Book of the Week: Varney The Vampire: Or "The Feast Of Blood" by Thomas Preskett Prest

With Dracula, many romantic images are conceived in today's readers minds. They attribute a good deal of the mythos to that particular novel, and for good reason...it was pretty popular, but did you know this one came pretty much half a century before, and was the true progenitor of many of the tropes we still use today in vampire stories?

There's plenty of awesome 'penny dreadfuls' out there worth browsing through if you like yourself something a little campy, a little gory, and perhaps a little tasteless...but few so long, and rarely do they receive much attention today ('The String of Pearls' aside, which you may know by the name 'Sweeney Todd'.)

Essentially it's a soap opera. In fact, fans of Dark Shadows might even consider Varney awfully similar to Barnabas Collins in his journey, at times sympathetic, and other times absolutely despicable. Anyway, it's a fun romp, and an important mile stone in Gothic literature, well worth the read (over perhaps several dozen sittings.)

Book(s) Of the Week: "Carmilla"

Carmilla

By Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

When I was about 8, my mom went about getting rid of several crates of books she'd collected over the years. It was an annual thing to clean house by making a Goodwill donation stop. Of course I couldn't understand why she'd get rid of so many, so on our way there I dug through the crates. This particular book stood out to me, so I kept it and read it. The cover I posted in this article is the edition of Carmilla I found. There was something very alluring about the way the illustrator drew the girl's red hair. To this day I am glad I kept that book, because it became one of my favorites.

Some stories reach through time and refuse to age. The language used in them is neither overly-flowery nor simple. Carmilla is one of them.

Don't let the many erotic covers, the Hammer adaptations (pumped up with 3 times the sexuality, thanks to the gorgeous Ingrid Pitt) or loose interpretations of Carmilla fool you. It is a wonderful novella from the Gothic period which serves as one of the best ways to introduce a person to the style.

It is about Laura, a young girl telling of her experiences with a beautiful woman named Carmilla. Admittedly, there are some erotic undertones to that element. But what I find strangest about Carmilla, is that there is one particular aspect of the story that gets taken and used in the countless film/television adaptations of Dracula. Despite her lack of humanity and the darkness that lurks behind Carmilla's nature...I always felt she loved Laura. She genuinely loved her in a small way only a soul-less monster of the night could.

The atmosphere is excellent, the story is a classic. If you are an avid fan of anything vampire-related, but you aren't yet ready to tackle Dracula or Varney, this is the perfect stepping stone into the classic genre.