The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

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The Vampire Diaries
The Awakening The Struggle The Fury Dark Reunion The Return: Nightfall The Return: Shadow Souls The Return: Midnight
Author	L. J. Smith
Language	English
Genre	Horror, Fantasy, Romance, Young-adult fiction
Publisher	Harper Paperbacks
Published	September 1991 - 1992 February 2009 - present
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)
Followed by	'''''

The Vampire Diaries is a young adult horror series of novels written by the NYT Bestselling author of the Night World series, L. J. Smith. The story centers around Elena Gilbert, a high school girl torn between two vampire brothers. The series was originally a trilogy published in 1991. However, pressure from readers led the author to write a fourth volume, Dark Reunion, released in 1992.^[1]

After taking a hiatus from writing for several years, L. J. Smith announced in 1998 a new spin-off trilogy entitled The Vampire Diaries: The Return, continuing the series, with Damon as the main protagonist. The first installment, The Return: Nightfall, was released on February 10, 2009. The Return: Shadow Souls and The Return: Midnight are tentatively slated for release in April, 2010 and 2011 respectively.

The Vampire Diaries has been adapted into a television series and premiered on September 10, 2009 on The CW.^[2]

Contents 1 Publishing history 2 The novels 3 Plot summary 3.1 The Awakening 3.2 The Struggle 3.3 The Fury 3.4 Dark Reunion 3.5 The Return: Nightfall 4 Characters 4.1 Main characters 4.2 Supporting characters 5 Adaptations 6 External links 7 References

[edit] Publishing history

The Vampire Diaries trilogy was first published in 1991, and the fourth book in 1992 by Harper Paperbacks. In 1999, all four books were reprinted by HarperPrism. In 2007, HarperTeen Publishing Company republished the entire series as two omnibus editions.

[edit] The novels

The original trilogy:

1. The Awakening (1991)

2. The Struggle (1991)

3. The Fury (1991)

The fourth volume in the original series:

4. Dark Reunion (1992)

The new trilogy, The Vampire Diaries: The Return:

5. Nightfall (February 10, 2009)

6. Shadow Souls (due March 16, 2010)

7. Midnight (not yet released)

[edit] Plot summary

[edit] The Awakening

The first book introduces the reader to Elena Gilbert, a popular and beautiful high school student in Fell's Church, Virginia, (a fictional town possibly named after the actual city of Falls Church, Virginia) and her friends Bonnie, Meredith, and Matt, along with Caroline, Elena's old friend who now is her competition.The book is mostly told from Elena's point of view. As their senior year begins, Elena punation, and she eventually discovers his secret: that Stefan is a centuries-old vampire. As Elena and Stefan fall in love, strange attacks begin to happen in the town while a dark and seductive stranger appears to Elena. He is eventually revealed to be Stefan's older brother, Damon. In Renaissance Italy, the brothers both fell in love with a young vampire named Katherine. Katherine choose them both as lovers and exchanged blood with them. When they decline that they would be with each other, Katherine is devastated and kills herself by exposing herself to the sun without her ring on. Fueled with rage, the brothers killed each other but woke up as vampires. The Awakening ends with Elena seeking out Damon whom she believes to be the prime suspect for Stefan's disappearance after the townspeople begin to suspect Stefan as the one behind the recent murder of the school's social studies teacher and the other strange occurrences.

[edit] The Struggle

The second book picks up where The Awakening left off, and delves further into Damon's attempts to win Elena's affections and Stefan's struggle to survive. To find Stefan, Elena seeks out Damon and confronts him in the graveyard, knowing that it will be dangerous. Damon claims he killed Stefan the previous night. But after Bonnie has a vision, Elena and her friends find Stefan in a well, near death. Elena saves Stefan by giving him some of her blood after they all pulled him out to safety. Elena also exchanges blood with Damon, making a secret deal with him she kept hidden from Stefan, and by doing so, ties herself to both brothers as Katherine did centuries ago. While waiting for Stefan one night, Elena feels as if a presence inside a storm is coming for her, and she frantically tries to escape by crossing the bridge over a river. The car she is in veers off the road and into the river, and she drowns. The Struggle ends with the revelation that, because she took enough of the brothers’ blood, Elena becomes a vampire upon her death.

[edit] The Fury

The third book deals with Elena's adjustment to her vampirism, as well as her confusion over loving both brothers. Stefan finds Elena dead, and believes that Damon was the force chasing Elena. They fight, and in the middle of it, Elena awakens, and attacks Stefan— Damon had given Elena more of his blood in the exchange, and, as such, Elena viewed Stefan as a threat to her creator. They stop the fight, Stefan is heart broken, assuming that her attack meant she loved Damon more, and Damon tries to clear everything up.After Elena has fed, Damon hides her in Alaric Saltzman's house.After she has rested she decides to go against Damon's wishes and starts to wander in the woods.She ends up at the church where a memorial is taking place.She decides to wait in the attic of the church for Damon to come and find her.Something begins to dawn on her as she waits in the attic.She can see her friends and family in the church and people are talking about....Her! It's her memorial and the whole town has gathered to remember her.Elena is overwhelmed by sadness and loss because she will never see her friends again.Stephan and Damon are alerted by Elena's distress and rush to her side.Stephan arrives first and when Elena sees him she realizes that she loves Stephan more than Damon.Damon arrives as the service ends and Stephan and Damon are soon bickering.They are interrupted though,by a pack of dogs outside the church which seems to have alarmed everyone.Someone calls the fire brigade and the firefighters spray the dogs with water causing them to scatter.Elena,Stephan and Damon come to the conclusion that the force that made Elena's car drive off the bridge was controlling the dogs.And their suspicions were proved right it turned out that the person responsible for Elena's death and all of the weird events in Fell's Church was-Katherine.Katherine was furious at the two boys for forgetting her and falling in love with Elena.She decided that since they didn't love her anymore that she would capture them and then proceed to torture and kill them.But Elena manages to break free of her bindings and pushes Katherine into a shaft of sunlight upon which Katherine dies.Elena also gets struck by the sun.Stephan pushes her out of the way but it was too late.Elena had been in the sun for too long.She tells Stephan and Damon to look after each other.They promise and Elena,happy that they would cease to fight,closes her eyes and passes away.

[edit] Dark Reunion

This book is told from Bonnie's point of view. The fourth book begins six months after Elena's death, At a surprise birthday party for Meredith, Bonnie and Caroline (along with Vickie and Sue Carson) contact Elena using a Ouija board. Elena warns them there is another evil in town, and that they are all in danger. She tells them they need to summon someone but gets interrupted, presumably by the evil spirit, before telling the girls to run. Before all of the girls can get out of the house, Sue Carson is thrown from the second floor balcony and dies. Vickie goes insane after the ordeal. Following Elena's instructions, Bonnie, Matt and Meredith summon Stefan and Damon back from Italy. They begin investigating the awful events plaguing the town. They discover that Tyler Smallwood, a fellow classmate, is a werewolf and has been in league with Klaus, Katherine's powerful and twisted creator. Klaus then kills Vickie, despite the team's efforts to protect her. In a final showdown, Stefan and Damon fight Klaus, and Matt, Bonnie, and Meredith pitch in to fight Tyler. Bonnie summons Elena's spirit to aid them after Stefan and Damon are badly injured. Elena sets an army of ghosts from the Civil War on Klaus, who is destroyed. Elena is now ready to move on for good, leaving this world and Stefan forever, since Stefan has agreed to remain as he is and keep fighting for goodness. But Elena is returned to him, weak, pale, human, and alive. She and Stefan offer Damon a spot with them among friends, but Damon declines, saying that the shadows are where he belongs.

[edit] The Return: Nightfall

Elena Gilbert is alive—again.

When Elena sacrificed herself to save the two vampire brothers who love her—the handsome, brooding Stefan and the sleek and dangerous Damon—she was consigned to a fate beyond death. Until a powerful supernatural force pulled her back.

Now Elena is not just human. She has powers and gifts that were bestowed on her in the afterlife. What's more, her blood pulses with an overwhelming and unique force that makes her irresistible to any vampire.

Stefan wants to find a way to keep Elena safe so that they can make a life together. Damon, however, is driven by an insatiable desire for power, and wants Elena to rule as his princess. When Stefan is lured away from Fell's Church, Damon seizes his chance to convince her that he is the brother she is meant to be with. . . .

But a darkness is infiltrating the town, and Damon, always the hunter, is now the hunted; he becomes the prey of a malevolent creature that can possess him at will, and who desires not just Elena's blood but her death.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Main characters

• Elena Gilbert There are repeated references as to her looking like an angel. She has blonde hair and midnight blue eyes and is slender and pale. Over the course of the series, Elena transforms from a centered "ice queen" to a more loving, open-minded person; Bonnie has commented in Elena's diary when she died the first time that Elena was far from perfect, and was never an angel, but she was a good person. She breaks up with Matt Honeycutt right around when school starts, feeling he has become more to her than one of her disposable boyfriends; she loves him as a friend or a brother. Elena is madly in love with Stefan Salvatore, though she does recognize that she also has feelings for Damon, his brother. Stefan was the first to breeze by Elena, ignoring her beauty, though he was trying his best to stay away from her, making comparisons between her and Katherine, though he realizes that beneath the looks, they are very different people. Her school reputation is important to her, so she made up a fake boyfriend she had over the summer to hide the fact that Stefan rejected her advances. She dies several times, becoming from human to vampire (after she gets enough blood from both brothers), to spirit (after an unknown power brings her back). In "The Return: Nightfall", she comes back perfectly normal (initially; until the 'Nightfall' was published, L.J. Smith left it at a 'happily ever after' setting) being human, only with her supernatural powers intact, making her blood irresistible to all beings.

• Stefan Salvatore Is portrayed to be very handsome and pale, with wavy black hair, fine-features, and brilliant green eyes. He is not imposingly tall, but he is taller than his brother Damon, though he is the weaker brother, since he chooses not to drink human blood. He lives off of animal blood, which lessens his Powers, such as being able to read and influence minds, and increased speed and strength. He will do anything for Elena. He loves her dearly and doesn't want her to get hurt so he does everything he can to protect Elena, even if it means killing his own brother. Stefan goes through a lot of terrible events and even though he might suffer he never gives up on trying to live a normal life with his beloved Elena.

• Damon Salvatore Events in The Fury and Dark Reunion show that Damon is also capable of fierce loyalty and affection, though he is often misunderstood, which Elena sees. In "The Struggle". He calls himself Damon Smith, attending college on a vacation. Back in the day in Italy, where the brothers come from, he graduated from university. He shows feelings towards Elena and Bonnie both, though Bonnie receives less attention. His 'goodness' is always in question—he is always the one that everyone suspects of doing something—feeding on locals, etc. In "The Fury", Katherine offers to let Damon live, for him to reign the shadows, which both Elena and Stefan thought that he would accept, and didn't blame him, though in the end, he says to her, "Go to hell." Damon doesn't quit until he gets what he wants. Damon never takes danger too seriously and can be very humorous at the darkest times. He has deep feelings for Elena.

• Bonnie McCullough One of Elena's best friends, a bubbly, small girl with brown eyes, a round shaped face, and billowy red hair. She is a witch and a descendant of druids. She always tries to warn Elena, and she always has visions about death and Elena. Bonnie, trying to get a hang of her powers is also trying to hide it from everybody. But nothing stays a secret. She begins to develop feelings for Damon.

• Meredith Sulez Another of Elena's best friends; she is tall with olive skin and dark hair. Meredith is beautiful and some what cautious, never listens to anybody , and is often the voice of reason throughout the series. She falls in love with Alaric and has a long distance relationship with him. Even though it doesn't end well she still tries to hide the fact about what Damon told her and is still scared.

• Matt Honeycutt Elena's perfect ex-boyfriend, a typical All-American high school quarterback with blond hair and blue eyes. While Matt is heartbroken at losing Elena to Stefan, he accepts it. He continues to be very protective of Elena.

• Caroline Forbes A former friend and current rival of Elena's, she is beautiful with green eyes and auburn hair. Caroline is manipulative, vengeful, and desperate for attention from any boy she can find during much of the series. She first steals Elena's diary and planed to read it to the town on Founder's Day, revealing that Stefan was a vampire, though unsuccessful. She had a brief relationship with Tyler Smallwood, working together to plan revenge on Elena and Stefan; she was later kidnapped by Klaus and Tyler, and held hostage, but saved by Stefan and his friends.

• Katherine The young vampire with whom Damon and Stefan both fell in love when they were humans during the Italian Renaissance. Katherine turned the two brothers into vampires before her suicide over the two of them. Katherine supposedly killed herself when she told both brothers that she wanted to be happy with both brothers by going into the sunlight without her lapis lazuli ring, leaving behind a pile of ashes (that were from the kitchen) on one of her dresses. The two brothers fought to the 'death' because of her loss. She physically resembles Elena, which caused Stefan's initial attraction to Elena, though he later realized that Elena was emotionally stronger then Katherine, who was the maiden in distress.

• Alaric The new young History teacher that was in suspicion of being a vampire hunter when he was in fact studying vampires ever since he discovered that they were real. He falls in love with Meredith later on, and has a long distance relationship with her while he goes abroad to further his studies.

• Klaus Is an Old One (one of the original vampires) who fights the Salvatore brothers, in the end losing to the new reborn Elena. He was a mentor to Katherine, whom she thought she had killed.

[edit] Supporting characters

• Judith Gilbert Elena's aunt. She moved in with Margaret right after the death of their parents. She is the sort of woman who always looked vaguely flustered; she had a thin, mild face and light flyaway hair pushed back untidily. She is engaged to, and by the end of the fourth book is married to, Robert, though she briefly broke the engagement after Elena's death, thinking it was the best for Margaret. She is caring and one of the last people Elena talks to before dying the first time.

• Tyler Smallwood A direct descendant of the Smallwoods that were present at the founding of Fells Church. He is also in line with Caroline, by touring Elena and Stefan. In the first book, Tyler took Elena away to the graveyard where she saw his grandfather's grave. Tyler makes an aggressive move for Elena and to Meredith later on in the books. Stefan comes to save her and Tyler has hated the two ever since. He is later revealed to be a werewolf, turned by Klaus after he has had blood from one of Elena's friends after she died; it was dormant until he knew how to activate the werewolf gene.

• Vickie Bennett was at the cemetery with Elena when they left the dance. She had stayed there in the church with Dick. She was attacked and that caused her to go insane and she accused Elena of being part of it. Then she is accused of killing Sue because she relapsed after her death and she was the only one present. When Bonnie and Meredith go to her house, she says that the murderer said she is next. She is left under the protection of Damon by his brother ,Stefan, but is later murdered by Klaus.

• Margaret Gilbert Elena's younger sister.

[edit] Adaptations

In 1996, American Laser Games published a video game adaptation of the novels, also called The Vampire Diaries. The game was developed by Her Interactive, and was presented as a point-and-click adventure game with complex puzzles punctuated by full-motion video scenes.^[3]

On February 6, 2009, Variety announced that The CW Television Network greenlighted the pilot for a television series entitled The Vampire Diaries with Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec set as the writers and executive producers.^[4] On May 19, 2009, the pilot was officially ordered to series for the 2009-2010 season.^[5] The series cuts a few characters (like Ms. Flowers, Meredith, and Margaret Gilbert) and changes the looks of others (Elena is a brunette here). The series also added the character of Jeremy Gilbert, as Elena's brother. Matt Honeycutt is now Vicki Bennett's brother in the series and they have both taken the surname of "Donovan." Filming for the series began in July 2009 in Covington, Georgia. The shots of the high school and football scenes were produced at Walton Career Academy in Monroe, Georgia. The first episode of the series was aired on 10 September 2009.

[edit] External links

• The Vampire Diaries The Official Book Site.

[edit] References