Varney the Vampire, or the Feast of Blood [Paperback]

James Malcolm Rymer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 22, 1973

He's Baaaaack~~~~ after 100 years of neglect, the potboiler Penny Dreadful Varney The Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood returns in this innovative critical edition to entertain a whole new generation of readers. Sold for a penny a chapter on the streets of London in 1845, Varney the Vampire is a milestone of Vampire fiction, yet ignored and overlooked for nearly 100 years, until now! The Critical Edition of Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood includes: · A critical introduction about the Penny Dreadful Press and the lore of the Mid 19th Century Vampire · Over 200 notes explaining references, historical information, and corrections to the text · A variety of 19th century essays explaining the horrors and dangers of (gasp!) reading Penny Dreadfuls · Contemporary critical essays on James Malcolm Rymer and his most famous Penny Dreadfuls: Varney the Vampire and Sweeney Todd · Four additional early Penny Dreadfuls detailing insanity, family cannibalism, torture gone wrong, and other bed time stories · A reader's guide · Reproductions of the original woodcut illustrations

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 901 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications Inc. (January 22, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486228444
• ISBN-13: 978-0486228440
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,158,122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Quintessential Volume/ The Absolute FIRST in Vampire Lore, November 8, 2007

By 

MJames - See all my reviews

This review is from: Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood (Paperback)

It's about time the truth be known! This is where it all started.

"Varney the Vampyre; or The Feast of Blood" is finally getting its deserve as the great grandfather of all Vampire literature. If not for this tome -- an original Penny Dreadful which was read voraciously by the up and coming readers of the Victorian age of England, paper-littering the streets of London for decades in the 1800's -- Stoker's Dracula, nor ANY subsequent rendition of the legendary horror tale of the Vampire would never have been written or read today.

It bears beyond nostalgia; it is an almanac devoted to not only the mystery of the vampire mystique, but also defines the true, sad psychological quest of this tale's protagonist, Francis Varney, in his search for oneness with the human world while battling his primordial need to kill and drink blood in order to live.

Curt Herr's efforts in bringing "back from the dead" this amazing piece of fiction is a gift for all fans of vampirism and horror literature. It is evident by its enormous -- (and seemingly exhausting, but worth every "penny" word) length -- that the groundwork for our favorite monster had its beginnings through the diligent and noteworthy, yet unbeknownst and forgotten imagination of James Malcolm Rymer, a struggling writer of the age and the original author of this masterpiece.

The work not only reproduces Varney the Vampyre in its entirety -- a painstaking venture considering that the history and archives of the Penny publications is all but lost -- but also includes illustrations of the actual "woodcut" covers of these "rags", and bountiful appendixes of other Penny Dreadfuls from the time period when Penny publications were at their zenith among the reading working classes of Victorian England.

A beautiful and large coffee-table-worthy book that will definitely catch any eye and reveal the hidden truth about VAMPIRES!

This work is a fascinating history of vampiric literature, from whence all others came; and the Penny Dreadful phenomena, enhanced in content by Herr's notes, makes it a true resurrection of one of Western literature's lost gems.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent edition of the most famous Penny Dreadful ever!, November 7, 2007

By 

Ibsen Freak "GothGuy" (PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood (Paperback)

This is an excellent edition of the first Vampire novel ever written in english- Sold by the chapter like a printed soap opera, Varney's tale sold for over two years making it the most famous and talked about Penny Dreadful on the 1840's. This edition is really important for Vampire fans because it explains a lot of Vampires beginnings Pre-Dracula.It is a blast to read and Varney is a much more psychologically developed Vampire than Stoker's Dracula (which was written about 50 years after Varney). It's a BIG book and worth every penny! There are super interesting footnotes linking Varney to all sorts of contemporary issues like Buffy, Angela Carter, Poppy Z. Brite etc. The appendix is filled with interested information about penny dreadfuls- Really cool. Totally worthwhile and belongs on every Vampire lovers bookshelf. Remember, This is a PENNY DREADFUL. It's important to understand the genre- it was never written to be read like a book. It was written to give the Victorian working-class shocks and thrills- which it delivers in abundance! Read it- you'll fall in love with Varney!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Respect For The Originator, April 6, 2008

By 

J. McHenry "Lit Nerd" (Detroit, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood (Paperback)

Ignore all the talk about Dracula in other reviews, that book and this one are two uniquely different entities. Legends about vampires existed outside of Transylvania, and even Europe for that matter, long before the Victorians tightened their first bodice. My impression of this book is that the writing is closer to Robert E. Howard in its great forward momentum; another apt comparison might be to the movie serials of the '30s-'50s. Thrills and more thrills! The style may be a little underwhelming, but if you can read Ann Radcliffe you can certainly read this. And incidentally, I think the ungrammatical and linguistically oafish reviews for this book are very appropriate for a book written at top speed and with little editorial supervision. Take a trip back in time to a very different world - read this book!