Froylán Turcios' "El Vampiro" (1910) - here translated into English for the first time as THE VAMPIRE - is one of this Honduran writer's oddest works, a Romantic/Gothic novel with overtones of Decadence (Italian Decadent Gabriele D'Annunzio was a large influence on Turcios). The idyllic life of young Rogerio Mendoza and his beautiful cousin Luz are disrupted not just by a predatory priest, but by a legacy of violence and mysterious death in his family line, even as their home contains a locked room that must never be opened. Those seeking a Honduran version of DRACULA should seek elsewhere, but this intoxicating and beautiful tragedy casts a strange spell all its own. Includes an Afterword by the Translator.