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La Ville-Vampire
To save her friends from the dreaded vampire lord Otto Goetzi, gothic author Ann Radcliffe and her fearless vampire hunting companions, Merry Bones the Irishman, Grey Jack the faithful old servant, the revenge-driven Doctor Magnus Szegeli, and Polly Bird, one of the vampire's earlier victims, launch an all-out attack on Selene, the Vampire City...
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1867
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About the author
Paul Féval père
499 books40 followersFor works by this author's son, please see: Paul Féval fils.
Paul Henri Corentin Féval, père, (1816-1887) was the author of popular swashbucklers, such as Le Loup Blanc (1843) and the perennial best seller Le Bossu (1857). He also penned the seminal Knightshade, The Vampire Countess and Vampire City. His greatest claim to fame was as one of the fathers of the modern crime thriller. Because of its themes and characters, his novel Jean Diable (1862) can claim to be the world's first modern detective novel. His masterpiece was Les Habits Noirs (1863-75), a criminal saga written over a twelve year period comprised of seven novels. After losing his fortune in a financial scandal, Féval became a born again Christian, stopped writing crime thrillers, and began to write religious novels, sadly leaving the tale of the Black Coats uncompleted.
Paul Henri Corentin Féval, père, (1816-1887) was the author of popular swashbucklers, such as Le Loup Blanc (1843) and the perennial best seller Le Bossu (1857). He also penned the seminal Knightshade, The Vampire Countess and Vampire City. His greatest claim to fame was as one of the fathers of the modern crime thriller. Because of its themes and characters, his novel Jean Diable (1862) can claim to be the world's first modern detective novel. His masterpiece was Les Habits Noirs (1863-75), a criminal saga written over a twelve year period comprised of seven novels. After losing his fortune in a financial scandal, Féval became a born again Christian, stopped writing crime thrillers, and began to write religious novels, sadly leaving the tale of the Black Coats uncompleted.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
April 4, 2021
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies wasn’t the first book to remix classic literature with horror. Way back in 1867 came this totally bonkers French novel which imagines Ann Radcliffe as a vampire hunter. The young novelist, along with several ragtag companions, scout across Europe to root out blood suckers and save Ann’s sister before the upcoming double wedding. Along the way, Radcliffe’s macabre adventures inspire her to write her masterpiece, The Mysteries of Udolpho.
If the plot sounds ridiculous, it’s supposed to be. Féval, who was quite popular in his day, tells his tale with all the self-aware hilarity one might expect from a skilled satirist. The tone is meant to be zany, and zany it is. I wouldn’t call it a fine novel by any stretch of the imagination. That said, according to Goodreads, I highlighted over 200 sentences. It’s rare for a book to have me so glued that I’m highlighting on every page.
Much of my scrutinized reading focuses on Féval’s “rules” for vampires. Published a full 30 years before Dracula, this novel offers a unique glimpse into what someone might believe vampires were capable of before Bram Stoker changed everything. Here vampires do all kinds of crazy things, including go out in the daylight, glow green constantly, shapeshift, body snatch, pluck hair, and live in their very own city. About the only recognizable thing they do is drink blood and detest religious symbols.
I’m sure some of these “rules” are the creative imaginings of a spoof writer, but the scholarly afterward points out that vampires were little more than a vague idea before Stoker. There were some common beliefs about them, and some of those are indeed in this book, but without real life experiences and no masterpiece like Dracula to inform the public, anything was possible.
Also of interest is the presence of Ann Radcliffe. I’m a Radcliffe super fan, so of course it’s interesting when she becomes fictionalized and battles vampires. There’s a lot of fun lines where Féval talks about Sir Walter Scott’s relentless praise of her writing, and how her genius is so mystifying that it boggles the mind. The justification of Vampire City seems to be that no ordinary person could write something as brilliant as Udolpho without supernatural experiences.
Given how little attention The Mysteries of Udolpho receives today, it’s nice to read a French novel, published some 70 years after Udolpho, that is still as enamored by Radcliffe as were frenzied readers back in the 1790s. A lot of the Radcliffe jokes even assume the reader is fully aware of everything about her, including her biography, which shows just how much staying power her literary output had.
As for my recommendation, I think it’s fair to say that only hardcore vampire nerds, Gothic literature scholars, and Ann Radcliffe superfans will enjoy this. The translation is brilliant and the thrills are admittedly plentiful, but the off-the-wall story is likely too bizarre for anyone who isn’t able to laugh at the Radcliffe jokes scattered throughout. If you are one of those people, however, the experience is a wild ride that you will enjoy immensely. Keep the highlighter handy!
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If the plot sounds ridiculous, it’s supposed to be. Féval, who was quite popular in his day, tells his tale with all the self-aware hilarity one might expect from a skilled satirist. The tone is meant to be zany, and zany it is. I wouldn’t call it a fine novel by any stretch of the imagination. That said, according to Goodreads, I highlighted over 200 sentences. It’s rare for a book to have me so glued that I’m highlighting on every page.
Much of my scrutinized reading focuses on Féval’s “rules” for vampires. Published a full 30 years before Dracula, this novel offers a unique glimpse into what someone might believe vampires were capable of before Bram Stoker changed everything. Here vampires do all kinds of crazy things, including go out in the daylight, glow green constantly, shapeshift, body snatch, pluck hair, and live in their very own city. About the only recognizable thing they do is drink blood and detest religious symbols.
I’m sure some of these “rules” are the creative imaginings of a spoof writer, but the scholarly afterward points out that vampires were little more than a vague idea before Stoker. There were some common beliefs about them, and some of those are indeed in this book, but without real life experiences and no masterpiece like Dracula to inform the public, anything was possible.
Also of interest is the presence of Ann Radcliffe. I’m a Radcliffe super fan, so of course it’s interesting when she becomes fictionalized and battles vampires. There’s a lot of fun lines where Féval talks about Sir Walter Scott’s relentless praise of her writing, and how her genius is so mystifying that it boggles the mind. The justification of Vampire City seems to be that no ordinary person could write something as brilliant as Udolpho without supernatural experiences.
Given how little attention The Mysteries of Udolpho receives today, it’s nice to read a French novel, published some 70 years after Udolpho, that is still as enamored by Radcliffe as were frenzied readers back in the 1790s. A lot of the Radcliffe jokes even assume the reader is fully aware of everything about her, including her biography, which shows just how much staying power her literary output had.
As for my recommendation, I think it’s fair to say that only hardcore vampire nerds, Gothic literature scholars, and Ann Radcliffe superfans will enjoy this. The translation is brilliant and the thrills are admittedly plentiful, but the off-the-wall story is likely too bizarre for anyone who isn’t able to laugh at the Radcliffe jokes scattered throughout. If you are one of those people, however, the experience is a wild ride that you will enjoy immensely. Keep the highlighter handy!
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July 15, 2016
A horror/comedy, supposedly showing events which led Ann Radcliffe to write 'Mysteries of Udolpho'. This is a pre-D(racula) vampire story and as such none of the usual vampire rules apply.
The story is told to the author by a servant, who heard it from Miss Radcliffe. These layers of removal from the actual events make it feel like reading myth or urban legend and allows the reader to easily ignore any errors or contradictions that might arrive in the plot.
You would think that this distance from events would however be detrimental to any sense of horror but this is not the case due to the surreal and nightmarish form's of horror which the author uses, its almost Lovecraftian at times.
Towards the end things do go downhill a little, it feels like maybe this started as a pure vampire story and the gothic satire was added later on, it doesn't quite mesh.
One aspect i particularly liked was that our main action hero is irish. Much comedy is derived from this fact given that the story is being told by someone english, allowing the story to make fun of english prejudices.
I think this story would be a great piece to read alongside Carmilla and Dracula.
The story is told to the author by a servant, who heard it from Miss Radcliffe. These layers of removal from the actual events make it feel like reading myth or urban legend and allows the reader to easily ignore any errors or contradictions that might arrive in the plot.
You would think that this distance from events would however be detrimental to any sense of horror but this is not the case due to the surreal and nightmarish form's of horror which the author uses, its almost Lovecraftian at times.
Towards the end things do go downhill a little, it feels like maybe this started as a pure vampire story and the gothic satire was added later on, it doesn't quite mesh.
One aspect i particularly liked was that our main action hero is irish. Much comedy is derived from this fact given that the story is being told by someone english, allowing the story to make fun of english prejudices.
I think this story would be a great piece to read alongside Carmilla and Dracula.
June 4, 2012
Paul Feval's almost entirely unknown book (which I only found after researching a random reference in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) is a post-modern masterpiece before there was post-modernism. It's like a ridiculous episode of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, crossed with an Ann Radcliffe melodrama, as written with Voltaire's sense of humor. An ensemble cast of delightfully tongue-in-cheek stereotypes go on adventure in Eastern Europe when young Anna's childhood friends are kidnapped by green glowing vampires whose victims transform into random weirdos and who have the ability to make duplicates of themselves. Wackiness ensues, and I mean that in the best possible sense. Short (less than 150 pages, when you remove the translators' notes) and fast paced, you can read this in a day and will find yourself laughing out loud. It helps if you've read a lot of gothic fiction already (particularly Anne Radcliffe's) and know something about English culture and the French perception of it, but the book is entertaining beyond its niche. It will definitely shake up your classics collection, if nothing else.
April 27, 2017
I really need to read some of the works by Ann Radcliffe, because jumping into Vampire City without any background into her work was like trying mend a broken bone without any background in first aid. The narration of "97" drove me freaking insane, were it not for Merry Bones and my curiosity of Selene I am doubtful that I would have finished it. With that out of the way however the vampires were pretty interesting and unique to say the least, and the idea of an intradimensional city full of monsters is pretty damn cool in itself. Merry Bones the wonderful Irishman, however much the narrator despised the Irish, is the greatest and most well developed character of the entire book. He as well as Polly Bird and Goetzi make you forget that Ann is the main character on more than one occasion, making her seem more like cheese to bait readers into giving this small novel a try. Selene was awesome, the bizarre structures, the separation of class, the odd weakness, the use of creatures such as tigers and bats as cavalry was an awesome idea and helped me finish the novel. Now the ending, it is the biggest middle finger to a reader, but that's all the details I am going to share. I hope I didn't dissuade anybody from reading this, because it is, in it's own way, a fun and interesting read. I just didn't like the narration and the "kick in the pants" ending.
December 31, 2020
This thing is a mess. Entire storylines and characters are dropped in or out, much of it is told out of order—for no reason beyond laziness—and the ending has one of the most blatant deus ex machinas I've ever seen. And yet, there's a certain charm to all the incoherence. There are also several legitimately funny bits.
One thing missing is horror—until we finally come to the nightmare vision of Selene—the titular city of the vampires. This vast benighted world is positively epic... and a bit wasted in a book that is really just a parody of horror and romanticism.
In this pre-Dracula novel, vampires have some rather bizarre abilities. They turn their victims not into other vampires, but into enslaved clones of themselves. OK, that's certainly different. Thus we are given male victims turned into women and women turned into men. Rather than deal with this idea in depth, Féval delivered a confusing hodge-podge.
Completists who've read Féval's “Vampire Countess” may want to check out this book. But for others, I can't say that the jokes or the unique vampire traits make it worthwhile.
2.5 stars, rounded down.
One thing missing is horror—until we finally come to the nightmare vision of Selene—the titular city of the vampires. This vast benighted world is positively epic... and a bit wasted in a book that is really just a parody of horror and romanticism.
In this pre-Dracula novel, vampires have some rather bizarre abilities. They turn their victims not into other vampires, but into enslaved clones of themselves. OK, that's certainly different. Thus we are given male victims turned into women and women turned into men. Rather than deal with this idea in depth, Féval delivered a confusing hodge-podge.
Completists who've read Féval's “Vampire Countess” may want to check out this book. But for others, I can't say that the jokes or the unique vampire traits make it worthwhile.
2.5 stars, rounded down.
April 4, 2017
Vampire City is an obscure work of horror-comedy-metafiction written in France circa 1870, and if that description doesn't pique your interest, what are you doing on Goodreads?
Paul Féval imagines Ann Radcliffe, the English Gothic novelist, running away from home on the morning of her wedding day to rescue two of her childhood friends, who have gotten caught up in the schemes of a nefarious vampire. Féval's vampires glow green at nighttime, have their own civilization based in Vampire City, and can duplicate themselves. It's a far cry from the typical Bram Stoker-influenced vampire -- although the section where Ann and her companions rely upon a vampire's victim to guide them to Vampire City is reminiscent of the end of Dracula , when Mina uses her telepathic connection with Dracula to guide the heroes to his castle.
The villain's scheme is a bit confusing and all of the characters are one-dimensional, but the tongue-in-cheek narration is full of gems like "Knowing themselves to be guilty of impropriety, Ned and Corny kept their intention [to elope] hidden from their friends. Please do not think me capable of excusing in any degree something which is not done, but I feel bound to point out that they had to contend with an unscrupulous fraudulent bankrupt, a female living in sin, and a vampire. It has to be admitted that their situation was difficult."
Not necessarily a must-read, but pretty entertaining, and an excellent reminder that the 19th century was far weirder and funnier than we usually imagine it to be.
Paul Féval imagines Ann Radcliffe, the English Gothic novelist, running away from home on the morning of her wedding day to rescue two of her childhood friends, who have gotten caught up in the schemes of a nefarious vampire. Féval's vampires glow green at nighttime, have their own civilization based in Vampire City, and can duplicate themselves. It's a far cry from the typical Bram Stoker-influenced vampire -- although the section where Ann and her companions rely upon a vampire's victim to guide them to Vampire City is reminiscent of the end of Dracula , when Mina uses her telepathic connection with Dracula to guide the heroes to his castle.
The villain's scheme is a bit confusing and all of the characters are one-dimensional, but the tongue-in-cheek narration is full of gems like "Knowing themselves to be guilty of impropriety, Ned and Corny kept their intention [to elope] hidden from their friends. Please do not think me capable of excusing in any degree something which is not done, but I feel bound to point out that they had to contend with an unscrupulous fraudulent bankrupt, a female living in sin, and a vampire. It has to be admitted that their situation was difficult."
Not necessarily a must-read, but pretty entertaining, and an excellent reminder that the 19th century was far weirder and funnier than we usually imagine it to be.
October 1, 2020
De alguna forma esta novela de "humor negro", la cual al ser parodia me recordó vagamente a una comedia de Mel Brooks, me atrapó totalmente, el primer día me devoré las primeras 100 páginas (incluida la peor parte la introducción que hacen sobre la obra), los días posteriores por diversas cosas no pude avanzar pero al menos tenía qué leer un poco cuando menos.
Tiene unas partes un poco apresuradas, incoherentes, saca cosas de la manga, pero al ser su objetivo entretener más que ser algo profundo y sustancioso, lo logra con creces, los personajes aunque producto de su tiempo son divertidos estereotipos, digo ahorita no se podría escribir porque saltarían muchos delicaditos a decir que es racista y hay qué "cancelarlo", ya que usa unos términos bastante despectivos sobre todo en dos personajes, pero a la vez es muy divertido puesto que lo hace para exponer la ideología de superioridad que tienen los ingleses sobre ellos mismos.
La historia es un maldito concierto de Deus ex machina, pero esa misma ridiculez le da un gran ritmo, mantiene atento al lector, a ver con qué afortunado suceso se cruzarán ahora, el final es abrupto como suele ser, y cómo no si todo se resolvía porque sí, la obra no podría ser menos.
Es breve, me pareció muy entretenida, no la recomiendo a todos, porque la forma en que está escrita y hablada puede ser cansado para alguien que quizá no haya leído un par de clásicos y no porque los haga mejor lectores, sino por la familiaridad con las formas en que se expresaban, pero si se tiene curiosidad adelante y ojalá lo puedan disfrutar.
Tiene unas partes un poco apresuradas, incoherentes, saca cosas de la manga, pero al ser su objetivo entretener más que ser algo profundo y sustancioso, lo logra con creces, los personajes aunque producto de su tiempo son divertidos estereotipos, digo ahorita no se podría escribir porque saltarían muchos delicaditos a decir que es racista y hay qué "cancelarlo", ya que usa unos términos bastante despectivos sobre todo en dos personajes, pero a la vez es muy divertido puesto que lo hace para exponer la ideología de superioridad que tienen los ingleses sobre ellos mismos.
La historia es un maldito concierto de Deus ex machina, pero esa misma ridiculez le da un gran ritmo, mantiene atento al lector, a ver con qué afortunado suceso se cruzarán ahora, el final es abrupto como suele ser, y cómo no si todo se resolvía porque sí, la obra no podría ser menos.
Es breve, me pareció muy entretenida, no la recomiendo a todos, porque la forma en que está escrita y hablada puede ser cansado para alguien que quizá no haya leído un par de clásicos y no porque los haga mejor lectores, sino por la familiaridad con las formas en que se expresaban, pero si se tiene curiosidad adelante y ojalá lo puedan disfrutar.
December 21, 2021
Me ha encantado. Como novela de terror y de vampirismo, excelente y original. Como parodia del género gótico, aunque creo que no cojo muchos de los chistes y dardos lanzados por el autor, me ha gustado mucho igualmente.
January 15, 2021
La Ville-Vampire (Vampire City), a goofy 1867 gothic novel about Anne Radcliffe herself rescuing friends from vampires, is described on the back-cover as a proto-Buffy. I think it’s more like a proto-Evil Dead installment, what with the vampire-spider-circus, exploding sneezes, and the fact that vampire consciousness is spread upon each next victim ala the Deadites. It’s not a good Evil Dead installment by any means, but I would hire Sam Raimi to direct a miniseries adaptation. Bruce Campbell can cameo as the mysterious ‘Arthur’ who appears in one scene, defeats some vampires and saves the heroes with the power of his shining face, then wanders off playing God Save the King on a guitar, not having noticed anything that was going on.
October 16, 2019
même pas peur – par contre, je me suis plutôt ennuyée – j’ai trouvé que l’écriture de Paul Féval père avait un peu vieilli.
Quand je songe que l’on considère qu’il s’agit ici d’une comédie d’horreur, je commence à me demander si mon sens de l’humour m’échappe totalement, car je n’ai pas trouvé cela très drôle, à la rigueur, certains passages m’ont fait sourire, sans plus.
Quand je songe que l’on considère qu’il s’agit ici d’une comédie d’horreur, je commence à me demander si mon sens de l’humour m’échappe totalement, car je n’ai pas trouvé cela très drôle, à la rigueur, certains passages m’ont fait sourire, sans plus.
February 18, 2020
Curioso libro que mezcla terror con humor y meta literatura.
November 3, 2015
When I read Blackcoat Press's edition of Feval's Knightshade, I was severely disappointed that the contents of the story couldn't match the surreal creepiness of the cover, but part of me doubted that any 19th Century author could come up with something that weird. Even Maupassant at his most insane didn't come up with imagery that could match that. But lo, Vampire City, which sports equally bizarre cover art, actually manages to deliver.
The story by itself is weird, featuring Gothic horror novelist Ann Radcliffe and her trusty manservant Grey Jack pursuing an evil vampire across half of Europe. But this isn't a vampire like anything we'd recognize. Written a quarter century before Dracula, Feval's conception of vamps goes in radically different directions. Their victims don't simply turn into new vampires but rather become puppets that the main vampire can control. Vampires can also spawn doppelgangers, both of themselves and their puppets, and turn into spiders, and they glow in the dark.
And they have their own city hidden way where the Balkan and Italian peninsulas come together, full of architecture that's straight out of Lovecraft. The imagery associated with vampires in the book is bizarre in the extreme. My favorite bit is when Radcliffe and Grey Jack stumble into an inn that's been taken over by the vampires. In the common room they see a tableau that includes a faceless woman and a dog with human faces, all completely still until the turn of the hour, at which point they get up and move around like figures in some great cuckoo clock.
This is without a doubt the most original vampire novel to come out since Polidori invented the genre, and it's worth reading to remind us of how stilted and hackneyed modern authors have made the concept.
The story by itself is weird, featuring Gothic horror novelist Ann Radcliffe and her trusty manservant Grey Jack pursuing an evil vampire across half of Europe. But this isn't a vampire like anything we'd recognize. Written a quarter century before Dracula, Feval's conception of vamps goes in radically different directions. Their victims don't simply turn into new vampires but rather become puppets that the main vampire can control. Vampires can also spawn doppelgangers, both of themselves and their puppets, and turn into spiders, and they glow in the dark.
And they have their own city hidden way where the Balkan and Italian peninsulas come together, full of architecture that's straight out of Lovecraft. The imagery associated with vampires in the book is bizarre in the extreme. My favorite bit is when Radcliffe and Grey Jack stumble into an inn that's been taken over by the vampires. In the common room they see a tableau that includes a faceless woman and a dog with human faces, all completely still until the turn of the hour, at which point they get up and move around like figures in some great cuckoo clock.
This is without a doubt the most original vampire novel to come out since Polidori invented the genre, and it's worth reading to remind us of how stilted and hackneyed modern authors have made the concept.
October 20, 2024
Ajoutez trois étoiles a ma cotte, si votre but est d'étudier la génèse du genre Vampire. Autrement, la valeur de ce roman est à peu près nulle.
La ville vampire meme est un concept bien réussi. Dans les passages ou on visite visite cette macabre nécropole, l'auteur vous livre à une fantasmagorie peu commune. Egalement, Féval donne des attributs très intéresants a ses gouls. Chaque vampire possède un doppelganger dont il ne peut pas se séparer. En plus ses victimes qui se transforment en vampire vont suivre celui qui les ont tués pour toute l'éternité. Voilà deux idées qui méritent d'etre reprise un jour par les jeunes écrivains du réleve de la littérature vampire. Si vous etes par contre un des ceux qui souhaitent la disparution de ce genre, il y aura très peu dans ce roman qui vous plaira.
La protagoniste de La ville vampire est nul autre la grande pionnière de la littérature gothique Ann Radcliffe à qui nous devons Les mystères d'Udolphe et l'Italien. Autrement dit, La ville vampire est la parodie de l'oeuvre d'un auteur du deuxième rang écrite par une auteur du troisième . En fait, il faut avouer que j'ai gaspillé mon temps avec ce roman.
La ville vampire meme est un concept bien réussi. Dans les passages ou on visite visite cette macabre nécropole, l'auteur vous livre à une fantasmagorie peu commune. Egalement, Féval donne des attributs très intéresants a ses gouls. Chaque vampire possède un doppelganger dont il ne peut pas se séparer. En plus ses victimes qui se transforment en vampire vont suivre celui qui les ont tués pour toute l'éternité. Voilà deux idées qui méritent d'etre reprise un jour par les jeunes écrivains du réleve de la littérature vampire. Si vous etes par contre un des ceux qui souhaitent la disparution de ce genre, il y aura très peu dans ce roman qui vous plaira.
La protagoniste de La ville vampire est nul autre la grande pionnière de la littérature gothique Ann Radcliffe à qui nous devons Les mystères d'Udolphe et l'Italien. Autrement dit, La ville vampire est la parodie de l'oeuvre d'un auteur du deuxième rang écrite par une auteur du troisième . En fait, il faut avouer que j'ai gaspillé mon temps avec ce roman.
July 20, 2016
“Η πόλη των βαμπίρ” γράφτηκε το πολύ-πολύ μακρινό 1875. Ο Feval πριν από αυτήν νομίζω ότι έγραψε δύο ακόμα ιστορίες με βαμπίρ, τις οποίες ωστόσο δεν έχω διαβάσει και δεν έχω άποψη. Επιστρέφοντας στη συγκεκριμένη ωστόσο, θα ομολογήσω ότι ήταν μια ιδιαίτερη εμπειρία. Διότι ήταν στιγμές που ο συγγραφέας κατάφερνε να με κάνει να τρομάξω και να χαμογελάσω ταυτόχρονα! Ολοφάνερα πάντως, αυτή ήταν και η δική του επιδίωξη. Θέλησε να μας δώσει μια σουρεαλιστική ιστορία γοτθικού ύφους, η οποία όμως συνάμα θα ήταν και μια παρωδία, ή αν προτιμάτε, μια ωδή στην υπερβολή.
Ξεκαθαρίζω λοιπόν πως το ανωτέρω το καταφέρνει εξαιρετικά. Η γραφή του εξάλλου είναι εντυπωσιακή, ενώ ο λόγος του είναι πότε απλός και ευκίνητος, και πότε περιγραφικός αλλά ουσιαστικός. Το θέμα είναι όμως, υποθέτω πάντα, ότι οι σκληροπυρηνικοί οπαδοί του τρόμου θα ενοχληθούν από το ανωτέρω μοτίβο της ιστορίας, καθώς και από μερικές συγκεκριμένες λεπτομέρειες αληθοφάνειας. Οι υπόλοιποι, θεωρώ ότι θα βρουν πολλά καλά σε αυτό το ανάγνωσμα.
Ξεκαθαρίζω λοιπόν πως το ανωτέρω το καταφέρνει εξαιρετικά. Η γραφή του εξάλλου είναι εντυπωσιακή, ενώ ο λόγος του είναι πότε απλός και ευκίνητος, και πότε περιγραφικός αλλά ουσιαστικός. Το θέμα είναι όμως, υποθέτω πάντα, ότι οι σκληροπυρηνικοί οπαδοί του τρόμου θα ενοχληθούν από το ανωτέρω μοτίβο της ιστορίας, καθώς και από μερικές συγκεκριμένες λεπτομέρειες αληθοφάνειας. Οι υπόλοιποι, θεωρώ ότι θα βρουν πολλά καλά σε αυτό το ανάγνωσμα.
December 4, 2012
Odd mish-mash of vampire story, gothic melodrama and fantasy.
Very meta, as the gothic writer, Ann Radcliffe is one of the characters in the book. Yet, despite being talked about like she's the hero, she spends the whole book acting like a damsel.
Most of the work, and hero-ing is done by the stereotypical Irish servant of one of the other main characters.
I have the vague feeling this was originally done as a satire, as all the characters are such obvious 'types' from gothic novels, but the suspense is real, the vampires are treated like real menaces and the idea of the vampire city itself is a great piece of fantasy.
So, it might be Feval was more an ideas man than a strong character writer.
Fun read and an interesting look at the vampire novel from the days when it was still being invented.
Very meta, as the gothic writer, Ann Radcliffe is one of the characters in the book. Yet, despite being talked about like she's the hero, she spends the whole book acting like a damsel.
Most of the work, and hero-ing is done by the stereotypical Irish servant of one of the other main characters.
I have the vague feeling this was originally done as a satire, as all the characters are such obvious 'types' from gothic novels, but the suspense is real, the vampires are treated like real menaces and the idea of the vampire city itself is a great piece of fantasy.
So, it might be Feval was more an ideas man than a strong character writer.
Fun read and an interesting look at the vampire novel from the days when it was still being invented.
July 24, 2019
DNF @43%. Almost comically uninteresting and impossible to get into. PaRoDiEs don't work for me, at all.
January 11, 2021
En 1867 el escritor Paul Féval, cansado de las solmenes y kilométricas novelas de terror decimonónicas, publicó esta obrita para reírse un poco de ellas. Y, ni corto ni perezoso, puso como protagonista a la célebre Ann Radcliffe, la autora de "Los misterios de Udolfo", una de las cumbres de la literatura clásica de terror.
Féval ideó, sin complicarse mucho la vida en cuanto a complejidad ni coherencia, una trama de lo más estrambótica, donde la escritora se ve obligada a realizar en secreto un viaje por Europa para desbaratar las intrigas que el malvado vampiro Goëtzi ha urdido contra ella y sus amigos. Esto dará lugar a una serie de peripecias confusas y rocambolescas (y no está de más usar este término, ya que el propio Féval escribió algunas de las aventuras de Rocambole, personaje de folletín que dio lugar al adjetivo) en las que Ann y sus acompañantes son una excusa del autor para hablar largo y tendido sobre la naturaleza de los vampiros, los cuales aquí poseen unas características de lo más excéntricas que nada tienen que ver con la de los señoriales chupasangres góticos. Entre ellas se cuenta, por ejemplo, la capacidad de absorber a sus víctimas y "desdoblarse" creando copias de sí mismo a partir de las personas a las que han devorado, y a las que invocan con pretextos de lo más mundanos como el de hacerse compañía a sí mismos.
En sí el libro no tiene mucho más digno de mención, con el permiso de algún chascarillo divertido o giro completamente loco y tan fuera de lugar que ha sido capaz de arrancarme alguna sonrisilla. Sí que decepciona un poco que pese a su sugerente título, esta ciudad vampiro solo aparezca al final de la obra, dejando, eso sí, unas descripciones geniales y muy inspiradas que sin duda son lo mejor del libro:
"La oscuridad y el resplandor, la noche y el día, la gracia y el horror; todo se mezclaba en ese momento y en ese lugar, confundidos en salvaje e infernal promiscuidad. Ya no era ni siquiera un sueño, una pesadilla, un delirio. Era la orgía, el desenfreno de todos aquellos espectros unidos, una
guerra, un huracán. La campana de cristal no cesaba de tocar. Después de cada campanada, el pájaro negro profería su salvaje grito, cuya intensidad iba aumentando a medida que el espacio, cada vez más caliente, cubría con los resplandores más sorprendentes aquellas prodigiosas construcciones donde el fuego parecía ser el cemento de aquellos bloques esmeralda. Con la duodécima campanada, los ramilletes de columnatas y nervaduras de la cúpula más alta se encendieron, avivados por el aleteo del pájaro negro. Las puertas de todos los mausoleos se abrieron en ese momento..."
Féval ideó, sin complicarse mucho la vida en cuanto a complejidad ni coherencia, una trama de lo más estrambótica, donde la escritora se ve obligada a realizar en secreto un viaje por Europa para desbaratar las intrigas que el malvado vampiro Goëtzi ha urdido contra ella y sus amigos. Esto dará lugar a una serie de peripecias confusas y rocambolescas (y no está de más usar este término, ya que el propio Féval escribió algunas de las aventuras de Rocambole, personaje de folletín que dio lugar al adjetivo) en las que Ann y sus acompañantes son una excusa del autor para hablar largo y tendido sobre la naturaleza de los vampiros, los cuales aquí poseen unas características de lo más excéntricas que nada tienen que ver con la de los señoriales chupasangres góticos. Entre ellas se cuenta, por ejemplo, la capacidad de absorber a sus víctimas y "desdoblarse" creando copias de sí mismo a partir de las personas a las que han devorado, y a las que invocan con pretextos de lo más mundanos como el de hacerse compañía a sí mismos.
En sí el libro no tiene mucho más digno de mención, con el permiso de algún chascarillo divertido o giro completamente loco y tan fuera de lugar que ha sido capaz de arrancarme alguna sonrisilla. Sí que decepciona un poco que pese a su sugerente título, esta ciudad vampiro solo aparezca al final de la obra, dejando, eso sí, unas descripciones geniales y muy inspiradas que sin duda son lo mejor del libro:
"La oscuridad y el resplandor, la noche y el día, la gracia y el horror; todo se mezclaba en ese momento y en ese lugar, confundidos en salvaje e infernal promiscuidad. Ya no era ni siquiera un sueño, una pesadilla, un delirio. Era la orgía, el desenfreno de todos aquellos espectros unidos, una
guerra, un huracán. La campana de cristal no cesaba de tocar. Después de cada campanada, el pájaro negro profería su salvaje grito, cuya intensidad iba aumentando a medida que el espacio, cada vez más caliente, cubría con los resplandores más sorprendentes aquellas prodigiosas construcciones donde el fuego parecía ser el cemento de aquellos bloques esmeralda. Con la duodécima campanada, los ramilletes de columnatas y nervaduras de la cúpula más alta se encendieron, avivados por el aleteo del pájaro negro. Las puertas de todos los mausoleos se abrieron en ese momento..."
June 21, 2022
La apreciación contemporánea de la sátira y tenue humor en "La ciudad vampiro" no es suficiente para ocultar su verdadera naturaleza: es sin rubor un pasquín vampírico.
Divida en dos partes y construida alrededor de una ficticia vivencia de la conocida Anne Radcliffe, presenta adiciones al mito y metaficción chupasangre del siglo XIX. El doctor Goëtzi, antagonista con poderes diferentes y más interesantes que sus colegas de colmillos, carece de una personalidad potente en contraste con Clarimonda, Carmilla o incluso mi menos favorito Ruthven, a pesar de irónicamente poseer más personificaciones en la novela que el mismo Drácula.
Un texto para apreciar como parte de la historia del terror y del género, con conceptos que intrigan como "Selene" la ciudad tenebrosa a la que hacer referencia el título o el "show" donde una mujer es devorada por un vampiro frente a un publico pagado (influencias para Anne Rice?). A pesar de todo las debilidades son propias de una corriente literaria que aun buscaba los pasos correctos para culminar en la emblemática obra de Bram Stoker.
Los vampire freaks querran darle una hojeada, los nerdos del horror literario apreciamos su valor historico, para todos los demás mejores previas y posteriores a la creación de Paul Féval.
P.S la primera parte, a pesar del agigantado enredo del propio autor por intentar darle trasfondo, se hizo más interesante que la segunda. En esta última aparece la ciudad vampiro y ni así se hizo menos trabajosa para el lector.
P.S 2 El prologo no solo ensalza las cualidades de la novela que hubieran sido dificil de ver en un inicio, sino que también es una delicia de fuentes y referencias.
Divida en dos partes y construida alrededor de una ficticia vivencia de la conocida Anne Radcliffe, presenta adiciones al mito y metaficción chupasangre del siglo XIX. El doctor Goëtzi, antagonista con poderes diferentes y más interesantes que sus colegas de colmillos, carece de una personalidad potente en contraste con Clarimonda, Carmilla o incluso mi menos favorito Ruthven, a pesar de irónicamente poseer más personificaciones en la novela que el mismo Drácula.
Un texto para apreciar como parte de la historia del terror y del género, con conceptos que intrigan como "Selene" la ciudad tenebrosa a la que hacer referencia el título o el "show" donde una mujer es devorada por un vampiro frente a un publico pagado (influencias para Anne Rice?). A pesar de todo las debilidades son propias de una corriente literaria que aun buscaba los pasos correctos para culminar en la emblemática obra de Bram Stoker.
Los vampire freaks querran darle una hojeada, los nerdos del horror literario apreciamos su valor historico, para todos los demás mejores previas y posteriores a la creación de Paul Féval.
P.S la primera parte, a pesar del agigantado enredo del propio autor por intentar darle trasfondo, se hizo más interesante que la segunda. En esta última aparece la ciudad vampiro y ni así se hizo menos trabajosa para el lector.
P.S 2 El prologo no solo ensalza las cualidades de la novela que hubieran sido dificil de ver en un inicio, sino que también es una delicia de fuentes y referencias.
October 7, 2019
Η αποδομηση των γοτθικων μυθιστορηματων τρομου!χιουμορ-ειρωνει λιγο το τελος με χαλασε
May 3, 2023
Not extremely interesting but still better than twilight
May 18, 2021
Funny how, despite the fact that my first language is french and that I am much more comfortable reading french, Brian Stableford’s translation and presentation of this work is, in my humble opinion, beyond comparison. This work, not yet burdened with Stoker’s canonical vampire, stands out with its complex vampiric construction as well as its constant satire of gothic litterature. That is not to say that this satire is completely disparing; there is almost too much to say about Feval’s representation of Anne Radcliffe which is both ironic and complimentary. As a big fan of francophone popular litterature of the 1800s, The Vampire City stands out for me with its often hilarious extrapolation of stereotypes as well as its hypnotizing plot. My sunburn can attest to the fact that I did not put this book down. As a big fan of vampire litterature, I appreciate Feval’s self-critical writing, constantly juxtaposing the phantasmagorical vampire with the analytical and rational voice of a narrator who is more than ready to point out the ridiculously implausible and irrational. This is a trend we see often in modern vampire litterature (even of the trashiest echelon... *cough cough* Twilight): a snyde comment here and there about how silly vampire stereotypes are. This sort of self-awareness seems all too mechanical nowadays, simply a tool to say « yes, I know this sounds silly... ». Feval’s self-criticism though seems much more deep-rooted, an attempt to justify writing popular litterature via the acknowledgement of more scholarly critiques of one’s own work. I will not spoil the ending, however, I will say that one not so accustomed to the judgemental battlefield that is 19th century french popular litterature would profit immensely from Stableford’s presentation. There is something immensely satisfying about laughing about a seemingly silly character, plot twist, or random detail, but yet knowing that the author, somewhere, somehow, is laughing with you too.
September 28, 2021
Originally published in 1874, this is an early example of a “fearless vampire hunters” story, as outrageously overdone as any pulp magazine horror story.
It can’t really be a satire of the gothic genre as there wasn’t much material to satirise this early in the genre, but it is certainly comedic and tongue-in-cheek. It is as weird as a fever dream. Utterly bonkers throughout.
Being pre-Dracula, the vampires don’t fall into the Dracula mould, but are far more interesting and plain bizarre as a result, glowing green, incorporating their victims into their bodies and excreting them when another pair of hands is needed, being able to multiply themselves and their slaves, and travelling by floating down rivers with their feet forwards like some kind of corpse barge.
The notion of a hometown for vampires is a humdinger. They return there to be rewound like a clockwork toy, and their external souls are kept there to make them immortal, but also vulnerable.
A startlingly modern touch, predating current mashups by over a century, is the use of Ann Radcliffe, the celebrated gothic author, as the primary vampire hunter. Walter Scott is also referenced as a disciple of Ann. The narration is very meta, aware of its own excesses, and full of Hollywood twists and turns, rescues and reverses. So much of popular vampire culture is prefigured here.
There is also political satire in the narration being overwhelmingly sarcastic in its praise of the English nobility and in its condemnation of the Irish.
The storytelling is disjointed - especially as it is told third hand through layers of narrators - the timeline is chaotic and there are plenty of loose ends and too many happy coincidences as the story tumbles to some form of conclusion. The vampire’s interference in star-crossed nuptials and dastardly shenanigans around dynastic inheritance haven’t aged well, being plot points of another age.
Altogether, this is a curio rather than a good read, but it is strangely compelling.
It can’t really be a satire of the gothic genre as there wasn’t much material to satirise this early in the genre, but it is certainly comedic and tongue-in-cheek. It is as weird as a fever dream. Utterly bonkers throughout.
Being pre-Dracula, the vampires don’t fall into the Dracula mould, but are far more interesting and plain bizarre as a result, glowing green, incorporating their victims into their bodies and excreting them when another pair of hands is needed, being able to multiply themselves and their slaves, and travelling by floating down rivers with their feet forwards like some kind of corpse barge.
The notion of a hometown for vampires is a humdinger. They return there to be rewound like a clockwork toy, and their external souls are kept there to make them immortal, but also vulnerable.
A startlingly modern touch, predating current mashups by over a century, is the use of Ann Radcliffe, the celebrated gothic author, as the primary vampire hunter. Walter Scott is also referenced as a disciple of Ann. The narration is very meta, aware of its own excesses, and full of Hollywood twists and turns, rescues and reverses. So much of popular vampire culture is prefigured here.
There is also political satire in the narration being overwhelmingly sarcastic in its praise of the English nobility and in its condemnation of the Irish.
The storytelling is disjointed - especially as it is told third hand through layers of narrators - the timeline is chaotic and there are plenty of loose ends and too many happy coincidences as the story tumbles to some form of conclusion. The vampire’s interference in star-crossed nuptials and dastardly shenanigans around dynastic inheritance haven’t aged well, being plot points of another age.
Altogether, this is a curio rather than a good read, but it is strangely compelling.
July 18, 2017
Another 19th century vampire novel down! Vampire City contains some comical elements that were refreshing amongst the darker vampire texts I've been studying. It's not a difficult read, and I enjoyed the overly bizarre and coincidental events and characters. This text pre-dates Dracula; therefore, the normal vampire characteristics do not apply and Paul Féval père creates a unique type of vampire.
July 1, 2022
I have no idea what people are talking about when they say nothing happens until the characters get to Selene, the vampire city. Um, hello? Circus vampires! Hair-stealing vampires! Dividuating vampires! And that's all within the first 100 pages.
It's a weird book. Merry Bones is sometimes too much to handle. A deus ex machina for every chapter. Mood in spades, and humor here and there. Want to know how an "evil priest" can save a vampire's life? Read it and find out.
It's a weird book. Merry Bones is sometimes too much to handle. A deus ex machina for every chapter. Mood in spades, and humor here and there. Want to know how an "evil priest" can save a vampire's life? Read it and find out.
August 19, 2014
For a book written during the 1850s, this is a surprisingly modern absurdest parody of vampire and gothic fiction. Given the time period, it's a little offensive (the Irish stereotypes were a little off-putting) but saying that, it's still amazing relevant to the gothic/vampire genre. It's a pity then that I don't like such parodies or that it doesn't raise itself above modern pieces.
February 4, 2010
A terrible book, but a very enjoyable one. Nothing beats 19th century French pulp horror fiction when it comes to crazy. Also interesting as a vampire novel written before Dracula and therefore free to make up much of its mythology.
vampires-early-literature
January 25, 2011This review by Justin Howe sparked my interest. www.tor.com/blogs/2010/02/vampire-cit...
May 21, 2019
This book was wild.
August 16, 2025
Way before somebody thought Abraham Lincoln should be a vampire hunter, Paul Féval thought of doing so with Ann Radcliffe, by inserting her into a vampire version of her legendary masterpiece, The Mysteries of Udolpho. And he managed to do the same with the Duke of Wellington, somehow. All in a novel that came after the Byron-inspired The Vampyre of Polidori, but before Carmilla and Dracula were a thing. Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore could only wish to have conceived a story like this.
Féval’s La Ville-Vampire (1867) is not merely a vampire tale—it is a kaleidoscope of parody, Gothic homage, and metafictional experiment. The text begins by breaking the fourth wall: Féval admits he will shamelessly steal from English authors, then proceeds to do exactly that, inserting Radcliffe herself, Dickens, Byron’s shadow, and assorted pseudo-historical acquaintances into a tale of abductions, conspiracies, and supernatural menace. The result feels strangely modern, a mash-up before mash-ups were fashionable.
Genre Positioning
To understand La Ville-Vampire, one has to place it at the crossroads of several traditions:
Gothic Inheritance: The novel openly parodies Udolpho’s structure. Cornelia de Witt and Ned stand in for Radcliffe’s Emily and Valancourt, while Tiberio di Montefalcone plays the Montoni role. Féval both celebrates and mocks the Gothic by making its most famous author, Radcliffe, a protagonist forced to live through her own narrative clichés.
Vampire Tradition: In 1867, vampire fiction was still thin: Polidori’s Ruthven and Rymer’s Varney were the key precedents. Féval expanded the geography of vampirism eastward, to Dalmatia and Montefalcone, anticipating the Balkan settings that Le Fanu and Stoker would make canonical. Yet Goétzi, the central menace, is not quite a vampire—he is more demonic trickster, part Mephistopheles, part criminal mastermind. He commands a city of vampires rather than embodying the archetype himself, simultaneously raising the stakes and undermining the premise.
Parody and Satire: The novel relentlessly lampoons Gothic devices. That Ann alone goes on a rescue mission that would logically require Ned and his friends echoes how Dracula would later stage a coordinated group assault, but here Féval inverts it into absurdity. The villains are melodramatic, the perils excessive, the coincidences outrageous. If Radcliffe’s heroines trembled, Féval’s Ann blunders boldly forward. The effect is half-comedy, half-horror, and entirely destabilizing.
Reception and Influence
Contemporary audiences received the novel as a curiosity rather than a masterpiece. Serialized fiction of this kind was abundant, and La Ville-Vampire stood out more for its eccentricity than for literary quality. It did not become a foundational text like Carmilla or Dracula.
Modern critics, however, have reclaimed it as a precursor of metafiction and intertextual play. Today it is often admired less as “serious horror” and more as a surreal Gothic parody that foreshadowed later literary games. Its geographic innovation—placing vampirism in the Balkans—was especially important, paving the way for Le Fanu’s Styria and Stoker’s Transylvania. Its grotesque comedy also anticipates the pulp excesses of twentieth-century horror and comics, and its narrative framing would not be out of place in Borges or Gaiman.
La Ville-Vampire is both messy and remarkable. It does not succeed on the level of narrative coherence or emotional terror, but it dazzles with invention. Féval created a bizarre hybrid—part parody, part Gothic echo, part proto-modernist experiment—that was ignored by most of his contemporaries but now feels prophetic. Long before postmodernism, Féval was already blending fiction with biography, parody with homage, horror with burlesque.
If it is not remembered as a “great” vampire novel, it nevertheless occupies a fascinating position: the Gothic mocking itself, the vampire myth stretching eastward, and a French feuilletonist proving, against all odds, that the genre could still surprise.
Féval’s La Ville-Vampire (1867) is not merely a vampire tale—it is a kaleidoscope of parody, Gothic homage, and metafictional experiment. The text begins by breaking the fourth wall: Féval admits he will shamelessly steal from English authors, then proceeds to do exactly that, inserting Radcliffe herself, Dickens, Byron’s shadow, and assorted pseudo-historical acquaintances into a tale of abductions, conspiracies, and supernatural menace. The result feels strangely modern, a mash-up before mash-ups were fashionable.
Genre Positioning
To understand La Ville-Vampire, one has to place it at the crossroads of several traditions:
Gothic Inheritance: The novel openly parodies Udolpho’s structure. Cornelia de Witt and Ned stand in for Radcliffe’s Emily and Valancourt, while Tiberio di Montefalcone plays the Montoni role. Féval both celebrates and mocks the Gothic by making its most famous author, Radcliffe, a protagonist forced to live through her own narrative clichés.
Vampire Tradition: In 1867, vampire fiction was still thin: Polidori’s Ruthven and Rymer’s Varney were the key precedents. Féval expanded the geography of vampirism eastward, to Dalmatia and Montefalcone, anticipating the Balkan settings that Le Fanu and Stoker would make canonical. Yet Goétzi, the central menace, is not quite a vampire—he is more demonic trickster, part Mephistopheles, part criminal mastermind. He commands a city of vampires rather than embodying the archetype himself, simultaneously raising the stakes and undermining the premise.
Parody and Satire: The novel relentlessly lampoons Gothic devices. That Ann alone goes on a rescue mission that would logically require Ned and his friends echoes how Dracula would later stage a coordinated group assault, but here Féval inverts it into absurdity. The villains are melodramatic, the perils excessive, the coincidences outrageous. If Radcliffe’s heroines trembled, Féval’s Ann blunders boldly forward. The effect is half-comedy, half-horror, and entirely destabilizing.
Reception and Influence
Contemporary audiences received the novel as a curiosity rather than a masterpiece. Serialized fiction of this kind was abundant, and La Ville-Vampire stood out more for its eccentricity than for literary quality. It did not become a foundational text like Carmilla or Dracula.
Modern critics, however, have reclaimed it as a precursor of metafiction and intertextual play. Today it is often admired less as “serious horror” and more as a surreal Gothic parody that foreshadowed later literary games. Its geographic innovation—placing vampirism in the Balkans—was especially important, paving the way for Le Fanu’s Styria and Stoker’s Transylvania. Its grotesque comedy also anticipates the pulp excesses of twentieth-century horror and comics, and its narrative framing would not be out of place in Borges or Gaiman.
La Ville-Vampire is both messy and remarkable. It does not succeed on the level of narrative coherence or emotional terror, but it dazzles with invention. Féval created a bizarre hybrid—part parody, part Gothic echo, part proto-modernist experiment—that was ignored by most of his contemporaries but now feels prophetic. Long before postmodernism, Féval was already blending fiction with biography, parody with homage, horror with burlesque.
If it is not remembered as a “great” vampire novel, it nevertheless occupies a fascinating position: the Gothic mocking itself, the vampire myth stretching eastward, and a French feuilletonist proving, against all odds, that the genre could still surprise.
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