In the middle of the Great Hungarian Plain, there are two graves. Each is covered by a black stone, which carry inscriptions in French. On the larger one: Jean T?n?bre, Chevalier; on the smaller: Ange T?n?bre, Priest. They are the T?n?bre brothers... On many occasions, during the last four hundred years, those graves have opened, to the terror and the horror of the surrounding country... "The brothers T?n?bre are the Eternal Adversaries against which Eternal Champions and Thousand-Faced Heroes are pitched."-Brian Stableford. Paul F?val (1816-1887) was the author of numerous popular swashbuckling novels and one of the fathers of the modern crime thriller. Brian Stableford has published more than fifty novels and two hundred short stories. Knightshade was written in 1860-almost forty years before Bram Stoker's Dracula-and is one of three classic vampire stories also available from Black Coat Press.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
Written in 1860 - almost 40 years before Bram Stoker's Dracula - Knightshade is one of three classic vampire stories (also available from Black Coat Press) penned by Paul Féval, along with Vampire City and The Vampire Countess.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant literary fantasy novel,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: KNIGHTSHADE (Paperback)
Lovers of literary fantasy and crime novels have reason to celibrate. Science fiction novelist/ anthologist/ translator extroadinaire Brian Stableford has just released his seventh in a series of translations of the works of 19th century French crime and fantasy novelist Paul Feval. I had first heard of Feval as a prolific but minor newspaper novelist, or feuilletonist, laboring in the shadows of Dumas, Hugo, and Eugene Sue. I knew he had published a vampire spoof called "Vampire Village" 25-years before the release of Stoker's "Dracula". Being mildly interested in obtaining a modern copy, I ordered several of Stableford's Feval translations in their attractive Black Coat Press paperback editions. I read "Knightshade" first. Stableford's intelligent and intriguing introduction piqued my interest. Several paragraphs into the translation I realized that Feval was no hack writer. The style was highly literate, polished, and replete with aphorisms and witty observations about the society of the day. Soon I was plunged into the mystery of the Tenebre Brothers. Legend had it that their 400-year old graves in the Great Hungarian Plain periodically opened, once again unleashing the scourge of the deathless brigands Jean the ghoul and Ange the vampire (the "Tall One and the Short One") on the unprepared public. The story of the Tenebre brothers, who have emerged from their graves again and have made their way into France, is told to a group of Parisian dilletantes gathered at a charity event in 1822. It turns out later, when the attendees of the soiree discover that their collection of charitable contributions has been stolen, that the person recounting the story to them was very likely the ghoul Jean Tenebre himself! The novel progresses through a nightmare sequence of abductions of maidens from fuedal castles, larcenies, assasination attempts, attempted executions of the brothers in back country villages, and a gripping phantasmagorical flight across the Great Hungarian Plain to the very graves of the Tenebre brothers. At various times the reader is convinced that the Tenebre brothers do indeed exist as immortal monsters of evil - or perhaps are they merely a pair of infernally clever English con men? Or, as Brian Stableford suggests, are they living incarnations of the universal sins of lust and greed? Are they simultaneously all three? Paul Feval carries the story along at a breakneck pace, enrapturing the reader while at the same time laughing with and at us. I have read only one book reminiscent of "Knightshade" - Jan Potocki's 1805 fantasy/gothic masterpiece "The Saragossa Manuscript". I heartily recommend this book to lovers of literary fantasy. Try it - I believe you will be richly rewarded, as I was.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Prepare to be charmed,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: KNIGHTSHADE (Paperback)
When I read a review that compared Knightshade to Manuscript Found in Saragossa, I just had to buy Knightshade. It did not disappoint.This short novel begins at a charitable-benefit party held by the Archbishop of Paris and attended by the cream of society. At twilight, between a delicious dinner and a fine concert, the guests sit on the lawn and tell each other stories of ghosts, the fantastic, and colorful brigands. The stories that actually appear in this novel are told by a Baron von Altenheimer, together with his brother the Bishop of Hermopolis. The Baron is tall and slender; his brother, short and a little effeminate. The Baron's story concerns the two brothers Ténèbre, an oupire and a vampire (a slight distinction is made), who dwell in two graves in Hungary--part of the time. The rest of the time they travel about Europe under a variety of elaborate concocted identities and wearing costumes, carrying out bold and highly lucrative swindles against the aristocracy. Jean Ténèbre is tall and slender; Ange Ténèbre is short and a little effeminate . . . The reader will associate the tellers of the tales with their subjects well before the guests at the benefit--where, of course, considerable fine jewelry is worn, and large sums are contributed to the Archbishop's charity. It is easy to see what will happen there . . . but then some of the guests decide to bring the elusive brothers to justice. I have also read some of Brian Stableford's other French-to-English translations. He is a very fine translator, preserving all the 19th-century flavor of works without their being in the least awkward. This book also contains an extremely informative introduction, afterword, and footnotes. Taken together, they inform you thoroughly and entertainingly about Paul Féval's career, this novel's place in the history of French literature and fantastic literature, the symbolism of the novel, and the places and people mentioned (where Stableford carefully distinguishes between real and fictional references in Féval's text). I have, by the way, conceived an idea that Féval originally planned the chapters (which were first serialized in a periodical) to include stories told by both brothers. The brothers carried out all their exploits together. However, judging from a conversation late in the book, Jean Ténèbre preferred to carry out thefts, Ange Ténèbre preferred to carry off pretty young women, and so each humored the other to some extent. Here we have only the stories told by the "shady knight," Jean Ténèbre. If so, it's a pity that Féval cut his series short--or had it cut short by an editor--before getting around to having Ange Ténèbre narrate.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great example of the Galland/Feval's formula,
By Leandro (Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, AR) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: KNIGHTSHADE (Paperback)
With a simple language Feval introduces us in a world where things not always are what they seem to be. Where fiction or fantasy merges with dairy and worldly aspects of life. The reader is sucked into the book like if he was one of the guests to the party held at Conflans Castle where the intrigue, the comedy and things totally out of mind can happen.
An entertainment riding about brigands and oupires.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
