THE VAMPIRE COUNTESS [Paperback]

Brian Stableford (Adapter), Paul Feval (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2003

In vita mors, in morte vita! In life, death; in death, life! The particular gift of Countess Addhema was to be reborn beautiful and young every time she could apply to the hideous bareness of her skull a living head of hair, a scalp, torn from the head of a living victim. This was why her tomb was full of the skulls of young women... Ren? recoiled in horror at the sight of his mistress restored to her real condition: the cadaver of an old woman, fleshless, cold, totally bald and already turning to dust... "After 1856, it would be a long time before any other writer contrived a vampire as perversely charismatic as Addhema; she is really three vampires in one. She is, first and foremost, the vampire-as-libido-run-wild, but she is certainly the vampire-as-gold-digger too, and she may well have something of the vampire-as-muse to complete her mystique."-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. The Vampire Countess was written in 1855-forty years before Bram Stoker's Dracula-and is one of three classic vampire stories also available from Black Coat Press.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Written in 1856 - over 40 years before Bram Stoker's Dracula - The Vampire Countess is one of three classic vampire stories penned by Paul Féval, along with Knightshade and Vampire City.

From the Author

"After 1856, it would be a long time before any other writer contrived a vampire as perversely charismatic as Countess Addhema; she is really three vampires in one. She is, first and foremost, the vampire-as-libido-run-wild, but she is certainly the vampire-as-gold-digger too, and she may well have something of the vampire-as-muse to complete her mystique," writes Brian Stableford.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Hollywood Comics (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974071153
• ISBN-13: 978-0974071152
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 4.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,064,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful monster - or is she?, October 15, 2006

By 

Gregg Zimmerman - See all my reviews
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This review is from: THE VAMPIRE COUNTESS (Paperback)

The Vampire Countess is another masterpiece of posthumous collaboration between 19th century fantasy and crime novelist Paul Feval and translator/adaptor Brian Stableford.

Paul Feval was a competitor of other mid-19th century French novelists such as Alexander Dumas and Eugene Sue who published their works in newspapers and journals. Unlike these contempory literary luminaries, Paul Feval has not gotten his due in terms of modern readership and recognition. That is beginning to change with the release by Black Coat Press of Stableford's translations of a number of Feval's fantasy and crime novels.

The Vampire Countess tells the strange story of a Hungarian Countess who takes up lodgings in Paris in the company of a secret society of operatives who appear to be scheming to perpetrate either large scale crimes, or to foment political unrest, perhaps both. The Countess, of a personal beauty almost intoxicating, appears to have another even more troubling secret. She may be a centuries-old vampire, or ogre-like creature, who must periodically restore her youth by killing beautiful children and grafting their removed scalps to her own head. And so she is (or rather appears to be) involved in several levels of nefarious activity: criminal, political, and supernatural, in a complex web of Machiavellian schemes of which no one, even her allies, is fully cognizant. One of the protagonists develops a love interest in the Countess (at his own risk!), and another seeks to resolve the disappearance of a child and will stop at nothing until the mystery is resolved.

And so the reader is launched on an exotic (and at times erotic) journey through early 19th century Paris and its environs in a rapidly moving page-turner that involves multiple intrigues: how will the love interest be resolved, will the child be rescued, will the fragile political establishment explode, and most compelling of all, what is the true nature of Countess Adhema - victim of unfortunately selected associates, scheming criminal, or monstrous revenant from beyond the grave? Paul Feval laughs with us and sometimes at us as we make this intoxicating journey, and he never tells us the answers beyond the shadow of a doubt. But for me the erotic, hallucinogenic, rapturous scene near the end when the Countess encounters her true love within an ancient deteriorating castle in Hungary tips the balance of conflicting evidence and solves the mysteries to my own satisfaction. Other readers may not be so sure . . . A great read!