An Absolute Gentleman
Ladies, he's the perfect man: charming, irresistible, always a master of fashion, and never its slave. He's polite, he's discerning; his interests revolve around yours. He's protective, but with good reason; he's passionate, but can show constraint. And he's old fashioned when it comes to love - sex is definitely only for marriage.
And did I mention he's drop-dead gorgeous? Well, more un-dead gorgeous, for the perfect fellah just happens to be a vampire.
For the uninitiated, I refer to one Edward Cullen, the hero of the ridiculously popular Twilight saga by Stephanie Meyer. Never heard of him? Then just mention his name to a passing 14-year-old girl, and watch her eyes go all misty.
In the series, Isabella Swan, whose parents have separated, moves to live with her Chief of Police father in rainy Washington State. The bad weather is ideal for a local 'coven' of vegetarian vampires - they only drink animal blood, not human - who can't come out in bright daylight.
In a twist that allows for a high school romance these vampires aren't destroyed by direct sunlight, but it transforms their skin in a way that alerts people to their true identity. And so Edward, a 70-year-old 17-year-old, locks eyes with Isabella across a school canteen, and fate takes its course.
Meyer, formerly an English teacher, is to be applauded for tapping so well into the imaginations and longings of her teen audience. This is a 'classic' romance that name checks all the favourites and borrows elements from them: the forbidden love of Romeo and Juliet, the supernatural bond between Cathy and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, and the girl marrying above her station in Pride and Prejudice. And, surely partly to do with Meyers's Mormon background, its deliberately chaste. Edward wants to wait because he's from a different era but also because something's are just worth waiting for.
It's an interesting twist; sex and vampires have always gone hand in hand - the aristocrat 'preying' on the young virgins of the rural village, but in an era of instant gratification, Edward is all about restraint. One of the reasons he's attracted to Bella is because her blood 'sings' to him - it's intoxicating, but he constantly fights his feral instinct because of his devotion to her.
It's a positive message that teenage women in their droves clearly love, and that means it's not just the ladies who should be paying attention to Edward.
So here's to welcoming the gentleman back to society. Now where I did put that cravat?
Jason Gardner
Links
Visit the official Twilight movie site here
You can watch an interview with Twilight author, Stephanie Meyer here
For a consideration of the appeal of vampires in popular culture, including the possibility that it indicates a hunger for mystery and awe, click here
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