The Illustrated Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood — In Two Volumes — Volume I: A Romance of Exciting Interest — Original Title: Varney the Vampyre

by James Malcolm Rymer, Thomas Preskett Prest, Natalie L Conaway (Contributor)

The most notorious “Penny Dreadful”: Pulp-Lit Productions is proud to present this new edition of Varney the Vampire* , the most scandalous example of the Victorian Age’s most notorious style of popular literature — laid out properly like the original 1840s booklets, with the original woodcut illustrations, but freshly typeset in big, readable, modern type. This is Volume One of a two-volume set, including chapters 1-92 (all of Part One of the full story). *"Vampire" is spelled "Vampyre" throughout most of the inside text.

Genres: Horror, Vampires

650 pages, Paperback

Published November 29, 2020

About the author

James Malcolm Rymer was a British nineteenth century writer of penny dreadfuls, and is the probable author of Varney the Vampire, often attributed to fellow writer Thomas Peckett Prest, and co-author (with Prest) of The String of Pearls, in which the notorious villain Sweeney Todd makes his literary debut.

Information about Rymer is sketchy. In the London Directory for 1841 he is listed as a civil engineer, living at 42 Burton Street, and the British Museum catalogue mentions him in 1842 as editing the Queen's Magazine. Between 1842 to the 1867 he wrote up to 115 popular novels for the English bookseller and publisher, Edward Lloyd, including the best-sellers Ada the Betrayed, Varney the Vampyre and The String of Pearls. Rymer's novels appeared in England under his own name as well as anagrammatic pseudonyms such as Malcolm J. Errym and Malcolm J. Merry.

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

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

At over 600 pages of 19th Century literature, I expected this to be a slog, but it sure was not. It's exciting, often spooky, and it's surprisingly funny.

The plot meanders, following not just the put-upon central family and their vampire oppressor, but also the local villagers who are very prone to riot. Occasionally, one character will tell a completely unrelated story or anecdote to another character and we'll just spend a chapter on that. But it's all well-told and breezy in the moment.

The narrative voice does a lot of editorializing and speaking directly to the reader, so that keeps it light as well. I was highly entertained.

It does end on a cliffhanger to be continued in the equally long Volume 2, so that's what's keeping me from giving it 5 stars. But I'm looking forward to the next installment, even though I'll take a break before digging in.

[John Keenan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting from a “history of vampire fiction” point of view, but I read somewhere that the authors were paid by the line, and it surely reads as if that is true.

[Books and band · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a vampire history buff I liked it but the authors were getting payed by the line and that shows.