Vikram and the Vampire: Classic Hindu Tales of Adventure, Magic, and Romance

Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.0
Word count
446K words
Chapters
45

Tags

English Originals Folk Literature Adventure PuzzleFantasy AdventureComplex HumanityHumor ReliefRetold StoriesFolktalesFantasy TaleIndian FolkloreFolk CustomsCross-Cultural View

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Vikram and the Vampire: Classic Hindu Tales of Adventure, Magic, and RomanceAuthor: Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890,Language: English, Class: GR: Geography, Anthropology, Recreation: Folklore, Release Date: Nov 1, 2000

Editor's review

Translated and adapted by Sir Richard Francis Burton, this collection of classical Indian tales is built around the frame narrative of King Vikram and the vampire (Vetala). Each night the vampire tells a story full of adventure, magic, and romance, and poses a riddle that tests the king's judgment. Burton's translation preserves the rhythm and wit of oral literature; readers encounter a wide range of settings—court, forest, and marketplace—and sense the tradition's enduring concern with cause and effect, vows, and wisdom. As a public-domain ebook, it serves as an accessible introduction to Indian folk-story traditions and as a reference for readers studying frame narrative structure and cross-cultural translation; the cyclical way the stories advance can also inspire writers. Read it as a literary and folkloric text rather than a modern novel, and note that Burton's translation carries a Victorian language style.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the opening frame first to understand the pact between the king and the vampire, then proceed in order of the nights
  2. Pause after each story, decide for yourself how the king should answer, then compare with the text that follows
  3. Note unfamiliar names or customs as you go, and look up background material afterward in one sitting
  4. Choose two or three stories to read aloud and experience the linguistic rhythm of oral literature

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45

FAQ

Is this book the same as the Panchatantra? No. The Panchatantra is a separate collection of Indian fables, whereas this book is built around the frame narrative of King Vikram and the vampire, who tells tales of adventure, magic, and romance night by night and tests the king with riddles. Both belong to the Indian storytelling tradition, but their texts and structures differ and should not be confused.
How difficult is the English? Burton's translation uses Victorian vocabulary and sentence patterns, with many long sentences, and some proper names are spelled differently from today. Readers with university-level English can get through it but may need a dictionary; if you only want the gist, you can read a Chinese introduction first and then consult the original.
Why are the stories told night after night? This is the core design of the frame narrative: each night the vampire tells a story and poses a question, and the king must answer; a wrong answer or silence affects the pact. This cyclical advance creates suspense and links each independent story to a main thread, and it is the key to understanding the book's structure.

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About the author

Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890 Author

Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) was a British explorer, writer and Orientalist. This library holds fifteen of his works, spanning East African exploration, accounts of a pilgrimage across Arabia, Hindu myth and tales of Central African travel. First Footsteps in East Africa records his journey into the interior of East Africa; the two-volume Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah offers a first-hand portrait of the holy cities; and Vikram and the Vampire retells classic Hindu tales of adventure. His prose is detailed and precise, combining the calm of an observer with a storyteller's vividness, and has had a lasting influence on travel writing and Oriental studies. As public information is limited, this note is based chiefly on the works held here.