insolito.
This story contains examples of:
- Abusive Parent: The Baroness is posthumously revealed to have been one toward her daughter.
- Age-Gap Romance: The 1982 TV adaptation portrays the relationship between Hippolytus and Aurelia as such, by casting the 46-year old Antonio Salines and the 22-year old Francesca Archibugi in the roles. The story itself only describes Hippolytus as having "the agitation of a young man overpowered by love", making it somewhat ambiguous whether or not he actually is young himself. Aurelia meanwhile is explicitly sixteen in a flashback, followed by a vague Time Skip or two before it becomes a case of How We Got Here.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Zig-Zagged Trope. The Baroness and the Stranger are both real pieces of work, though Aurelia is more of an Anti-Villain, and Count Hippolytus is a completely innocent victim. There's also the fact that the Stranger is a Con Artist and the son of a hangman, so his claims to aristocracy may be dubious.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: As the story was originally paired up with a summarized version of The Vampyre, Aurelia serves as this to Lord Ruthven, who was an Idle Rich, straight-up evil vampire with no qualms about murder. Aurelia on the other hand is more of a Broken Bird who hates her condition, only turning aggressive when overpowered by her vampiric urges. Ruthven also got away scot-free, whereas Aurelia "gives up the ghost" at the end.
- Direct Line to the Author: Cyrian claims to be retelling a true story he heard from somebody else years ago.
- Eating Optional: Aurelia eventually stops eating and drinking altogether. The fact that she keeps this up for months is what clues Hippilytus and the doctor into the fact that there's something supernatural at play. As it turns out, she has been sneaking out at night to feed of corpses... probably.
- Ethereal White Dress: Perhaps the Ur-Example for vampires. Aurelia wears one during the climax, which helps Hippolytus spot her in the moonlight. This story is said to have influenced Carmilla, which further popularized this trope.
- Evil Counterpart: The Stranger is one for Count Hippolytus. Both are (possibly in the Strangers's case) noblemen with feelings for Aurelia, but whereas Hippolytus had a — at least initially — loving relationship and eventual marriage with her, the Stranger was a sexual predator who tried to force himself onto the girl.
- Humanoid Abomination: The vampires surrounding Aurelia are portrayed akin to the more modern concept of vampiric ghouls. They are described as old, half-naked women who yet resemble "frightful, spectral-looking creatures" as they consume a man's corpse "with wolfish appetite."
- I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Combined with a Gender Flipped example of Turn Out Like His Father.
- Informed Species: The vampires in the story have little in common with the traditional image of a vampire- either folkloric or pop cultural one. If anything, they sound more like ghouls, particularly with their craving for human flesh.
- Impoverished Patrician: The Baroness and her daughter became this after the death of the former's husband, giving both her relationship with her suitor and Aurelia's marriage to Hippolytus a Gold Digger element.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: While the vampires are probably Real After All, it's never made quite clear if Count Hippolytus is Driven to Madness by being bitten or simply by the trauma he experiences.
- No Name Given: Most noticeably the Baroness and the Stranger, the latter of whom's name is even spoken but "censored" at one point.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Hippolytus flees from the vampires in the graveyard — including his wife Aurelia — only to find her already asleep in bed. This makes him briefly consider if the whole thing was All Just a Dream.
- Only Sane Man: The briefly mentioned uncle of our protagonist, who advises him to give up on his relationship with Aurelia, lest it will ruin him. Hippolytus ignores his warning, but the rest of the story ends up proving him right.
- Our Vampires Are Different: While the vampires are recognizable to modern readers as deathlike beings who need to consume the living (or at least the recently diseased) they have little in the way of powers and seem very much mortal. Vampirism is also treated more like a personal curse than a viral condition, as being bitten at most causes some Sanity Slippage.
- Rape as Backstory: Aurelia's Dark and Troubled Past involves her just barely avoiding being raped by the Stranger, her mother's lover, during her teenage years. Her mother showed her No Sympathy, chided her for not complying with the wishes of their patron, and locked her up in her room because of her "troublesome" behavior.
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Realism-Induced Horror: The abuse inflicted on Aurelia by both the Stranger and her mother — herself a victim of her lover's domestic violence — stands out as disturbing even in a story featuring flesh-eating vampires. - Red Eyes, Take Warning: Double Subverted. The one time Aurelia's eyes are described as red, it's because she's just been crying. However, it's implied that what she was crying about was her losing battle against her own vampiric urges.
- Secret-Keeper: The Baroness and the Stranger seems to have served as such for each other, both covering up the other's dirty deeds. This strategy worked until the latter physically abused the Baroness, crossing the line for what she was willing to tolerate.
- Slipping a Mickey: It's heavily implied that Aurelia is spiking her husband's tea with a sleeping agent, as not drinking it levars him without his usual symptoms of tiredness.
- Spoiler Title: The true nature of Aurelia and her mother is technically a Twist Ending, though given that Cyrian only tells the story because his friends had already brought the topic of vampires up, we can probably consider this an Internal Reveal.
- Supernatural Angst: It's implied that Aurelia hates her vampiric nature, but that her curse has progressed to the point where she has to eat corpses to sustain herself.
- Tragic Monster: Even before Varney the Vampire, Aurelia has a fair amount of angst, the source of which is a Driving Question for Hippolytus before the Twist Ending. Rereading the story, it's pretty obvious that her curse is what she loathed.
- Vampires Are Sex Gods: Downplayed. While Aurelia is presented as attractive she's not The Vamp, and her desire to marry Hippolytus seems genuine.
- Vampires Are Rich: Played With, the wealthy count who lives in a castle is perfectly human, and while Aurelia does become a rich noblewoman by marrying him, this is treated more like a false happy ending for her than any sort of commentary on the class system.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Hoffmann's vampires are capable of passing themselves off as upstanding members of society, but behave like savage animals when it's time for them to feed. Essentially, they manage to embody both the charming aristocrat and the bloodthirsty monster type of vampires.
- Wacky Cravings: The local doctor diagnosed Aurelia's symptoms as simply signs of pregnancy. He then goes on to describe an extreme case where an expecting mother developed an appetite for her husband's flesh and cut him to death with a knife. This turns out to be quite a bit closer to Aurelia's situation than he likely believed.
- Weirdness Censor: The Baroness being very pale, having unusually cold hands and taking frequent strolls by the graveyard is brushed off as simply signs of her old age.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: While Aurelia dies after biting her husband, her coven is completely unaccounted for, and — as far as we know — still around to terrorize the area.
