Varney, the Vampire, Or, The Feast of Blood

✍ Scribed by James Malcolm Rymer; Thomas Peckett Prest

• Book ID: 111948743
• Publisher: e-artnow
• Year: 2021
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 498 KB
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN: 1588735877

✦ Synopsis

Sir Francis Varney, a titled gentleman of high standing and noble bearing, dies at the end of a rope. But a medical student resurrects him. This turns him into a freak, who comes alive when bathed in moonlight. He is condemned to immortality, and an eternal diet of blood - human's blood.

Impelled to kill to stay alive, Varney attacks on stormy nights, howling like a man in torment - which he is, his soul anguished at what he must do. His bloodlust knows no limits as his rampage escalates.

Only one man can stop his bloodfest: Varney himself. Because even though he is a grotesque image of his former self, free from human constraints and morals, his soul isn't as evil as his deeds. He hates killing, and yearns for his own death. When his exploits become intolerable, he decides to destroy himself. Death by drowning puts an end to his existence. Temporarily. Found and presumed dead, he is buried. However, moonbeams enter his tomb, restoring him to his murderous ways.

AND THE KILLINGS BEGIN ANEW...

With anaemic countenance, eyes like burnished bronze, bestial fangs, and talon-like nails, Varney isn’t as charismatic or as sensual as Count Dracula, Bram Stoker's more famous (or infamous) bloodsucker. Varney, however, is every bit as barbarous and bloodthirsty: his eyes mesmerise his victims; his nails gouge out their throat; and his fangs quaff their blood by the veinful.

First published by E. Lloyd, Esq., Salisbury Square, London, ‘Varney the Vampire’ appeared in the Penny Dreadful rags in the 1840s - a full half a century before Count Dracula first sank canine into alabaster flesh. Published anonymously, debate has raged over the identity of the author: some say James Malcolm Rymer, some - such as ourselves - say Thomas Preskett Prest.

Whoever really scribed the epic vampire tale, he was a man inspired (perhaps by an even earlier bloodsucker, such as Polidori's 'The Vampyre', which was also resurrected in a penny dreadful), not to say obsessed. Because in all he jotted down 209 weekly instalments of one of literature's most terrifying tomes.