(More like 3.5 stars). Considered as the first vampire story (I haven't found a reliable academic source for that claim yet, but it's certainly circling widely around the internet), Tieck's tale of a female bloodsucker is essentially about Walter's torment of thinking grass is always greener on the other side. The inability to decide who the hell he wants as his wife is actually a pretty flimsy plot, even for a Gothic story, but for an early example of the genre it's pretty great, and I can see how English authors would have perhaps emulated Tieck.

Brunhilda seems a very traditional vampire with her broody, seductive and pale demeanor, but there are enough differences to keep it interesting (waking from the dead through necromancy, hypnotizing her victims with her "violet breath", sleeping a human's sleep every once in a while).

Despite the occasional drawn-out plot, the fantastic lush Gothic imagery makes this well worth it: a sorcerer doing some necromancing, rushing wind, hair wreathing like black snakes, nightly bloodsucking (which leads to, at least I'm fairly sure it did, to some steamy lovemaking and more bloodsucking). A wordy and predictable piece, but those who are already used to wordy Gothic novels should have no problems with it.

"Why," continued she, in a tone that increased his horror, "why dost thou make mouths at me like a puppet? Thou who hadst the courage to love the dead -- to take into thy bed, one who had been sleeping in the grave, the bed-fellow of the worm -- who hast clasped in thy lustful arms, the the corruption of the tomb -- dost thou, unhallowed as thou art, now raise this hideous cry for the sacrifice of a few lives? -- They are but leaves swept from their branches by a storm. -- Come, chase these idiot fancies, and taste the bliss thou hast so dearly purchased."