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The Vampire Countess
In vita mors, in morte vita! In life, death; in death, life! The particular gift of Countess Addhema was to be reborn beautiful and young every time she could apply to the hideous bareness of her skull a living head of hair, a scalp, torn from the head of a living victim. This was why her tomb was full of the skulls of young women... Ren? recoiled in horror at the sight of his mistress restored to her real condition: the cadaver of an old woman, fleshless, cold, totally bald and already turning to dust... "After 1856, it would be a long time before any other writer contrived a vampire as perversely charismatic as Addhema; she is really three vampires in one. She is, first and foremost, the vampire-as-libido-run-wild, but she is certainly the vampire-as-gold-digger too, and she may well have something of the vampire-as-muse to complete her mystique."-Brian Stableford. Paul F?val (1816-1887) was the author of numerous popular swashbuckling novels and one of the fathers of the modern crime thriller. Brian Stableford has published more than fifty novels and two hundred short stories. The Vampire Countess was written in 1855-forty years before Bram Stoker's Dracula-and is one of three classic vampire stories also available from Black Coat Press.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1865
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328 people want to read
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 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 29, 2019
Early in 1804, the salons and dram houses of Paris teem with conspirators against Napoleon Bonaparte—some desiring revenge, some hoping to prevent him from becoming emperor. Against this backdrop, an unusual vampiress hatches a plot of her own. There's unusually good fishing along the Quai de Bethune in Paris—because the fish have been feeding on all the bodies that someone has been dumping there.
While the novel is unnecessarily complicated with political details from the Napoleonic Era (and the later era of Napoleon II, but in disguise), the story is quite interesting. I would suggest modern readers skip over the overly long and irrelevant Forward and jump right into the story. In fact, you might want to skim much of the first chapter.
Things pick up when we are introduced to the hero, Sévérin. OK, we're not actually given his name for a few chapters, but he's still the man to watch. He's watching an unnamed girl, Angela, who is watching an unnamed man, René. Did Féval think going chapters without naming his characters was clever? Yeah, apparently.
But seriously, once the characters get their names, the story becomes much more interesting and even engrossing.
The nominal hero or at least the love interest, is René de Kervoz of Hungary. The problem is, he loves both Angela and Lila (the evil Countess in disguise). He's much like Stoker's Jonathan Harker—a bit dim-witted and obtuse, attracted to vampire women despite having a lovely fiance at home, yet willing to strike at the vampiric threat at the end. Like Lucy Westenra, the Countess Marian Gregoryi is engaged to three men at one point.
Actually, there's more similarity between this novel and Le Fanu's Carmilla (1871). Addhema, like Mircalla, insists that her victims must first love her. Like Mircalla, Addhema, appears to be the victim—enslaved by a mysterious master or entity, maybe even a curse. They both take fake identities. And, it would seem, both vampire women have a taste for... chocolate??
Near the middle, there are a series of scenes with the pompous M. Berthellemot that are, although filled with extraneous references to incidents in French history, truly comical. And frightening in their implications.
Perhaps the most striking imagery occurs in the final chapter, in which all the heroes are left behind and it is the vampiress Addhema who steals the show.
“The Vampire Countess” is clearly the work of a hack writer, paid by the word to fill a the pages of a serial, but Féval was an inspired hack. It's filled with intrigue, adventure, action, tragedy, lots of comedy, and not much horror. But none of these things are developed as well as they could be. The story has more plot holes and incomplete threads than several seasons of some television dramas.
Yet, for its comedic bits, and for a truly unique form of vampire, it's a book well worth reading. Some of the writing is very evocative. Vampire completists must not miss it.
While the novel is unnecessarily complicated with political details from the Napoleonic Era (and the later era of Napoleon II, but in disguise), the story is quite interesting. I would suggest modern readers skip over the overly long and irrelevant Forward and jump right into the story. In fact, you might want to skim much of the first chapter.
Things pick up when we are introduced to the hero, Sévérin. OK, we're not actually given his name for a few chapters, but he's still the man to watch. He's watching an unnamed girl, Angela, who is watching an unnamed man, René. Did Féval think going chapters without naming his characters was clever? Yeah, apparently.
But seriously, once the characters get their names, the story becomes much more interesting and even engrossing.
The nominal hero or at least the love interest, is René de Kervoz of Hungary. The problem is, he loves both Angela and Lila (the evil Countess in disguise). He's much like Stoker's Jonathan Harker—a bit dim-witted and obtuse, attracted to vampire women despite having a lovely fiance at home, yet willing to strike at the vampiric threat at the end. Like Lucy Westenra, the Countess Marian Gregoryi is engaged to three men at one point.
Actually, there's more similarity between this novel and Le Fanu's Carmilla (1871). Addhema, like Mircalla, insists that her victims must first love her. Like Mircalla, Addhema, appears to be the victim—enslaved by a mysterious master or entity, maybe even a curse. They both take fake identities. And, it would seem, both vampire women have a taste for... chocolate??
Near the middle, there are a series of scenes with the pompous M. Berthellemot that are, although filled with extraneous references to incidents in French history, truly comical. And frightening in their implications.
Perhaps the most striking imagery occurs in the final chapter, in which all the heroes are left behind and it is the vampiress Addhema who steals the show.
“The Vampire Countess” is clearly the work of a hack writer, paid by the word to fill a the pages of a serial, but Féval was an inspired hack. It's filled with intrigue, adventure, action, tragedy, lots of comedy, and not much horror. But none of these things are developed as well as they could be. The story has more plot holes and incomplete threads than several seasons of some television dramas.
Yet, for its comedic bits, and for a truly unique form of vampire, it's a book well worth reading. Some of the writing is very evocative. Vampire completists must not miss it.
August 13, 2015
Deduct two stars from my rating if you do not consider the schlocky vampire novel to be a serious literary form.
In his day Paul Feval was a wildly popular writer of serialized Swashbuckler novels. During the 1850s he briefly departed this dubious genre to try his hand at Vampire novels. As Bram Stoker's Dracula would not appear for another 40 years, Feval's book was the first attempt at a modern "Vampire" novel. Many of his innovations are still with us.
The great strength of the novel is the protagonist Vampire, the beautiful and bewitching Countess Marcian Gregoryi, a Central European ghoul who speaks Latin with a strong Hungarian accent. She is dazzling, witty, and a proliferate seductress who will ultimately be undone because she wants love more than eternal life. She will be slain by Rene de Kervoz, a handsome young nobleman from Brittany, who is filled with remorse for having slept with the Countess once he learns that his fiance was one of the Countess' victims.
The big problem with the book is that the great writer of Swashbucklers is uncharacteristically inept in "La Vampire". The plot takes too long to develop and is utterly devoid of suspense. The Countess is a wonderful character but her victims and pursuers are remarkably insipid. The reading experience is saved only by the fact that the divine Countess occupies a much greater position in the second half of the novel than the first.
Another problem with "La Vampire" for the North American reader is that a large part of the novel is devoted to a satire of French political life under the Second Empire just after Napoleon III has proclaimed himself Emperor. Feval prudently sets his novel in the first decade of the 1800's just before Napoleon I declares himself emperor. He creates a conspiratorial group called the Freres de la Vertu that plans to assassinate Napoleon. The members of the Freres de la Vertu fall into two camps. One is composed of true progressives who think that Napoleon has betrayed the revolution. The second is composed of monarchists who wish to restore the Bourbon dynasty. Feval is obviously poking fun at the Second Empire where Napoleon III governed from the middle with his opposition coming from the radical left and the monarchist right. I did not find this political commentary to have been particularly well done and I am sure that most English speaking North Americans will simply find it to be too obscure.
If you like Vampire novels and believe that you can increase your understanding of the genre by studying the seminal works then you should read this charming work from the 1850s. Ideally you will be able to find a free copy on the Internet as I did.
In his day Paul Feval was a wildly popular writer of serialized Swashbuckler novels. During the 1850s he briefly departed this dubious genre to try his hand at Vampire novels. As Bram Stoker's Dracula would not appear for another 40 years, Feval's book was the first attempt at a modern "Vampire" novel. Many of his innovations are still with us.
The great strength of the novel is the protagonist Vampire, the beautiful and bewitching Countess Marcian Gregoryi, a Central European ghoul who speaks Latin with a strong Hungarian accent. She is dazzling, witty, and a proliferate seductress who will ultimately be undone because she wants love more than eternal life. She will be slain by Rene de Kervoz, a handsome young nobleman from Brittany, who is filled with remorse for having slept with the Countess once he learns that his fiance was one of the Countess' victims.
The big problem with the book is that the great writer of Swashbucklers is uncharacteristically inept in "La Vampire". The plot takes too long to develop and is utterly devoid of suspense. The Countess is a wonderful character but her victims and pursuers are remarkably insipid. The reading experience is saved only by the fact that the divine Countess occupies a much greater position in the second half of the novel than the first.
Another problem with "La Vampire" for the North American reader is that a large part of the novel is devoted to a satire of French political life under the Second Empire just after Napoleon III has proclaimed himself Emperor. Feval prudently sets his novel in the first decade of the 1800's just before Napoleon I declares himself emperor. He creates a conspiratorial group called the Freres de la Vertu that plans to assassinate Napoleon. The members of the Freres de la Vertu fall into two camps. One is composed of true progressives who think that Napoleon has betrayed the revolution. The second is composed of monarchists who wish to restore the Bourbon dynasty. Feval is obviously poking fun at the Second Empire where Napoleon III governed from the middle with his opposition coming from the radical left and the monarchist right. I did not find this political commentary to have been particularly well done and I am sure that most English speaking North Americans will simply find it to be too obscure.
If you like Vampire novels and believe that you can increase your understanding of the genre by studying the seminal works then you should read this charming work from the 1850s. Ideally you will be able to find a free copy on the Internet as I did.
December 27, 2014
True horror fiction from the Romantic period, interlaced with comedy. Féval does not dwell on gruesome details, but rather on psychology, and the chilling story of those trampled by the forces of evil.
Although there are many comic elements, the tale is essentially a tragedy, and bad things happen to good people. Like Joss Whedon, Féval is unafraid of causing characters you care about to experience pointless suffering and death. You have been warned.
Although Féval reveals his familiarity with the 'classic' blood-drinking vampire in an early chapter, this 'vampire' is not of that ilk. There are similarities: the theme of 'death in life and life in death' for example. This 'vampire' clearly subsists by devouring the life force of others. The tone of seduction that lurks in the background of Stoker's Dracula (which 'La Vamire' predates by three decades) is front and center in Féval's novel.
One finds many of the typical characteristics of fiction from this period: for example fascination with the psychedelic experience, and the dream state, where the narrator is for example uncertain whether the experience is real or only a dream.
Another trait that foreshadows the theatre of the 'Grand Guignol' is the interlacing of comic and horrific elements. We see hopeful crowds lured by the myth of a miraculous fish containing a giant diamond ring, all with their fishing lines in the Seine. We meet a useless bureaucrat who is pedantic and pompous in a way that only a French bureaucrat can be.
Also, this story is entangled with the history of the conflict between Royalists (supporters of the monarch) and Republicans (supporters of Napoleon), and clearly the author is on the side of the Republicans, as was Dumas, for example. I found it useful to look up George Cadoudal, who plays a significant rôle as one the conspirators who attempted to assassinate Napoleon.
This is the second novel I've completed reading/listening in French. The vocabulary is similar to the first (Dame aux Camélias) and Féval even mentions 'la Dame' in one of the chapters. However, Féval's eloquent variation is such that I found many more unfamiliar words in this book, which is about the same length. For example, in one section he found three entirely different sets of phrases to describe a 'pile of rubble.'
Numerically (according to my dictionary app's flashcard collections), I had to look up 336 words in 'Dame,' compared with 458 in 'Vampire.' An odd window on a work of fiction, but there it is.
Although there are many comic elements, the tale is essentially a tragedy, and bad things happen to good people. Like Joss Whedon, Féval is unafraid of causing characters you care about to experience pointless suffering and death. You have been warned.
Although Féval reveals his familiarity with the 'classic' blood-drinking vampire in an early chapter, this 'vampire' is not of that ilk. There are similarities: the theme of 'death in life and life in death' for example. This 'vampire' clearly subsists by devouring the life force of others. The tone of seduction that lurks in the background of Stoker's Dracula (which 'La Vamire' predates by three decades) is front and center in Féval's novel.
One finds many of the typical characteristics of fiction from this period: for example fascination with the psychedelic experience, and the dream state, where the narrator is for example uncertain whether the experience is real or only a dream.
Another trait that foreshadows the theatre of the 'Grand Guignol' is the interlacing of comic and horrific elements. We see hopeful crowds lured by the myth of a miraculous fish containing a giant diamond ring, all with their fishing lines in the Seine. We meet a useless bureaucrat who is pedantic and pompous in a way that only a French bureaucrat can be.
Also, this story is entangled with the history of the conflict between Royalists (supporters of the monarch) and Republicans (supporters of Napoleon), and clearly the author is on the side of the Republicans, as was Dumas, for example. I found it useful to look up George Cadoudal, who plays a significant rôle as one the conspirators who attempted to assassinate Napoleon.
This is the second novel I've completed reading/listening in French. The vocabulary is similar to the first (Dame aux Camélias) and Féval even mentions 'la Dame' in one of the chapters. However, Féval's eloquent variation is such that I found many more unfamiliar words in this book, which is about the same length. For example, in one section he found three entirely different sets of phrases to describe a 'pile of rubble.'
Numerically (according to my dictionary app's flashcard collections), I had to look up 336 words in 'Dame,' compared with 458 in 'Vampire.' An odd window on a work of fiction, but there it is.
December 2, 2024
Je suis navre'e mais j'ai trouve'e que ce livre ne m'avais pas du tout guarde' mon interesse.
Sorry, but this book did not keep my interest at all.
Sorry, but this book did not keep my interest at all.
Want to read
February 10, 2011I need diversions from real life....this 1855 French vampire novel should do it. Feval wrote about seventy novels. Mostly outrageous pulpy stuff about diabolical criminal masterminds.
June 13, 2022
Un classique que j'ai depuis plusieurs années et que j'ai enfin sorti de ma PAL. Malheureusement pour moi, je n'ai pas forcément apprécié…
Le fait est que je n'ai rien compris! Il m'a fallu des plombes pour comprendre ce qu'il se passait, j'ai failli l'abandonné à la moitié, … Enfin soit. Finalement, je me suis dit que, qui dit classique, dit accès libre à l'audio! Donc je l'ai écouté ces deux dernier jours pour finir plus vite ma lecture.
Mais je l'ai trouvé intéressant à dire tout de même, je pense juste que ce n'est pas le genre littéraire- classique + policier + fantastique - qui a accroché avec moi.
Je suis quand même fière de moi de l'avoir lu et d'avoir testé ce type de livre "type lecture scolaire" de mon plein gré.
Le fait est que je n'ai rien compris! Il m'a fallu des plombes pour comprendre ce qu'il se passait, j'ai failli l'abandonné à la moitié, … Enfin soit. Finalement, je me suis dit que, qui dit classique, dit accès libre à l'audio! Donc je l'ai écouté ces deux dernier jours pour finir plus vite ma lecture.
Mais je l'ai trouvé intéressant à dire tout de même, je pense juste que ce n'est pas le genre littéraire- classique + policier + fantastique - qui a accroché avec moi.
Je suis quand même fière de moi de l'avoir lu et d'avoir testé ce type de livre "type lecture scolaire" de mon plein gré.
July 12, 2024
L'auteur passe beaucoup de temps au début à se moquer de la tradition gothique, notamment celle venue de l'étranger. Mais le résultat est que son ouvrage est plat et sans intérêt, et mélé d'une bonne dose de misogynie. Dommage, l'histoire aurait pu être intéressante.
April 17, 2016
The goriest details of the story are mostly left to the imagination. The story then it's as terrifying as the imagination of the reader with some subtle clues from the author to guide it. I think the "methodology" used by the vampire to steal the force of life from her victims is one of the most original ideas about vampires that I have ever read.
The vampire is this incredibly beautiful young woman that brings darkness wherever she goes. All the shadows she casts are unnoticed at first and her appearance seems to dazzle everyone around her in such a way, that she is free to commit monstrous acts without being caught on time.
As interesting as the story is, I think there is an underlying misogynistic message because all the traits that make the vampire beautiful are used to highlight how she is a monster that needs to be stopped. Her freedom, her cleverness, her beauty, and her femininity scare the male protagonists.
The vampire is this incredibly beautiful young woman that brings darkness wherever she goes. All the shadows she casts are unnoticed at first and her appearance seems to dazzle everyone around her in such a way, that she is free to commit monstrous acts without being caught on time.
As interesting as the story is, I think there is an underlying misogynistic message because all the traits that make the vampire beautiful are used to highlight how she is a monster that needs to be stopped. Her freedom, her cleverness, her beauty, and her femininity scare the male protagonists.
December 22, 2016
In vita mors, in morte vita (in death, life; in life, death) is the motto of the beautiful Countess Addhema, the vampire countess.
If you are interested in early vampire literature, then this book is a must. It is not your Dracula type of vampire. There is also a sub plot about an assassination attempt on Napoleon. There is supernatural and horror throughout the novel and to me, an almost Dumas flavor of storytelling.
I am glad I have read this novel, I discovered a new vampire novel and author. I would like to thank The Gothic Wanderer blog for bringing this novel to me attention.
If you are interested in early vampire literature, then this book is a must. It is not your Dracula type of vampire. There is also a sub plot about an assassination attempt on Napoleon. There is supernatural and horror throughout the novel and to me, an almost Dumas flavor of storytelling.
I am glad I have read this novel, I discovered a new vampire novel and author. I would like to thank The Gothic Wanderer blog for bringing this novel to me attention.
April 4, 2019
Grand livre de poche
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews