Varney the Vampire, Volume I

by Thomas Peckett Prest

Varney the Vampire; or, the Feast of Blood was a Victorian era serialized gothic horror story by James Malcolm Rymer (alternatively attributed to Thomas Preskett Prest). It first appeared in 1845–47 as a series of cheap pamphlets of the kind then known as "penny dreadfuls".

The story was published in book form in 1847. It is of epic length: the original edition ran to 876 double-columned pages divided into 220 chapters. Altogether it totals nearly 667,000 words.

Despite its inconsistencies, Varney the Vampire is more or less a cohesive whole. It introduced many of the tropes present in vampire fiction recognizable to modern audiences to this day.

Genres: Classics, Horror, Vampires, 19th Century, Pirates, Gothic, Fiction

560 pages, Hardcover

Published April 28, 2009

About the author

Thomas Peckett Prest, also known as Thomas Preskett Prest, was a British hack writer, journalist and musician. He was a prolific producer of penny dreadfuls. He is now remembered as the co-creator with James Malcolm Rymer of the fictional Sweeney Todd, the 'demon barber' immortalized in his The String of Pearls. He has also been associated with the authorship of Varney the Vampire, now more often thought to be the work of Rymer. He wrote under pseudonyms including Bos, a takeoff of Charles Dickens' own pen name, Boz. Before joining Edward Lloyd's publishing factory, Prest had made a name for himself as a talented musician and composer.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was a fool. I thought this would be fun. A trashy Victorian serial appealing to the basest tastes of the barely literate elements of society--what could be more enjoyable than that? Sure, it stretches to more than 1100 pages, but if I digest it a tiny piece at a time--the same way that guy in the urban legend was rumored to have consumed a whole car--it should be relatively pleasant. Besides, it is credited with establishing much vampire lore as well as humanizing the vampire, so it should be both diverting and instructive.

Boy, was I wrong! It begins promisingly enough, with a salacious bloodsucking scene replete with heaving snow-white bosoms and barely repressed sexuality, but it soon begins to bore, principally because . . . its authors were paid by the word.

I know, I know . . . people who hate Dickens are always giving this as a lame excuse for hating Dickens: his infuriating refusal to get to the point, principally motivated-they assert--by monetary considerations. But Dickens uses atmospheric prose poems, entertaining comic characters and thematically illuminating subplots to flesh out his narrative into numbers of suitable length. He turned the serial novel into an art form, transcending and fulfilling its structural requirements much the way Shakespeare did with the sonnet.

Prest or Rhymer--or whatever poorly paid committee collaborated in producing this misshapen leviathan of a book--have neither the skill nor the time to do anything remotely similar. Instead, they indulge in repetitious and redundant descriptions containing neither precision nor poetry, and force their heroes to turn every deliberative conversation into an interminable dialogue containing so much dithering, so much belaboring of the obvious, that we are forced the see almost every character as pompous, ponderous and obtuse.

Varney himself is not without interest, and there are more than a few pages of excitement buried in the dross, but I've finished Part I--over 350 pages--and that's enough. At least for now.

I guess this shouldn't come as surprise to me, considering this is a book about vampires, but the experience of reading Varney was extremely "draining," leaving me enervated, feeling bored and listless for hours.

[Samuel Rippey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highly overwrought, super-Gothic Victorian penny dreadful trash. Depending on your bent, this is either horrible or delightful. I only made it through 800 pages or so -- enough is enough. Best in small doses, as was originally intended.

[Callie · Rating 2 out of 5]

????? no??

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Varney is a three volume penny dreadful that I found a lovely complete wordsworth edition of. It's almost 1200 pages of very tiny Wordswoth print. I wasn't sure if I'd manage all three volumes in one go. But as much as I was enjoying the book after finishing volume 2 I thought I'd take a short break as I was just desperate to read some history and I found that my enjoyment was starting to slip. So I thought I'd write up the first two volumes while I could still remember and will probably go back and read the third volume in a week or two.

Volume I
I started reading this after finishing Bram Stoker and it was SOO nice to read something that had a dramatic plot that just kept building with a strong start. The first chapter saw the heroine attacked by the Vampire in her bedroom. One of the things that really sold me on the book was that the second time the Vampire attacked the young girl the brothers had left her alone with a pair of pistols to protect herself with and when the vampire showed up she shot him and frightened him off. It was quite brilliant and totally the opposite to Lucy in Dracula! With the exception of a few chapters devoted to the setting up of duels. I really enjoyed the first volume. Varney was civilised yet obviously evil and manipulative. He wasn't the charicature I was expecting but much more sly and I really enjoyed him. He had such touching moments of humanity, like when he sat and talked to the girl he attacked and explained that she wouldn't turn into a vampire despite his attack. He was trying to convince her to leave the house and yet he was much kinder than he needed to be for just that.

One of the things that I really liked best in this book so far is Rymer's portrayal of mob mentality. It is really good and in so many ways so much more frightening than the vampires. I love how in a book about Vampires the author can go on about how it is terrible for the people to be so superstitious and commit dreadful acts because they are ignorant and believe in vampires. Even when the threat is real it shows how things can be distorted and fear is played on to cause much more damage than the original threat ever could (link to today's world and terrorism).

[Titus Hjelm]

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.

[Louisa Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

people have said that they have given up because of repetition etc. However, I found the first of this 5 volume series well edited, and did not exhibit any of the complaints from previous additions (in my opinion). it kept me hooked from beginning to end

[nooker · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I understand that he was paid by the word, It really showed. By the time he finished some longwinded description, I often had forgotten and even more often had long lost interest before he got to the point.

[Timothy Morrow · Rating 2 out of 5]

As I strove to inquire and read the foundation of the Vampire Lore, I discovered the Penny Dreadful series called "Varney the Vampire" and decided to take it upon myself to read it. As a synopsis it should be stated that the story is about the Bannerworths family and a vampire named Varney who wishes to be the owner of the estate which the family has possession of. There is plenty of shenanigans that ensues between the romantically inclined characters and of course Varney himself, but you will have to read the book to observe this. This collection of penny dreadful novels was an interesting read for me regarding the evolution of the Vampire lore. Varney as a vampire defined some aspects of Vampirism that was continued on after the publication, such as; fangs and fang marks on the victim's neck, a vampire's thrall, and superhuman strength. One vast difference from Varney and mainstream idea of a vampire is the ability to walk in pure daylight, which Varney has full freedom to do so. I can see that Bram Stoker took large influence from these novels and created what is now classic vampire lore. The story as a whole was alright, but had many obstacles that caused the flow of narrative to be disrupted. Overall I enjoyed learning more about the early stages of the Vampire Genre.

[Ebster Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Hang me,” said the admiral, “if I shan't like the fellow at last. It is cool, and I like it because it is cool.”

Sir Frances Varney is reported to be a Vampyre, but personality-wise he's a Troll. And he's hilarious.

Other than Sir Varney, my favorite character is Admiral Bell. He and Jack start out as the comic relief characters, but actually they're the most hardcore of the whole group.

I'd recommend this one if you like vampire stories and you have a little time on your hands. It's a bit long, and this is only volume 1 of a trilogy. It can get a little drawn out and repetitive, but it wasn't enough for me to loose interest (and that's saying something for me). Overall I thought there was enough variety in the "episodes" to keep them engaging throughout, and a non-vampire related twist at the end that has me curious about volume 2.

[Larissa]

I joined Media Bistro's 2012 Literary Remix Competition to rewrite a page of this book which would then, if I'm selected, be recombined with pages written by other people in other styles. Since there is a free download of the book available via Project Gutenberg, I might as well check out the book in its entirety, just in time for Halloween.

[Summer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh, it's not good, but it's not the worst thing I've ever read. It's pretty obvious that the authors of these 'penny dreadfuls' get paid by the amount of words and not necessarily the content.... so the dialogue is about on par with terrible B-movies... I don't think I want to read the remaining two volumes.

[Kassie Kmitch]

My mom let me read this as a kid because it was an old-timey book, and she assumed it would make me smarter. Wrong, mom. WRONG. I was captivated by the cover and the cover alone. The guy had an exposed rib cage! It does not disappoint.

[Tasha]

Okay, I think I get the general idea. :p