A review by flappermyrtle
The Blood of the Vampire by Florence Marryat
3.0
This novel, published in the same year as Dracula, is also referred to as "the other vampire novel". I'd argue this is an astute naming, indeed, on several levels.
Firstly, because I managed to finish this one easily, while having attempted to read Dracula several times now, and have every time given up at some point halfway through because it just didn't engage me. Well, this novel certainly did - it is grotesque, scandalous, posits some very problematic issues having to do with race, gender and class. In addition to this, it features several characters that are just deliciously bad, caricatures perhaps, but very well executed, and with enough of a kernel of reality to make one a little uncomfortable. This is popular fiction, clearly, and it does not pretend to be any more, though it is indeed a very interesting read to provide one with insights into current issues the fin de siecle.
Secondly, Marryat's vampire is a very different vampire from Stoker's. Expecting a kind of female Dracula, a femme fatale with fangs, this novel surprised me with its psychological incarnation of vampirism - one perhaps more scary than the traditional one exactly because the author keeps skirting around the issue, and the truth of the matter is never truly revealed - it could, in the end, still be bad luck rather than the vampire bat's curse. The essential difference, for me, was Harriet's own ignorance of the effect she has on others, and the tragic conclusion she comes to once she finds this out. It is a type of muted gothic that is still frightening in its 'realism'.
Thirdly, this novel is about women, and not dusty letters from one man to another. All different sorts of women, young and old, beautiful and ugly, rich and poor, powerful and powerless. Which made it very appealing to me; even the heroine is not an average Victorian heroine, with her mood swings and overt craving of affection - she has faults, and these are never fully redeemed. The novel, like Dracula, shows women can be victimized by society - by real men, not just fantastic vampires - as well as how they might attempt to take matters into their own hands.
As for critique: Marryat thinks of punctuation as a guide line rather than actual rules. The novel bursts with exclamation marks, which really bothered me at times. It is, furthermore, not a subtle novel, and the story line is fairly straightforward and unembellished, uncomplicated - perhaps a little too simple. But, in its defense, can I just say that it is truly a pleasure to read a novel in public that has a naked woman with bat wings on the cover?
Firstly, because I managed to finish this one easily, while having attempted to read Dracula several times now, and have every time given up at some point halfway through because it just didn't engage me. Well, this novel certainly did - it is grotesque, scandalous, posits some very problematic issues having to do with race, gender and class. In addition to this, it features several characters that are just deliciously bad, caricatures perhaps, but very well executed, and with enough of a kernel of reality to make one a little uncomfortable. This is popular fiction, clearly, and it does not pretend to be any more, though it is indeed a very interesting read to provide one with insights into current issues the fin de siecle.
Secondly, Marryat's vampire is a very different vampire from Stoker's. Expecting a kind of female Dracula, a femme fatale with fangs, this novel surprised me with its psychological incarnation of vampirism - one perhaps more scary than the traditional one exactly because the author keeps skirting around the issue, and the truth of the matter is never truly revealed - it could, in the end, still be bad luck rather than the vampire bat's curse. The essential difference, for me, was Harriet's own ignorance of the effect she has on others, and the tragic conclusion she comes to once she finds this out. It is a type of muted gothic that is still frightening in its 'realism'.
Thirdly, this novel is about women, and not dusty letters from one man to another. All different sorts of women, young and old, beautiful and ugly, rich and poor, powerful and powerless. Which made it very appealing to me; even the heroine is not an average Victorian heroine, with her mood swings and overt craving of affection - she has faults, and these are never fully redeemed. The novel, like Dracula, shows women can be victimized by society - by real men, not just fantastic vampires - as well as how they might attempt to take matters into their own hands.
As for critique: Marryat thinks of punctuation as a guide line rather than actual rules. The novel bursts with exclamation marks, which really bothered me at times. It is, furthermore, not a subtle novel, and the story line is fairly straightforward and unembellished, uncomplicated - perhaps a little too simple. But, in its defense, can I just say that it is truly a pleasure to read a novel in public that has a naked woman with bat wings on the cover?