An early psychological vampire tale In 1836, Théophile Gautier published a short story titled Le Morte Amoreuse in Le Chronique de Paris. While the title translates into English as The Dead in Love, it was published in English as Clarimonde after its primary female character. It tells the story of a priest named Romuald who falls in love with Clarimonde, a beautiful woman who turns out to be a vampire. Clarimonde would go on to influence French works like Paul Feval's The Vampire Countess (1865) and directly or indirectly British works like Carmilla (1872) and Dracula (1897).