Doctors Wear Scarlet

by Simon Raven

All his life, Richard Fountain has known only success. He is handsome, with an enviable record for school, army and university. A future career as a talented archaeologist seems assured. That is, until he travels to Greece and meets Chriseis. Chriseis is beautiful, mesmerising and mysterious – also evil. A spellbound Richard is lured into her dark world of vice, vampirism and ritual, high up in the Cretan mountains. When his rescuers finally reach him, he has changed beyond all recognition and is seemingly destined for a tragic end. The final act at a double funeral provides a tumultuous climax to a shocking story.

Genres: Horror, Vampires, Fiction, Audiobook, Mystery, Classics, Greece

282 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Simon Arthur Noël Raven (28 December 1927 – 12 May 2001) was an English novelist, essayist, dramatist and raconteur who, in a writing career of forty years, caused controversy, amusement and offence. His obituary in The Guardian noted that, "he combined elements of Flashman, Waugh's Captain Grimes and the Earl of Rochester", and that he reminded Noel Annan, his Cambridge tutor, of the young Guy Burgess.

Among the many things said about him, perhaps the most quoted was that he had "the mind of a cad and the pen of an angel". E W Swanton called Raven's cricket memoir Shadows on the Grass "the filthiest cricket book ever written". He has also been called "cynical" and "cold-blooded", his characters "guaranteed to behave badly under pressure; most of them are vile without any pressure at all". His unashamed credo was "a robust eighteenth-century paganism....allied to a deep contempt for the egalitarian code of post-war England"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_R...

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 4 out of 5]

feels strange to describe a book as "literate" but Doctors Wear Scarlet is certainly that. I noticed that descriptor on the back cover - along with the equally apropos adjective "alarming" - and sneered. but I've realized it really fits. unnamed reviewer at Chicago Heights Star, you were absolutely correct in calling this "literate and alarming."

the novel is about a young man lured into vampirism. no burning in sunlight or shape changing, but vampirism nonetheless: hypnotic powers, bloodsucking, embracing the darkness, stakes required, etc. the young man in question, Dick Fountain (that name!), is an even-tempered, well-spoken, scholarly, athletic Top Lad at Cambridge who appears totally normal on the surface and is definitely going places academically, if only he would let those around him micromanage his life. but get to know him intimately and you learn he's a little off. surprisingly animalistic in a fight. oddly subservient to authority yet just as oddly sadistic when it comes to freezing out those who would control him. low-key obsessed with the idea that buttoned-up humans need to cast off their shackles and return to their primal, pagan natures. and a writer of pleasant, floral poetry to boot! honestly, I developed kind of a crush on the little weirdo. eventually, Dick Fountain (that name!) goes off to study abroad at various Grecian isles and there he meets a lady who introduces him to a different way of looking at life.

we learn all of this via our erudite, snobby, and rather louche narrator, Mr. Seymour, a schoolchum of Dick Fountain (that name!) - the latter is often viewed from a distance, a flame that the rest of the characters are terribly attracted to. the book itself is much like Mr. Seymour: erudite, snobby, rather louche. Simon Raven has a way of writing a book that makes everyone in the story and the author himself sound like what the English call a toff. even the perfectly amiable detective involved in this case admits that he's only interested in protecting the lives of his friends and "special, talented persons" because "there's no time for the rest." author and cast are all very Ayn Rand, very Nietzsche. as well as exceedingly and obnoxiously languid, casual under pressure, well-read, and hyper-articulate. they were fun to read about.

there are two amazing setpieces in the book: a confrontation in a remote mountain monastery with the vampiress who has ensnared Dick Fountain (that name!) and the detailing of a ghastly-sounding welcoming/graduation ceremony of sorts - students vomiting during their dinner from all of the alcohol they're drinking while their elders look on affectionately and servants rush to clean up the mess - at which a hysterical and very mean-spirited speech is given by Dick Fountain (ok one last time: that name!). the finale is suitably bloody and tragic. we also get a description of how the vampiress relaxes, which is basically by hypnotizing children into getting raped and then raping each other, and I really, really didn't need to read about that. hate to end this review of an excellent book with that last sentence, so I put it in a spoiler. but probably important for squeamish readers like me to know about that scene, which occurs late in the book.

☠️

#11 on Karl Edward Wagner's list of "13 Best Supernatural Horror Novels"

[Lizz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t write reviews.

What a queer story! And I do mean that in a few ways. This is a story about men who enjoy the company of men and having deep conversations and being witty together. Just preferably not with women. As the late great Carlin said, “It’s a big (boys’) club and you ain’t in it.”

Was it scary? Good heavens, no! I saw a review describing the story as “a slow motion chase,” which I find delightfully apt. Was it disquieting, at least? I’d say so. Perhaps it’d have had even greater effect if there were no spoilers in the summary. Stating it so clearly (which I will not in case you’d like to be surprised) led me to make assumptions and predictions which weren’t accurate at all.

The best part was the character development. Raven must have based these people off those he knew in life. Marc Honeydew, the slightly fruity, confirmed bachelor, mathematician, was quite the standout. Raven neglected none of the leads and everyone was given time to be appreciated.

Side note: I was impressed by the lengths these men went to track down their friend, Richard. How they gave their damnedest to try to save him from himself. I’d give my eye teeth for friends like that.

[Grady Hendrix · Rating 3 out of 5]

“As a civilized man, he does not condemn her for being perverted; he does condemn her for not keeping her perversions under some sort of control.”

[Jack Tripper]

(This is the 1967 Berkley mass-market edition I have.)

[Timothy Mayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

We now return to the "Supernatural Horror" category of the KEW list. Here is what Wagner had to say about Simon Raven (1927-2001) and his Doctors Wear Scarlet:

"Is it vampirism of is it a neurotic obsession? Ask the dead. Superb modern vampire novel was filmed as Incense for the Damned (AKA Bloodsuckers)"


The author had quite a colorful life. A great novelist and essay writer, he was regarded up there with Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene. A notorious party animal, he also manged to spend just about every shilling he made. Education at British public school and service in the army gave him plenty of material for Doctors.
The plot of Doctors follows the career of Richard Fountain, a college graduate destined for great things. We are told about his life in first-person via his good friend Anthony Seymour. Seymour has attended both private school and college with Fountain and observed the rise to prominence. Both have had distinguished careers in the field of ancient history.
However, the book opens with the visit of a policeman to Seymour's office. It appears Fountain has put himself in a spot of trouble while researching religious cults in the Aegean islands. The Greek police want him for questioning. But Fountain has been away for months and no one knows how to find him, although it's assumed he's living in somewhere in Greece. After telling Fountain's life story to the policeman, Seymour and some close friends decide to travel to Greece to find him.
A lot of the book deals with the back story on Fountain. He's from a modest family and rides through school on scholarships. But his success has brought him to the attention of a professor at his college who wishes to manipulate the younger man's career. Worse, the professor has a daughter in need of a suitable husband and poor Richard fits the bill.
When Fountain's friends do find him, the man is a mess and close to death. He's become involved with a seductress named Chriseis who initiates him into some sort of blood cult. The two form a bizarre relationship and it's implied Richard may not have been her first victim.
The book is also wise not even to use the word "vampire" until well after the half-way mark. The author never does say whether or not the vampirism is the product of a disease, dillusion, or the supernatural. All three possibilities are hinted at. Even the conclusion doesn't answer this question. However, precautions are taken which tend to favor the last possibility.
Doctors gives the reader a detailed glimpse in the college life of Cambridge and other of the established British university. The title is take from an invitation to a college banquet where those holding a doctorate must wear scarlet robes. The conclusion of the book even takes place during the annual Michaelmas dinner, a centuries-old tradition.
This is a well-written and very literate book. Not an easy read, but worth the time.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 22nd Raven novel, his third to be published, back in 1960. Like all of his books, this is an erudite, slightly bonkers journey, with fantastic character development, by turns witty and appalling, and with lavish dollops of both psychology and (perhaps!) supernatural occurrences. Even though it has the most ratings and reviews of any of Raven's works here on GR, I wouldn't call it top tier - its popularity is probably more a result of it being categorized as genre horror, than any of its inherent merits.

The other reviews here go into great detail on the plot (read those for more info, if interested!), so I won't bother to provide yet another; suffice it to say that once again Raven takes the unlikeliest of scenarios and gives it his own impish twists- including a fantastic and surprising final sentence "Many people came to their funeral, for both of them had been much loved, but of all those present only four men knew that both bodies were buried only after sharpened stakes of wood had been driven through their hearts.". Kudos also to my friends at Valencourt for the delicious recent reprint edition.

This was loosely adapted into what appears to be an utterly unwatchable Hammer style 1970 horror film, mucked up with psychedelic trappings that are NOT in the book - but the trippy trailer makes me ALMOST want to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHROD....

[Corto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where does one begin with this one...

...what we have here is a story in the vein of the classic English horror genre that I like to call, "The Slow Motion Chase".

In American horror stories, generally speaking, once a monster is identified, its opponents will act with as much speed, intensity, and ferocity as possible in order to stop a beast's reign of terror. American protagonists will do anything to protect their loved ones - no matter how crazy it seems. Vampire on the loose? Let's find it, trap it, and kill it. Someone in peril? They must be protected at all costs - and fast. A friend who is beset by possession, or something similar? Try and help, and if that fails, kill the fucker. How do the English (I'm being specific by not dragging in the Welsh, the Scots, or the Northern Irish here), deal with a similar problem? Not in a remotely similar fashion, old boy.

Simon Raven, god bless his soul, was a powerfully gifted writer. Erudite, snarky in a way that Americans can only dream of, cynical, cutting, bitter, enjoyably vicious. He revered the Classic world and his alma mater Cambridge - a setting which is more than just a place in this novel - it is part of the struggle. Raven's favorite occupation - skewering the elite - is in full force here, as well. In addition, we have two more archetypal Raven themes - tortured sexuality and the institution of the British Army.

The former, plays a large powerful role in this novel, as it propels a man to his fate. Raven is extremely skilled and nuanced in crafting a psychologically deft sexual defect in the novel's protagonist - though he seems more of the novel's object than main character - and I'm sure that someone more versed in Queer literature can better explain what I see as Raven's self hatred for his own cravings and deep misogyny, on display. The latter, Raven's love of the military, provides some of the best writing in the novel. There is a vignette about the main character's military service in an African country (probably drawn from Raven's own experience) that is extremely well written, in a matter-of-fact, drily absurd, seriocomic manner that is the hallmark of the best of British military fiction.

Which brings us, to the story at hand, the tale of Richard Fountain, a scholar being manipulated into a life not of his choosing. As noted elsewhere, Fountain is a bright and promising academic is being manipulated into a lifetime appointment at Cambridge, complete with a marriage to the Provost's daughter. Why doesn't he leave his situation? Well, it's England during the late 50's, and that just isn't done. Fountain, as are his friends, are constrained by politeness, duty, manner, and station. In situations that are inexplicable to a 21st American reader, Fountain and co. are just as much trapped by these characteristics as if they were in an iron maze, funneling them towards a certain doom.

This is the "slow motion chase". Fountain's allies discover he is in some vague danger and has abetted in atrocities that are agonizingly not explicitly described until more than halfway through the book (nor is the word, "vampire" spoken until that point either) . Only then, do his esteemed rescuers slowly, carefully, gradually, attempt to come to his rescue. But. They may not proceed with alacrity in order not to disturb the social mores of their set, and once in the field, the task at hand is only cannot be faced without time to dine properly... much like the characters in a Dennis Wheatley novel who pause their pursuit to have a fish dinner at a roadside inn...(Much to my joy and delight, there's a fish dinner in this novel too!)

In the final stretch of the novel, Fountain's friends don't do "the American thing" as described earlier, instead, they are afraid to act decisively due to the social rules that govern their milieu, even if that means protecting their beloved friend and the innocents in his periphery. I suspect this is intentionally devised by Raven to get us to the final act.

I was expecting quite a different ending because I am a brutish American, but I will say that the resolution of the novel was significantly more tragic and cutting than I had expected. My esteem for the novel rose a couple points, as the monster grappled with its humanity, desires, and fate in the final battle. Quite well done, actually.

Recommended for fans of Simon Raven, and any one who likes a drawn out horror story of manners.

[Alex Sarll]

The first Raven I've read outside his great Alms For Oblivion sequence, the dissolute cousin of A Dance To The Music Of Time. Though perhaps this might be considered part of the same Ravenverse given King's is once more doubled for legal reasons as Lancaster College, Cambridge, alma mater of both narrator Anthony Seymour and his old schoolfriend Richard Fountain. Richard is one of those young men who seems to have it all – smart, athletic and praised for 'character', yet overcoming the scepticism even of those who regard such a summary as instant cause for caution, expecting a pushy prig. Despite which, some few, Anthony chief among them, know there's something indefinably wrong at the core of Richard. The novel seems at first a vaguely Iris Murdoch account of the Oxbridge I knew, where someone writing poetry which seemed rather insincere and beneath himself, or the slightly too close and possessive interest of a Fellow in a particular student's career, were the urgent topics of the day – with that inchoate flaw in Richard suggesting something of EF Benson's The Inheritor, a generation or two along. Which was exactly what I wanted, a story about that lost idyll where even the big worries really weren't, or at least not in any immediately threatening way. It even opens "One evening in the May of last year, one of those evenings which get so blue and beautiful that you start thinking everything will be all right forever". And then it becomes something quite different. Even The Inheritor no longer seems the best reference point; I recently watched an old TV adaptation of another Benson story where, simply by knowing going in that it belonged to a particular genre, the characters' stupidity at not realising they were operating within said genre became comic. Doctors Wear Scarlet, on the other hand, by not telegraphing its membership of that genre (or at least not in my copy which, despite being picked up for pennies from a library clear-out, turns out to be a first edition), enables the reader to gradually realise, along with the characters, that the world is not as they'd been given to expect, thus doing a far better job of catching how such a discovery might actually feel.

Which is already giving away a little too much, if you want to get the full effect, but if there's any likelihood whatsoever of your reading this, spoilers follow.

So soon enough, Richard heads out on a research trip to Greece. Now, part of the reason I'd grabbed this from my shelves on a whim was that everything else I'd been considering felt too close to one or another book I'd read recently, or already had on the go. But before long I realised, oh, Doctors Wear Scarlet has ancient survivals, and water, and clannish locals who know more than they can quite bring themselves to say, just like The Sunken Land Begins To Rise Again. And briefly visits 1950s Hydra, exactly the period and location of Peel Me A Lotus. Hell, it even worked out so that on Friday I was reading a book in which an alarming undead Greek at last meets their final death, but in such a way that representatives of the British Establishment go a bit peculiar about it. What are the odds, eh? But more than any of that synchronicity, Doctors Wear Scarlet turns out to be in very light conversation with its most famous forebear in the aforementioned genre: vampire stories. The narrator and his allies must take advice from assorted oddball academics and risk their own lives if the beloved Richard is to be saved from the clutches of the vampire – and worse, from himself passing it on. The big twist, though, the deeply Raven detail, is the way that vampirism is treated here – not a demon or a virus or a parasite, just an incredibly addictive kink. There's the wonderful line "As a civilised man, he does not condemn her for being perverted: he does condemn her from not keeping her perversion under some sort of control." Richard is impotent, but the enigmatic Chryseis is able to tempt him with alternative ways of satisfying her, "fearful, ugly things", the vagueness of which frustrates the other characters too. And the jaded modern reader assumes, oh, whatever that is, I bet it'll turn out to be anticlimactically quaint if we ever do find out. Well, we do, and it really isn't. The denouement comes at the college's Michaelmas Feast, all the more powerful for being situated at the heart of Oxbridge pomp, and for the way Raven never quite makes reference to any other significance the date October 31st might hold. Also for the way he counterpoints his literal vampire with the metaphorical sort, epitomised by Walter Goodrich, the Senior Tutor, who sees Richard as the latest protégé he can slot in to his web of influence – all, he tells himself, for their own benefit, certainly not his own, however much he may relish his sense of himself as a player. Raven is a little younger here than when he wrote Alms, but not by much, so it's interesting how much the emphasis here is on the young being sucked dry by their elders, where the later books would focus more on the blindness and ingratitude of youth. Perhaps 1963 really was as big a rupture for him as it is in popular recollection? Because there's certainly a sense here of the hollowness of Britain's old ways in a post-War world, echoes of the unveiling of the initial Cambridge spies in lines like "And that's what you learnt here in Cambridge, isn't it, Anthony? Your friends before your country? Before the world?" But it's hardly difficult to picture someone who, for all his scepticism of the cosy old stitch-ups, realised as they started to be swept away that on reflection he preferred them after all to the new order.

That's always the thing that strikes me with Raven – his unabashed, deeply unfashionable elitism. Married, because whatever his sins he was no fool, to an awareness that any of the normal metrics by which an elite has been defined would end up leaving you with some absolute wretches on the inside, so really, you can only draw the line according to your own sympathies – and even then, you'd find yourself bound to stand by some people who didn't necessarily deserve it, but it was too late to worry about that once the pledge was made. It's this fascination with other people, even as he judges them, which ensures that all the characters here, even as they're often a step away from being types, also feel entirely solid and believable. Richard himself, the golden boy corrupted by a horrible weakness...well, we've seen plenty of those lately. Goodrich too. Tyrrel, the detective, his interest in the case never fully explained, with his odd little office on the Charing Cross Road, the first time I've ever encountered a fictional copper whom I could equally picture co-operating with the officers of Ben Aaronovitch's Folly or of Derek Raymond's Factory. Foppish Piers Clarence*, "a positive banner of rebellion. Pagan and dissolute in habit, mocking in demeanour, racy in speech and casual in conduct – anti-church, anti-establishment, even anti-religion" – and yet still a solid man in a crisis. Poor doomed, heroic Roddy Longbow; even Marc Honeydew, who could easily have come off as a dismissive caricature of a certain type of academic queen, but instead is quite a fond one. Together they make for a telling portrait of certain flaws in Britain generally, and its old universities in particular, that are nowhere near hot topics anymore, but which I suspect still have their small responsibility for the general mess in which we now find ourselves.

*Of course, pairing Piers Clarence and Anthony Seymour as would-be saviours does make for an inadvertent extra-horrific moment when Richard, in extremis, gasps "Piers...Anthony...".

[John Cooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

DOCTORS WEAR SCARLET, by Simon Raven. This is a novel that is hard to review without revealing too many spoilers. The first cover, from the UK first edition (NOT the one shown here on goodreads), scrupulously avoids any spoiler, and is the most attractive cover I've seen for this novel. The early US paperback from Avon Books comes pretty close to a spoiler without quite getting there, and offers the tantalizing teaser, "The terrifying story of a man destroyed by the most evil of all perversions." Whatever could that be??? That could be anything. Probably a good reason to pick up this book and read it. And only too true. Almost any other cover that's been done for this book over the years gives the game away far too literally. The late Karl Edward Wagner put this novel among his Top 13 horror novels of all time, which is high praise indeed considering Wagner was a true aficionado. But you know, it is also nearly a spoiler to reveal that this is a horror novel. I envy anyone who might have picked up the first edition without any inkling whatsoever of what's between the covers. I am lucky to have had something very near to that experience, in that I originally purchased this for my Kindle quite some time ago, and by the time I got around to reading it, I had quite forgotten my reasons for purchasing it, aside from the fact that I've heard a lot of great things about its author, Simon Raven, and I had previously purchased one of his other novels, THE FEATHERS OF DEATH, which I still have not yet read. So when I started reading DOCTORS WEAR SCARLET, on a whim, on my Kindle, I had no idea what I was getting myself in for. And that is the beauty of it. I cannot recommend this novel too highly, especially for anyone interested in well-written, psychologically astute excursions into the macabre. DOCTORS WEAR SCARLET has enjoyed numerous editions in the UK over the years, as Simon Raven is a quintessentially British author. But in a general sense, this can be considered to be a bit of a neglected novel of its kind. Raven was prolific and gave us many highly regarded literary works, but this elegant foray of his into horror fiction deserves to be read by anyone who appreciates the outré.

[Ez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dennis Wheatley meets Donna Tart by way of Agatha Christie. Some very old world attitudes combine with a modernish tale of vampirism, sado-masochism, upper-class privileges, and extensive knowledge of ancient Greece.

As posh as the leather wingback chair of a gentleman's club, polished to a high shine by many a bum.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The British film "Bloodsuckers," from 1970, was easily one of the worst cinematic experiences I've sat through in recent memory; a confused and confusing mess of a movie, made even more disappointing for me by dint of the fact that the two lead actors whose participation induced me to watch the film in the first place--namely, Peter Cushing and Patrick Macnee--don't even appear on screen together once! And yet, I thought, the central premise of the film, based on Simon Raven's novel "Doctors Wear Scarlet," had been a good one, if thoroughly botched, and I decided to check out that source material one day...perhaps. But that resolve was only strengthened when I learned that editor/horror maven Karl Edward Wagner had chosen that novel for inclusion in his celebrated list of The 13 Best Supernatural Horror Books! That particular KEW list is one that I hugely respect, having previously enjoyed some of its other recommendations, such as Walter S. Masterman's "The Yellow Mistletoe" (1930), Abraham Merritt's "Burn Witch Burn" (1932), J. U. Nicolson's "Fingers of Fear" (1937), R. R. Ryan's "Echo of a Curse" (1939), H. B. Gregory's "Dark Sanctuary" (1940), and William Hjortsberg's "Falling Angel" (1978). And, I am happy to report, this KEW list has not let me down once again!

"Doctors Wear Scarlet" was originally released in 1960 as a hardcover volume by the UK publisher Anthony Blond. (Mr. Blond himself, it seems, aware of Simon Raven's dissolute ways and heavy debts, offered to put the author on an annual salary if Raven would move away from London and its temptations...an arrangement that lasted for over three decades!) The following year, "Doctors Wear Scarlet"--the author's third novel, following "The Feathers of Death" (1959), which centered on a trial for homosexuality in the British Army, and "Brother Cain" (also 1959), a spy story--would be published in the U.S. as a Simon & Schuster hardcover. Four more editions would crop up during the course of the 1960s, and then the book would go OOPs (out of prints) for 30+ years, till the House of Stratus revived it in 2001. For readers today, happily, there is a beautiful edition that Valancourt Books released in 2019; a very handsome volume, indeed, and featuring a fun introduction from horror authority Kim Newman, co-editor of two of my Bibles: "Horror: 100 Best Books" and "Horror: Another 100 Best Books."

Before sharing some thoughts about this, Raven’s first horror novel, a quick word on the author himself. Simon Arthur Noel Raven was born in London in 1927 and went on to become a journalist, playwright, screenwriter, and the author of almost three dozen books. He is perhaps best known for his 10-novel "Alms for Oblivion" series, released from 1964 - '76, and the seven-novel "First-Born of Egypt" series, released from 1984 - '92. Something of a notorious reprobate, Raven passed away in 2001, at the age of 73.

His "Doctors Wear Scarlet" is divided into three quite discrete (emphasis on the "Crete"!) sections. In the first, which takes up almost half of the book, an inspector from Scotland Yard, John Tyrrel, arrives at the London home of our narrator, magazine editor Anthony Seymour, to ask some questions about one Richard Fountain, with whom Seymour had attended Cambridge's (fictitious) Lancaster College. Fountain, it seems, who is three years younger than our narrator, had gone to Greece some eight months earlier, and is currently on the verge of being kicked out of that country for committing violent and unspeakable acts in the company of a young woman. In this section of Raven's novel, we learn all about Fountain's life; how he'd evinced a violent streak while at the same time maintaining good grades. When Seymour had first encountered him at Charterhouse boarding school (from which, incidentally, Raven was evicted at age 18 for "homosexual conduct"), the younger man had been aloof and fairly unpopular. Years later, at Cambridge, his lot in life had looked bright, after the manipulating head tutor, Walter Goodrich, had arranged both his future career and an engagement to his daughter Penelope. When Seymour later receives a desperate letter from Fountain in Greece begging for his help, matters suddenly appear in a new light. Thus, with Tyrrel's approval, Seymour takes off for Crete (oddly enough, this was the second novel that I've read this year featuring that Grecian island, after Jack Williamson's 1940 fantasy classic "The Reign of Wizardry"), accompanied by Fountain's hard-drinking yet scholarly undergraduate friend Piers Clarence, as well as his old commanding officer in the Army, Major Roderick Longbow, to rescue him from whatever peril he might be in.

In the second section, the three adventurers travel from Crete to the myth-shrouded island of Hydra and back to Crete again, where they finally catch up with Fountain in an abandoned fortress in the White Mountains. The man is a weakened wreck when they find him, and it soon becomes obvious why, when they discover his female companion, Chriseis, with her teeth in his neck, sucking out his lifeblood while Seymour and Clarence stand by in hypnotized paralysis! But Richard is indeed safely brought back to England, setting up the scene for the novel's third section. Here, Seymour and Tyrrel consult Dr. Erik Holmstrom, a man of arcane learning in the British Museum, and hear all about the lore of the vampire. They also discover that although Richard seems well recovered from his ordeals in Greece, he is hardly "out of the woods" yet. While the museum professor feels that vampirism is a psychological condition rather than a supernatural one, he yet maintains that Richard might still be a danger to others. And on the night of the big Michaelmas feast at Lancaster College, at which Richard is due to be feted as the guest of honor and act as the headline speaker, we do indeed learn whether or not Holmstrom is correct in his surmise....

Released a full decade after its source novel, "Bloodsuckers" (which also ran under such titles as "Incense for the Damned," "Freedom Seeker" and, yes, "Doctors Wear Scarlet") was very much a product of the hippie era, and thus saw fit to add scenes of drug usage, orgies, and psychedelic whatnot. Several characters in the Raven book were dropped, new ones were added, the fates of many of the main players were significantly altered, and the primary setting, for some inexplicable reason, was changed to Oxford, instead of Cambridge. And most egregiously, due to the film's problematic production history, the editing of the picture was a total farrago, resulting in an incomprehensible hash. Not so Raven's book, which sports a wonderfully lucid and literate style of writing that renders everything completely clear for the reader. But is it a supernatural horror novel, as Karl Edward Wagner insists? Well, if Dr. Holmstrom is to be believed, the answer is no. Still, few readers will doubt that Chriseis is the genuine article after seeing how easily she's able to paralyze others with a glance. And the book's final scenes, and especially closing sentence, leave little doubt that Wagner was justified in putting the novel into the supernatural category. What is undoubtedly supernatural, I might add, are the uncommon lengths to which Richard's three friends are willing to go to rescue their old comrade. We should all be so fortunate as to have friends such as these!

Raven's book, besides being lucidly written, is also an elegantly written affair, and a delight to read. The author has a seeming knack for choosing an apt turn of phrase, such as when he describes Marc Honeydew, a Cambridge math tutor, as "a tall and angular man who was apparently sitting with some difficulty on the fence which divides youth from middle age." All of the book's main characters are well drawn, with Honeydew perhaps being my favorite: a "waspish" lover of gossip who keeps our narrator apprised of the latest events, and who Raven undoubtedly wants us to believe is gay, as deftly suggested by his manner of speech. I kept picturing him as an Ernest Thesiger type, for some reason. As Newman informs us in his intro, Raven put a lot of his own personal history into the book's lead characters, especially Richard Fountain. Thus, Raven also failed to get his fellowship at Cambridge, and also saw duty in Africa during his Army service (Kenya for the author, the Congo for Fountain). His novel takes its sweet time getting to where it's going, adding reams in the way of character development, but is so well written that the reader never feels restless. Not for nothing was it once said of Raven that he had "the mind of a cad and the pen of an angel."

"Doctors Wear Scarlet," it must be admitted, features very little in the way of scares but any number of moments that shock. Among those shocking sequences: A peasant woman on Hydra presents her dead baby, presumably killed by the vampiress; Chriseis' initial appearance, cloaked, and exerting her full hypnotic powers; the tragic death of one of our three brave rescuers; the story of how Richard, held helpless, was forced to watch Chriseis have her way with two peasant children; Richard's stunning speech at that Michaelmas feast; and the book's doubly tragic, downbeat denouement. And there are many other wonderfully handled scenes, as well, such as the one in which the young Richard takes care of a bully at Charterhouse; the remarkable adventure that Richard and some of his men had while in the Congo; the chance encounter that our brave trio has with Arnold, an oddball historian, in a crumbling Cretan temple; and an interview with the monks on the island of Hydra. The novel becomes marvelously suspenseful towards its conclusion, as we wonder whether or not Richard will snap, and also gives us an excellent look at life in the world of Cambridge University, despite its use of a fictional college. In all, it is a remarkable tale, always unpredictable and unfailingly intelligent. "Your story is a little unusual, you know," Tyrrel tells our narrator at one point, and for very good reason!

I have very few complaints to make regarding Raven's very fine work here. Oh, he withholds the use of the "v word" ("vampire," that is to say) a little too coyly, all the way till page 175 of this Valancourt edition, and the character of Chriseis is unfortunately seen in only two sequences. Also (and this is something that would probably only bother a genuine nitpicker such as myself), it is implied that the Michaelmas feast is held on a weekend, whereas in actuality the date of that event, October 31, 1957, was a Thursday. And while I'm picking nits, why would a Michaelmas celebration, which is traditionally held on September 29th, be held at Cambridge on...Halloween? But these are very minor matters, and in no wise detract from the manifold fine qualities of Raven's work. I would now love to read the three other horror/Gothic books that the author wrote later in his career, namely the novels "The Roses of Picardie" (1980) and "September Castle" (1984), as well as the collection "Remember Your Grammar and Other Haunted Stories" (1997). Hopefully, the folks at Valancourt will one day see fit to release those titles, as well....

(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of horror and vampire literature....)

[Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is supposed to be a horror/ thriller novel, and yet the horror parts were extremely boring. I have not read anything else by Simon raven, but I believe he is better suited to character studies and coming of age tales set on college campuses. I took off 2 stars because it was not thrilling or scary. I took off another, because the long winded explanations and justifications of theories that did not need to be explained or justified got on my nerves and killed the flow.

[Bill Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

To write anything much about this book would be to spoil its appeal. A very different, creepy take on a familiar topic, told in an extremely English manner. I took a few chapters to warm to it, but by the time our protagonists got to Greece, I was hooked. Excellent, unusual horror that deserves to be more widely known.

[Ian B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Earlier this year, I read with enjoyment the first four novels of Simon Raven’s Alms for Oblivion series, and this book, written just prior to that sequence, initially reminded me of them. Upper middle class men in the enclosed worlds of academia, publishing, politics and the military seek to order events to their own advantage, and to hell with everyone else. If I wanted to be charitable, I would say that Raven is most comfortable in these kind of privileged homosocial environments; if I didn’t, I’d have to point out that his misogyny is really appalling.

Doctors Wear Scarlet deals with Richard Fountain, a Cambridge postgraduate who, chafing under the ambitious superintendence of his older mentor, travels to Greece, ostensibly to further his university researches but actually in an effort to break free of Walter Goodrich’s control. His behaviour – after meeting a mysterious woman who comes to exert a strange power over him – attracts the attention of the Greek and then the British police. Of the three parts of the novel, the first appealed to me the most: Raven introduces us to a number of entertainingly awful characters, not only Professor Goodrich (who reminded me quite a lot of Valentine Black in Tiepelo Blue; I wonder whether James Cahill has read this book) but also the waspish and amusing gossip Marc Honeydew. In the second part, much of the wit falls away as the rest of the cast embark on a European manhunt for the missing Fountain; it takes on the aspect of a fairly formulaic adventure story complete with the repeatedly hinted at and much delayed revelation of the horror at its centre. The third section recovers, but not enough. I felt that Raven over-hedged his bets with regards to the supernatural elements. He is perhaps too scrupulous in providing a detailed material and psychological explanation for Fountain’s condition, so that the action becomes somewhat laborious. I had been anticipating a bloody rampage through the groves of academe, and was disappointed.

Gay readers may find their interest piqued by the burgeoning friendship between the narrator Anthony Seymour and Inspector John Tyrrel who, with a distinct significance, borrows a book of poems by Cavafis (known for his homoerotic verses) at an early stage of their acquaintance.

[Deedra · Rating 5 out of 5]

audible:This was confounding,to say the least.Antony comes home to find a man in his house.He wants to know all about a man he knows.We go from childhood chums to having to rescue this man from what he has gotten himself into.It seems an ancient evil is involved.Can it be true? Hannibal Hills is an excellent narrator.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.'

[JC Larrazabal · Rating 5 out of 5]

De las mejores novelas de vampiro escritas.
Es una mezcla de musterio, terror y algo de policial.
Me explico, tiene esa vibra de novela inglesa de misterio de esa epoca, cubre de alguna manera los aspectos psicologicos del vampirimo incluso desde una perspectiva forense, sumision sexual ( sin ser porno, !ojo!), y mitología griega.
Una novela muy adelantada a su epoca.
Un must para los lectores de terror y oarticularmente de vampiro.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A strange, exotic, and perfectly composed novel. Wit and style to rival Wilde and Waugh.

[Mjab · Rating 2 out of 5]

Has not aged very well... Slow and preoccupied with things like the pecking order in posh boy's schools and university in the UK in the 1940s and 50s.

[Pearce · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Evelyn Waugh wrote a vampire novel, it might look a little like this.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very little horror, for a horror novel

[Waffles · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took great patience to get through the first 10 or so chapter, but the things pick up towards the end.
I did not feel cheated reading this.

[Ninetailedkat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just save yourself from this awful story. Yikes....I hung in there until I finished but talk about an abrubt and weird ending - just don't.

[Gisela · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://liquiddreamsof.blogspot.com/20...

[Kalyrohey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not fond of the style. This reminds me of Shelley's "Frankenstein": awfully long.

[Suzanne Ruthven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant