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22nd out of 71 books
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Varney the Vampire; Or, the Feast of Blood
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, u...more
Paperback, 812 pages
Published
October 31st 2007
by Zittaw Press
(first published 1847)
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I read this potboiler, in this edition, when I was an undergraduate (a very, very long time ago), and have always had a yen to revisit it. I was pleasantly surprised, and very amused. This facsimile reprint gives ample evidence of how little care was bestowed on the physical production of the novel - it's the 1847 full-length edition that's reproduced, and it's just chock-a-block with bad chapter numbering and pagination, not to mention chunks of type being banged out of alignment or knocked out...more
I read a free download, and only because I'd heard it was perhaps the first genuine vampire novel, from the early 19th century. Nobody even seems to be sure who actually wrote it (in those magazine-serialized "penny dreadful" days of pay-by the-word). OK, it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. But if you can download it for free, dip into it now and then, giggle and put it away again. It's, well...friendly. I mean, the vampire isn't a wholly bad guy, the "rational" debun...more
More than a little long and I can see why some folks didn't persevere..it's a lenghty tome and maybe due to it's serial type status is repetitive to circumstance and dialogue throughout...not to mention diversions and tales that really have nothing to do with the actual story.
That said there is also much to commend it..as a work it does have some humour and is acknowledged as presenting certain aspects to the whole Vampire mythos (Dracula included).
It really gathers pace about half w...more
That said there is also much to commend it..as a work it does have some humour and is acknowledged as presenting certain aspects to the whole Vampire mythos (Dracula included).
It really gathers pace about half w...more
i finally finished this book after many weeks and a nice overdue charge at the library... my quest to read the classic vampire novels that started it all is one book closer. it was a strange vampire story, but mostly very very wordy. 3 pages to describe how he ran across a field and many little tangent stories intertwined, but off the plot. i'm not sure how people back in the day talked like this, let alone read like this. i'd get tired of hearing myself. i will however check out the remaining b...more
Christopher F.
added it
The bad news is that the Project Gutenberg free ebook version of this I read had only 96 out of 110 or so chapters, so I still don't know how it ends, darnit. The good news is: despite being a "penny dreadful" it holds up extremely well against Bram Stoker's Dracula. It's too long by far, and the dialogue is hilariously stilted, but the latter is also true of Dracula, and Varney is smarter in a lot of ways, including excellent scenes of an angry mob becoming convinced that every neig...more
R.
marked it as to-read
Var-neeey, Varney Vampire; King of the Wild Frontierrrr...
I feel weird giving it 4 stars... but I loved the rollicking pace and the authors occasional "asides" - meaning, the little stories thrown in for no reason. But it was a mix of scary and funny, the ridiculous, the sublime. You have to be patient with it and remember you are reading a penny dreadful - this isn't Shakespeare or Bram Stroker, for that matter. It's all about sensationalism. The ending upset me... but I won't ruin it for you.
Heather
is currently reading it
I have to say that this book is interesting. This dates before Dracula. I stumbled upon it by accident and since it was a free kindle download I couldn't pass it up. This was written in the 1800s in weekly chapters. "It sold for a penny a chapter on the streets of London in 1845." The language is pretty amazing to follow.
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The previous review pretty much said it all, but this is still required reading for any proper vampire buff. 'Varney' is often mentioned in books about vampires, but few people seem to have actually read it. I mean, although sometimes 'evil', he is the original suffering vampire, way before Barnabas Collins or Rice's Louis.
Before Dracula, before Carmilla, before Twilight (shudder) came Varney. Easily one of the greatest unknown vampire novels out there. It actually beats out most all of the well known vampire novels too. Added with being a Penny Dreadful, this is novel is filled with plenty of vampire action and a long time-spanning narrative.
I tried getting through Varney the Vampire, and just couldn't do it. Sometimes, I just don't get why classics are considered classics. I was so bored, and started skimming, and then was still too bored to keep reading. But I tried. That counts for something, right?
João
is currently reading it
A unique perspective on the final quarter of the british countryside on the 17th century. Quite picturesque, despite the gloomy presence of the ever-mighty Sir Francis Varney.
I just can't. Honestly, despite getting it free (not even for a penny! how dreadful!), I can't slog my way through this one.
Jim
marked it as to-read
If I can ever find the dang thing without paying through the nose I WANT it.
Harbowoputra
is currently reading it
No glitters! Yay \^_^/
Soooo fabulously trashy. Rivals "Twilight" in number of swoons per chapter and rigid adherence to 19th-century gender roles, but this has better spelling.
Jay
added it
didn't read this particular edition, the 3 volume arno press facsimile edition with all the illustrations and two columns of text, it is an epic work and reading all of it is the best way i say, sir francis varney is a very intriguing fellow that feels bad for what he does, but he does it anyway, he tries not to sometimes but it was entertaining and you can see the connections between this and its more famous counterpart, Dracula
Love the style of writing. Didn't finish.
Svanir
marked it as to-read
Bonna Hardy
marked it as to-read
Minnie
marked it as to-read
Miguel Poeira
marked it as to-read
Geraldine O'Hagan
is currently reading it
Abhishek
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James Malcolm Rymer was a British nineteenth century writer of penny dreadfuls, and is the probable author of Varney the Vampire, often attributed to fellow writer Thomas Peckett Prest, and co-author (with Prest) of The String of Pearls, in which the notorious villain Sweeney Todd makes his literary debut.
Information about Rymer is sketchy. In the London Directory for 1841 he is listed...more
More about James Malcolm Rymer...
Information about Rymer is sketchy. In the London Directory for 1841 he is listed...more
