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abi_allxn's review
5.0
Full review incoming!
Overall
I enjoyed this! I really appreciated the range of different kinds of vampires in this book - there were lots of very interesting tales on what a ‘vampire’ is. I also very much appreciated how out-of-print and obscure texts only printed in pamphlets were brought together here, as well as the attempt made at making the collection vaguely international, although it was just that - vaguely international, still leaning heavily towards British and American texts. In the introduction to Morley Roberts' The Blood Fetish, the narrator alluded to African traditions of vampire stories, and so I thought it was a shame that this, the only 'African' story included in the book, was another British text, inspired by Africa. It was also a shame that the majority of the stories were written around the turn of the nineteenth-century, but I suppose that's partly down to the nature of the content?
I listened to this as an audiobook so idk if I've spelled the titles right...
Pu Songling, The Blood Drinking Corpse (1679) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Short but powerful.
William Henry Giles Kingston, The Vampire, or Pedro Pasheiko and the Brusha (1863) - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
An interesting take on what a ‘vampire’ is. It kind of sets up a theme for the rest of the collection (and vampire literature more broadly), which is that a LOT of men seeming to be writing about sexy scary women taking their life force…!
Mary Fortune, The White Maniac: a Doctor's Tale (1867) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
See my separate review here.
George John Whyte-Melville, Madam de Sancroix (1869) - ⭐️
Can’t remember this so it can’t have been that good.
Sabine Baring-Gould, Marjorie of Quether (1884) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The first part dragged but then things started getting good. The only thing is, I’m not sure you can have a plot which drags at times and a deeply unlikeable narrator - I feel like you have to choose.
Bram Stoker, Count Wampyre (1890) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Kind of felt out of place here, but it was interesting to include. Everyone loves a bit of Stoker lore.
Julian Osgood Field, A Kiss of Judas (1893) - ⭐⭐⭐
The first bit of this was good, then it just got really confusing. Although the part where the was delightfully creepy. Much like many of the books here, this was a good take on vampire lore / what vampires are, etc.
Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Herself (1894) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Another excellent take on what it means to be a vampire! Genius! I’ll definitely be reading more of Braddon’s work.
Prof. P. Jones, The Priest and His Cook (1895) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The ‘Priest and his Cook’ was pretty funny - an excellent twist on what it means to be a 'vampire'. However, this was excerpted from a full-length novel The Probatim: A Slav Novel, which contains a number of Savic folktales - I guess this is one of them, although the introduction doesn’t make that entirely clear. This story is preceded by the phrase “The old man complied willingly above all as Vranic had bought a bucara of wine with him, so he at once began the story of:” Within the larger novel, this story is meant to jokingly illustrate to a character (The Tailor) that he can’t possibly know a real vampire - for this is “only a story” - except he does, and then the excerpt here continues on, detailing that man’s troubles with the vampire. That part of the story was good, too, but I’d have preferred it if here we only had the actual story of ‘The Priest and His Cook’.
Dick Donovan, The Woman with the Oily Eyes (1899) - - ⭐⭐⭐⭐️
Fairly solid, but just lacking something for me. Maybe it's just that I felt kinda bad for the characters.
Dick Donovan, The Story of Annette: From Official Records (being the sequel to The Woman with the Oily Eyes) (1899) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
So Dick Donovan is the pseudonym of 'the prolific author' James Edward Muddock and is a fictional author-detective - I really like the idea of including this extra component to The Woman with the Oily Eyes as it reads like Donovan's own case notes, which helps bring the author-character to life. I actually preferred this to the first story.
Hugh Mccrae, The Vampire (1901) - ⭐
This was very short and I didn't really get it. The narrator went out for oysters with a vampire he fancied? Ok? I can barely remember this - it really didn't stand out.
Phil Robinson, Medusa (1902) - ⭐⭐
Kinda standard. Shout-out to Oxford lol. It would be nice if American narrators maybe Googled how to pronounce English place names / words before recording an audiobook.
R. Murray Gilchrist, The Lovers' Ordeal (1905) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Lionel Sparrow, The Vengeance of the Dead (1907) - ⭐⭐⭐️
BAD Australian accent time. This was ok. It involved
Morley Roberts, The Blood Fetish (1909) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This was great, another great twist on what it means to be a 'vampire'. Also the academic beef was a bonus. I just don't think you can say this is an 'African tale'.
Appendix:
Charles Dickens Jr., Vampires and Gouls (1871) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I really liked this. I'm not entirely sure why it was included as an appendix, rather than in the main body of text in publication order - I suspect because this is non-fiction, but then Stoker's notes were included in the main body, too, and they surely also count as non-fiction?
Overall
I enjoyed this! I really appreciated the range of different kinds of vampires in this book - there were lots of very interesting tales on what a ‘vampire’ is. I also very much appreciated how out-of-print and obscure texts only printed in pamphlets were brought together here, as well as the attempt made at making the collection vaguely international, although it was just that - vaguely international, still leaning heavily towards British and American texts. In the introduction to Morley Roberts' The Blood Fetish, the narrator alluded to African traditions of vampire stories, and so I thought it was a shame that this, the only 'African' story included in the book, was another British text, inspired by Africa. It was also a shame that the majority of the stories were written around the turn of the nineteenth-century, but I suppose that's partly down to the nature of the content?
I listened to this as an audiobook so idk if I've spelled the titles right...
Pu Songling, The Blood Drinking Corpse (1679) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Short but powerful.
William Henry Giles Kingston, The Vampire, or Pedro Pasheiko and the Brusha (1863) - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
An interesting take on what a ‘vampire’ is. It kind of sets up a theme for the rest of the collection (and vampire literature more broadly), which is that a LOT of men seeming to be writing about sexy scary women taking their life force…!
Mary Fortune, The White Maniac: a Doctor's Tale (1867) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
See my separate review here.
George John Whyte-Melville, Madam de Sancroix (1869) - ⭐️
Can’t remember this so it can’t have been that good.
Sabine Baring-Gould, Marjorie of Quether (1884) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The first part dragged but then things started getting good. The only thing is, I’m not sure you can have a plot which drags at times and a deeply unlikeable narrator - I feel like you have to choose.
Bram Stoker, Count Wampyre (1890) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Kind of felt out of place here, but it was interesting to include. Everyone loves a bit of Stoker lore.
Julian Osgood Field, A Kiss of Judas (1893) - ⭐⭐⭐
The first bit of this was good, then it just got really confusing. Although the part where the
Spoiler
man crawls out of the riverMary Elizabeth Braddon, Herself (1894) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Another excellent take on what it means to be a vampire! Genius! I’ll definitely be reading more of Braddon’s work.
Prof. P. Jones, The Priest and His Cook (1895) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The ‘Priest and his Cook’ was pretty funny - an excellent twist on what it means to be a 'vampire'. However, this was excerpted from a full-length novel The Probatim: A Slav Novel, which contains a number of Savic folktales - I guess this is one of them, although the introduction doesn’t make that entirely clear. This story is preceded by the phrase “The old man complied willingly above all as Vranic had bought a bucara of wine with him, so he at once began the story of:” Within the larger novel, this story is meant to jokingly illustrate to a character (The Tailor) that he can’t possibly know a real vampire - for this is “only a story” - except he does, and then the excerpt here continues on, detailing that man’s troubles with the vampire. That part of the story was good, too, but I’d have preferred it if here we only had the actual story of ‘The Priest and His Cook’.
Dick Donovan, The Woman with the Oily Eyes (1899) - - ⭐⭐⭐⭐️
Fairly solid, but just lacking something for me. Maybe it's just that I felt kinda bad for the characters.
Dick Donovan, The Story of Annette: From Official Records (being the sequel to The Woman with the Oily Eyes) (1899) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
So Dick Donovan is the pseudonym of 'the prolific author' James Edward Muddock and is a fictional author-detective - I really like the idea of including this extra component to The Woman with the Oily Eyes as it reads like Donovan's own case notes, which helps bring the author-character to life. I actually preferred this to the first story.
Hugh Mccrae, The Vampire (1901) - ⭐
This was very short and I didn't really get it. The narrator went out for oysters with a vampire he fancied? Ok? I can barely remember this - it really didn't stand out.
Phil Robinson, Medusa (1902) - ⭐⭐
Kinda standard. Shout-out to Oxford lol. It would be nice if American narrators maybe Googled how to pronounce English place names / words before recording an audiobook.
R. Murray Gilchrist, The Lovers' Ordeal (1905) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spoiler
Maybe I'm a sadist but I'd have liked this more if it didn't all end happily.Lionel Sparrow, The Vengeance of the Dead (1907) - ⭐⭐⭐️
BAD Australian accent time. This was ok. It involved
Spoiler
time- and space-travelling priests? I think?Morley Roberts, The Blood Fetish (1909) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This was great, another great twist on what it means to be a 'vampire'. Also the academic beef was a bonus. I just don't think you can say this is an 'African tale'.
Appendix:
Charles Dickens Jr., Vampires and Gouls (1871) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I really liked this. I'm not entirely sure why it was included as an appendix, rather than in the main body of text in publication order - I suspect because this is non-fiction, but then Stoker's notes were included in the main body, too, and they surely also count as non-fiction?
pizzamcpin3ppl3's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
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