Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood, Book Three: The Coming of the Second Vampyre

by James Malcolm Rymer

It's been more than a hundred and fifty years since Varney, the Vampyre was available in a popular edition. Here he is in all his glory -- Varney, the seminal Vampyre, great-grandfather to Dracula and all his ilk. Book Three: The Coming of the Second Vampyre.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

316 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2000

About the author

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 as a civil engineer, living at 42 Burton Street, and the British Museum catalogue mentions him in 1842 as editing the Queen's Magazine. Between 1842 to the 1867 he wrote up to 115 popular novels for the English bookseller and publisher, Edward Lloyd, including the best-sellers Ada the Betrayed, Varney the Vampyre and The String of Pearls. Rymer's novels appeared in England under his own name as well as anagrammatic pseudonyms such as Malcolm J. Errym and Malcolm J. Merry.

He died on 11 August 1884 and is buried in Kensal Green cemetery, west London.

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vol. 3
Started like Vanity Fair it was all about another woman trying to marry her daughter off, this time to a retired indian general. It wasn't at all gothic till her solicitor read a grim (and really great) story about a young girl about to be married to a vampire who turned into a skeleton at the altar and then it turned out (what a shock!) that the general was actually Varney. The first part of volume 3 did get a bit repatitive and almost a bit dull with Varney showing up different places, trying to get married, getting discovered and then having to flee and start again. The tale of him in Bath I think was my favourite of these. Partly because it was in Bath and partly because it had a gruemsome murder. He then went to Europe and had a series of shorter and less successful engagements. But the book really got back in stride when he returned to England.

It was like the repeated short stories were there to show how repeetitious and hideous his life had become. And how he tried to kill himself. When that failed he decided to become truly evil but that didn't work either. I did love the scenes in Hampstead where the group of vampires brought back to life one of their own. That was brilliant. As were all the scenes with the female Vampire brought back to life. I think those were some of my favourite in the entire book so I'm very glad I stuck with it all the way to the end. The very end where he "revealed" his life was very odd as it seemed to contradict everything that was set up in the first two volumes. But still overall I did really like the third volume. I'm really glad I read this story. I think taking into account all three volumes Varney is my second favourite vampire story of all time (second to Carmilla). I am definitely going to read more penny dreadfuls and more stories by Rymer! Victorian horror melodrama is my new love!

[Mary Knuckles · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story started out well (most of volume 1). I really liked the Bannerworth family, and the other people who became connected with them. However, after a time, the story became rather tedious. I have to be honest, after Varney ran away from Anderbury on the Mount, I skimmed over the next chapters to see if the Bannerworths were going to show up again, and found that Admiral Bell showed up once, and that was it. They completely disappeared from the storyline. The rest of the volume was predictable and the same subplots were recycled over and over. I honestly got bored with the story and read the last ten chapters to see what was the final fate of Varney. I was so relieved when I had finally finished the story, and glad to see that Varney had finally died.

I understand the concept of Penny Dreadfuls, and that the author was paid per line or chapter, so to speak. I don't blame him for wanting to drag out the storyline as long as possible, so as to be able to receive a steady income. However, the second half of the story (the last one hundred chapters really) was unnecessary. If someone were to take the basic plotline of all three volumes, take out the unnecessary subplots, and focus on Varney and the Bannerworths, plus make it as contiguous as possible, this would be a great story.

If a person has the patience to read all 236 chapters, that is fine. I liked the first half, but when most of the main characters disappear without a trace, then you question what the author was thinking. Again, if there is a cleaned-up, abridged version, I would gladly pick that up to read.

[Tracie Janette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Varney the Vampire is over 220 chapters and is a piece of history. Before tv and melodramas apparently people entertained themselves with "penny dreadfuls" which were weekly published pamphlets of a story. This story appears to have gone on for four years. It is interesting for it's delivery mode and well written by today's standards (though that isn't a very high bar to exceed). I liked reading a story the pre-dated Stoker's Dracula and seeing how much Stoker borrowed from this tale. The story itself develops the main characters and engages the reader with Varney's struggles. I found myself hoping Varney (though a villian) would find some satisfaction. Despite the incredible length of the story, the narrative ends abruptly and was not very satisfying, but it does tie up loose ends.

[Mary · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is terrible. I only read it for it's historical value as one of the first Victorian pulp novels, but there is a reason you haven't heard of it. Don't bother with this one.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

over it...goes way off, and they lost me

[James Redwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Varney the Vampire is high Victorian penny dreadful camp!