The Hotel Child by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1931)

"The Hotel Child" (1931) is one of my favorite Fitzgerald short stories.

In this story, a young, wealthy, but naive American girl, Fifi Schwartz, is living among sophisticated, yet moneyless Europeans. One European, Count Borowki, is dazzling her with his title and pressuring her to marry him, obviously just for her money. (Doesn't Borowki remind you of borrow, like he might need money?) This is a "vampiric" relationship as discussed by Thomas C. Foster. An older, sophisticated, yet outworn individual is selfishly exploiting a younger, energetic, yet naive individual, for personal gain with no regard to whatever harm he may cause.

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) is one literal example of vampirism, but Henry James' Daisy Miller (1878) is another, more figurative, example, and "The Hotel Child" is somewhere in between. These are intertextual variations of the same story.

Vampirism actually exists everywhere today in many forms: abusive relationships, political and industrial exploitation, drug dealing, confidence scams, dictatorships--any case where someone is exploiting someone else, unfairly taking their money, resources, or labor; destroying their property, air, health, or quality of life...

"The Hotel Child" at least has an optimistic ending. Fifi figures out the scam before it's too late.

Some day this story may be retold with a young naive Asian and an old outworn American. Wouldn't that be ironic? The story of human experience continues...

Reference:
"The Hotel Child". Short Stories, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ed. Steve Thomas. eBooks@Adelaide. 2009. web 2011.
Thomas C. Foster. How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Harper. 2003.