The Dark Dominion: Eight Terrifying Tales of Vampires and Werewolves

by Peter Fleming, Jane Dixon Rice, Gerald of Wales

Eight terrifying tales of vampires and werewolves

The Kill by Peter Fleming
The Refugee by Jane Rice
A Case of Irish Lycanthropy by Giraldus Cambrensis
The Dead Leman by Théophile Gautier
Jikininki by Lafcadio Hearn
The Werewolf by Frederick Marryat
Stubbe Peeter translated by B. J. Hurwood
The Case of Iva of Shiganska by Elliot O'Donnell

Genres: Anthologies

158 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Rod Brown]

Here's one of those old books that somehow worked its way into my current library from my childhood home even though I've never read it before.


The Kill / Peter Fleming ~ 2 stars ~

Two men sit in a train station. One starts to tell the other of a curse on his family involving a werewolf -- one of those slow, foreboding stories with nested narratives. The ending is so dully predictable as to render it all pointless.


The Refugee / Jane Rice ~ 3 stars ~

A young woman, an American expatriate in France, spends her time whining about the shortage of luxuries in the early days of World War II. Then a naked young man stumbles into the yard outside her rented room.

I thought this was a retread of the first story and started drowsing a few times per page. The ending caught me off guard -- "Wait, what?" -- and I had to re-read it to make sure I hadn't fallen asleep and dreamt that twist.


A Case of Irish Lycanthropy / Giraldus Cambrensis ~ 2 stars ~

A dull account from an old book (1185 A.D.) of a priest meeting some polite werewolves in Ireland.


The Dead Leman / Théophile Gautier ~ 2 stars ~

A French story from 1836 that drones on forever about how women are temptresses that lure good men from their righteous path. Get a podcast, bro!


Jikininki / Lafcadio Hearn ~ 2 stars ~

Villagers ask a traveling priest to watch over a dead body for the night even as they flee the area for fear of a curse that occurs whenever anyone dies. Some stuff goes down, but it hardly seems worthy of a story and also feels out of place in this vampire/werewolf anthology, being more ghoul-adjacent.


The Werewolf / Frederick Marryat ~ 2 stars ~

Two guys in a boat. One tells a story about his childhood, how his widowed father chose poorly in a second wife and his children paid the price. Those darn evil stepmothers!

Stubbe Peeter / B. J. Hurwood ~ 2 stars ~

This is based on a real, sensationalistic broadside published in the 1580s in Germany about a magical, incestuous, cannibalistic killer -- also known as Peter Stumpp or Stumpf -- who either wore a wolf pelt or actually became a wolf as he raped, murdered, and devoured. "Trial of the century" true crime pulp crossed with a heaping helping of yellow journalism.


The Case of Ivan of Shiganska / Elliott O'Donnell ~ 2 stars ~

A Russian man chooses poorly in a wife and his sisters and mother pay the price. Those darn evil in-laws!

Maybe a framing sequence about two guys in a boat would have helped?


FOR REFERENCE:

Contents:

• The Kill (1942) / Peter Fleming

• The Refugee (1943) / Jane Rice

• A Case of Irish Lycanthropy (Excerpt from Topographia Hibernica, Et, Expugnatio Hibernica, 1188) / Giraldus Cambrensis [a/k/a Gerald of Wales]

• The Dead Leman (Originally published as "La Morte Amoureuse," 1836, a/k/a "Clarimonde") / Théophile Gautier

• Jikininki (from Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, 1904) / Lafcadio Hearn [a/k/a Yakumo Koizumi]

• The Werewolf (Excerpt from The Phantom Ship, 1839, Chapter XXXIX, a/k/a "The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains") / Frederick Marryat

• Stubbe Peeter (Adaptation of The Damnable Life and Death of One Stubbe Peeter: A Most Wicked Sorcerer, Murderer and Werewolf - 1590, 1590) / B. J. Hurwood [a/k/a Bernhardt J. Hurwood], translator

• The Case of Ivan of Shiganska (Excerpt from Werewolves, 1912, Chapter XVII: The Werewolf in Russia and Siberia) / Elliott O'Donnell

[Steve Wiggins]

One of the features of the Cover-19 pandemic is that bookstores remain closed in some locations. Those who read are less likely to be careless, it seems to me, but they nevertheless miss being able to pick up a quick read here and there. I’ve been going through my shelves to find books left unread, or read so long ago that they’re forgotten, to fill the gaps. One of them was The Dark Dominion: Eight Terrifying Tales of Vampires and Werewolves, no editor listed. This was clearly a knock-off on the successful Dark Shadows books of the time period as I explain elsewhere (Sects and Violence in the Ancient World). I just happen to have found this on a used bookstore shelf and had picked it up for a rainy day.

The eight tales are a mixed bag and they focus on werewolves. Only one features a vampire, despite the subtitle. Of the werewolf stories two are medieval or very early modern in origin and preport to be factual accounts of lycanthropy. The rest follow a similar story line but with somewhat different results each time. Werewolf stories seldom lend themselves to surprise—once you know there’s a shapeshifter involved you’re going to be trying to guess who it is. A couple of these tales feature female werewolves, but these are so similar that you get a case of déjà vu from reading them in the same volume.

Still, even for plague reading, they’re not bad. Going to the bookstore you can browse, but unless it’s a particular used bookstore you won’t find books like this. In non-pandemic times I frequent some used bookstores and seldom do they have the mix of books I seek. Although this wasn’t a great collection, it did meet a need at this time and so I’m mostly glad to have read it when I’m generally indoors anyway.

[Lisa of LaCreeperie]

Phew, the best part about this book is the cover art.

[Sabrina Frang]

If you are looking, as I was, for eight fictional short stories involving werewolves and vampires, you are going to disappointed by this collection. It is a mixture of historical accounts, folktales and short stories. Only one story is about vampires, "The Dead Leman".

The best stories in the collection are the first two. "The Kill" is an older story that is told in a bit of a clunky "story within a story" fashion, so that I did not always know whom was being referred to sometimes. That said, it has a fairly telegraphed but still effective ending. "The Refugee" is deliciously dark. This story totally shocked me in a way that had me audibly go, "Whoa!", at the ending.

"The Dead Leman" had interesting themes, forbidden love, the mystery surrounding the new woman in the village, obsession, but too much purple prose killed the flow of the narrative. "The Werewolf", another story involving an alluring new stranger, could have been interesting, but it was told in the driest fashion.

Overall, I would not recommend this collection, unless you are willing to read a mix of fiction and supposed non-fictional accounts. I would have preferred eight short stories. Cool cover though.

[Brian Campbell]

A fine collection of eight atmospheric and sometimes ghastly tales, written between 1185 and 1943. The writing is of earlier ages, deliberate and careful revelation in language that may daunt modern readers. The werewolf and the vampire are ancient evils, and they are presented here in their raw folkloric forms. No romantasy here, no Stephanie Meyer. Come, young adults, there is literature for you beyond the young adult shelves!