1897: Got Blood?

Bram Stoker's Dracula is published

Irish author Bram Stoker did not invent the vampire, but no writer has done more to boost our fascination with a blood-drinking creature who sleeps by day and runs rampant at night. The Count Dracula character Stoker created may have been based on several historical figures, including Vlad the Impaler, a ruler in Wallachia (now part of Romania) in the 15th century. Not a nice guy, this Vlad: He’s said to have had his enemies murdered in horrendous ways and even his own people killed just for looking at him the wrong way.

Stoker wrote Dracula as an epistolary novel; that is, one whose story is told in a series of letters and diary entries “written by” characters. This kind of writing provides a shifting point of view, exposing the reader to different characters’ inner thoughts.