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Edward Cullen Edward Cullen would make any guy want to be a vampire – and any girl want to date one! The teenage vampire from Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books is eternally gorgeous, physically powerful and absolutely irresistible!
 Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) in the 2008 Twilight movie
I’ll admit it, I’ve always had a thing for vampires. One of my other dream boys is the sensitive soulful vampire Louis from The Vampire Chronicles
by Anne Rice. There’s just something so alluring about those pale
immortal creatures, especially when they have a heart, beating or
otherwise.
Both Louis and Edward are deeply compassionate
creatures. They are so tortured by their desire to take human life in
order to satisfy their appetite that they survive on animal blood
instead. Louis soon returns to the murderous ways of his kind but Edward does
not.
On a diet
 Edward Cullen is the main vampire character in the Twilight series and the boyfriend of its main (human) character, Bella Swan. He lives with the Cullens (right: as portrayed in the 2008 movie Twilight), a family of vampires in the cloudy town of Forks,
Washington. The family are not related in the traditional sense but are
united by their oath to abstain from drinking human blood. The Cullens are almost
the only ones among their kind who have chosen such a path and it’s not
easy.
The
smell of human blood is powerfully appealing to all vampires and it
takes a tremendous effort to resist it, something some of the Cullens
manage better than others. The family’s father figure, Dr Cullen,
is the most disciplined of them all. He trained himself to become
immune to the smell of human blood so he could work as a doctor and use
his heightened vampire senses to save, rather than to take, human life.
It was while practicing his profession that Dr Cullen came upon Edward
for the first time
almost 100 years ago.
Birth and rebirth
Edward Cullen was born on 20 June 1901,
the only son of his beloved mother, who died in the Spanish influenza
epidemic in Chicago, Illinois, while in Dr Cullen’s care. Her 17-year-old
son was suffering from the same ailment and she knew he would soon
follow her into death. So she begged Dr Cullen to save him - at any cost.
That night Dr Cullen injected Edward with his venom, causing him to go through the painful transformation
from a human to a vampire, and so prolonged his life indefinitely. For
the first phase of his new life, Edward remained in the care of Dr Cullen
following his strict non-human diet. But then he entered a rebellious
phase and went his own way.
Some vampires have a special sixth sense,
an extraordinary power beyond what is common among humans. And Edward
is one of them. When he awoke in his immortal state, he had the ability
to hear the thoughts of those around him. When he left Dr Cullen, he used this gift to select his human prey.
Edward
would listen in on the thoughts of people and select only victims who
were evil and corrupt. For instance he would follow a murderer
intent on taking the life of an innocent and kill him before he had the
chance to carry out his intended crime. However, after some time,
Edward gave up this path and return to Dr Cullen, re-adopting his peaceful ways.
Although Edward and their family stand out in society, they do their best to blend in.
They appear human of course but are all insanely beautiful and
unbelievably strong, almost invincible. Their skin is pale and cold to
the touch and their bodies are as hard as steel. They can move with
extraordinary speed and pick up the scent of other creatures, human or
otherwise. But they manage to hide their differences enough to lead
normal lives.
In love
 When
we first meet Edward Cullen, in the first Twilight novel,
he is a pupil at Forks high school. Bella Swan sees him for the first
time sitting in the school cafeteria with his Cullen siblings. We later
find out
that when he sees – or rather smells – her,
he is so overwhelmed by his
need for her that he has to struggle to resist leaping across the
cafeteria and drinking her blood.
Edward finds out that Bella is, inexplicably, the one
person in the world whose thoughts he can’t read. He wants her more than anything in the world and happily, she feels equally drawn to
him. Edward soon manages to control his craving for her blood and
eventually, the two fall deeply in love.
Edward is fiercely protective of Bella and is deeply conflicted
by their relationship. Although he finds it almost impossible to resist
being with her, he sees himself as a negative force in her life. He is
distressed when she first tells him she wants to become a vampire
because he believes that
when she stops being human, she will lose her soul. Edward is so in
love with Bella that he would rather be dead than live in a world
without her.
More to come
Edward Cullen might only have eyes for Bella but ever since Stephenie Meyer brought him into the world, millions of fans have fallen in love with him. The Twilight series has come to a close but Meyer is working on a companion novel called Midnight Sun, which will retell the story from Edward’s perspective.
 Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart portray Edward Cullen and Bella Swan in the Twilight movies
Robert Pattinson gives a dazzling performance as Edward Cullen in the first Twilight movie. And with
three more Twilight movies on the cards, there’s plenty more Edward to look forward to on the big screen.
Read a chapter-by-chapter summary of Twilight;
Part One of the Twilight summary (Chapters 1 - 12)
Part Two of the Twilight book summary (Chapters 13 - Epilogue)
RETURN HOME from Edward Cullen to read more about the top 100 fantasy
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