Scan barcode
emilybryk's review against another edition
I just can't. Honestly, despite getting it free (not even for a penny! how dreadful!), I can't slog my way through this one.
jpcolkitt9190's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
CONS
1. Too many stories within the book that had nothing to do with the plot or helped the plot.
2. Can be a little repetitive
3. One of the characters in the beginning is almost completely forgotten and is only alluded too and not even mentioned by name.
PROS
1.story line
2. How I imagine a vampire to be
3. The mob mentality
4. All characters have there own personalities.
Varney the vampire is 100x better than Dracula.
1. Too many stories within the book that had nothing to do with the plot or helped the plot.
2. Can be a little repetitive
3. One of the characters in the beginning is almost completely forgotten and is only alluded too and not even mentioned by name.
PROS
1.story line
2. How I imagine a vampire to be
3. The mob mentality
4. All characters have there own personalities.
Varney the vampire is 100x better than Dracula.
zeloco's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
roxanamalinachirila's review against another edition
2.0
Full title, according to the cover of the first issue of this penny dreadful novel:
“Varney, the Vampire
- or the Feast of Blood -
A Romance of Exciting Interest”
First of all, holy mother of long novels, this was LONG. I think it’s the longest published novel I’ve ever read.
When I decided I wanted to read it, I downloaded the Project Gutenberg version. Everybody’s seen Dickens novels, so I’ll just say it was 330,000 words long, which is slightly shorter than Bleak House, and vaguely longer than Our Mutual Friend.
Little did I know that the Gutenberg version isn’t complete – only about half of it is there, and the rest is hard to find on the internet (But not impossible).
“Varney” is actually longer than “War and Peace”, and considerably less action-packed.
Because it's relatively unknown and reading it in its entirety is a bit of a commitment, I'll write a longer review than usual, with a full summary of the book.
But first, what's it about, right?
"Varney, the Vampire" was published in 1845-1847. It was a penny dreadful, which means it came out in weekly installments, each costing a penny. There are no pretenses that this is high art - and even the authorship is debated.
"Varney" came before Dracula and before our concepts of what a vampire is solidified. He can walk in the sunlight, but moonlight really makes his vampiric nature shine. It revives him if he's died again, and it makes him stronger if he's weak. He can eat normal food, but it doesn't agree with him. If he dies, the entirety of nature conspires to bring him into the moonlight to revive him again. He can never get rest - for once, it's pretty clear why being an immortal vampire is a curse, not a blessing.
The book itself is strangely down-to-earth, especially in the first part. In fact, it often reads like the author himself couldn't decide whether Varney was a vampire or a scoundrel. In the first half of the novel, he has huge money issues and he does his best to get his hands on a fortune, the way a scoundrel would.
The main characters don't even know whether he's a vampire at all, or if it's a trick to swindle them - they eventually decide it's a trick. Later on, it's revealed that he was a vampire pretending to be a gentleman, pretending to be a vampire. I bet the author himself didn't know that to start with.
Varney is a very depressed, sad, gallant figure. He seems to want to get his way, but preferably without harming anyone - if he can frighten instead of harm, it's all for the good. (Except he does kill people in cold blood a few times)
This might sound cool, but it's very long and very uneven, with splatterings of purple prose and passages which seem to have been inserted for the word count.
And, since I promised a summary...
The first chapter is quite cool and gothic. Flora Bannerworth is asleep in her bed, when the dreaded vampire makes its way into her chamber and proceeds to suck her blood. She screams for help, and her two brothers, Henry and George Bannerworth, rush to her aid, along with their friend, Marchdale, who happens to be staying with them and their mother for awhile.
The attacker looks EXACTLY like the portrait of one of their ancestors, who's been dead a hundred years. If you remember this throughout the book, your memory is better than the author's. Varney gets a different origin story by the end.
In chapters 2-10, Henry, George, Marchdale and the local doctor go off to check the coffin of the Bannerworth ancestor who resembles the vampire. There's nobody there!
Meanwhile, the vampire shows up at the house, who's shot by Flora. After this deed of bravery, she turns around and swoons in the arms of her fiancee, Charles Holland, who happened to arrive from the continent precisely in time to make sure she doesn't get any bruises from collapsing on the floor. A true romantic hero!
In chapters 11-26, people fret. Francis Varney (rrooooolll credits), a neighbor of the Bannerworths, says he wants to buy their house, which is quickly losing value since it has a vampire attached. The fact that he looks precisely like that vampire is Highly Suspicious to everyone.
Charles Holland's uncle, admiral Bell, shows up along with his friend, the sailor Jack Pringle. They're a bit of comic relief and they speak in ocean-related terms a lot (it gets tiring, and then it starts being cute again).
There's a lot of fretting, but not much going on. The vampire keeps showing up, then running off. Sir Francis Varney is repeatedly challenged to about a million duels.
When the author forgets where he's going, he has a character read a story, and we read that story instead of the usual chapter.
In chapter 27, Charles Holland vanishes. We later find out he's been kidnapped by Varney and Marchdale, the friend of the Bannerworths who was staying with them, and trapped in some old ruins. He'll eventually be set free - and Marchdale will die a terrible death, squashed to death when the old ruins collapse over him. This happens in chapter... 75? Maybe?
Seriously, he's gone half the arc. And Marchdale would be a good Disney villain.
In chapters 28-39, we find out Varney owes people money. He later persuades Flora that he wants to suck her blood because he loves her - therefore, she should run far, far away. Because this isn't "Twilight", she thinks this is a very sensible idea, but the people around her want to catch the vampire, so she can't leave, either.
Varney actually fights a duel, but refuses to shoot at his opponent. He's such a gentleman.
The phrase "interview with the vampyre" shows up in chapter 36.
In chapters 40-89, we meet the most remarkable character in the book: the mob. (I'll capitalize it, because heck.) The Mob is truly frightening, and when it gets going, it stops at nothing. It's superstitious and it wants to kill the vampire.
But The Mob isn't a clever force. It's brutal and irrational. It digs up a corpse in the graveyard, it stakes the corpse of a stranger who happened to die at the inn, it burns down Varney's house, it burns down the ruins where Charles was entrapped and where Marchdale lies dead, it kills a stranger who arrived in the village to demand blackmail money from Varney and, finally, it chases Varney around with such criminal intent that Flora Bannerworth decides to help him out by hiding him in her bedroom.
You know, being brutally murdered by The Mob is too terrible a fate even for a vampire.
Somewhere around this time, Flora's second brother, George, is completely forgotten and left out of the story. I'd have mentioned how she does nearly nothing except be protected and talked to like a pre-feminism heroine, but to be honest, her brother vanishes out of the story. He was so useless I even forgot he existed before checking wiki. And everyone around her is so incompetent that Varney doesn't even need to try hard to escape them - his single real enemy is The Mob.
Somewhere in there, we find out that Chillingworth, the doctor who's a friend of the Bannerworths, attempted to revive a cadaver Frankenstein-style - and that cadaver was Varney. So that's an origin story (but, we later find out, not the real one). (Although, to be honest, I don't think the author remembered much of his own story by the end.)
Also, a Hungarian nobleman who doesn't drink... wine... shows up at the local inn (he specifically says this! A century before the movie!) He wants to meet Varney, but The Mob catches him and shoots him. He falls into a river, is revived by the moon, fished out by a fisherman, then tries to suck the blood out of the fisherman's daughter.
In chapters 90-92, Varney manages to get his hands on the treasure in Bannerworth house!
It turns out he used to be gambling buddies with the father of the Bannerworths. After he and daddy dearest lost a fortune, they killed the guy who won it from them, stole it, then the elder Bannerworth hid it in a portrait and killed himself. Yes. He hid the money and offed himself. Varney's life is basically one big bag of suck.
In chapters 93- 126, the Bannerworths become less important. Flora Bannerworth and Charles Holland get married. The admiral Bell has a bit of comic relief with a quaker.
What's more important is that Varney pretends to be a baronet from the continent and throws money around in the hopes of marrying quickly. And he quickly finds a bride in the person of a greedy widow's beautiful daughter. The daughter has another sweetheart, but who cares? Definitely not Varney and the mother.
The Hungarian nobleman vampire comes to visit and ask for money, and Varney tries to kill him - to no avail, because the guy escapes on a boat on the sea. I suppose the author was going somewhere with this, but just like Flora's brother George or the origin story with the Bannerworth portrait, the other vampire sails off the page, never to return.
At Varney's wedding to the unwilling girl, the Bannerworths show up and recognize him, prompting him to run off.
In chapters 127-142, Varney goes to London, where he pretends he's a rich and retired colonel from India, in order to lure a greedy widow's greedy daughter into marriage. However, admiral Bell shows up at the wedding and interrupts it, unmasking the vampire and causing him to flee again. (Varney also tries to feed off of another girl, unsuccessfully, because she screams and wakes up the whole house - like all of his victims, really.)
In chapters 143-144, we find out what happens to Varney if he doesn't feed: he dies of natural causes, then is revived again. This apparently Sucks Big Time - it's a Suck of a Million Sucks. Varney doesn't want to harm people, but he's caught between a rock and a hard place.
In chapters 145-156, Varney encounters a group of travelers and gives them a hand on the road, supposedly saving two women from a tragic fate. He tries to woo the unmarried one (and tries to feed on her during the night), but she doesn't like him (I wonder why - could it be the fact that he sucks? Specifically, sucks her blood?).
When her family pressures her into marrying the nice vampire, admiral Bell shows up at the wedding, interrupting it and prompting him to flee.
In chapters 157-163, Varney goes to Naples - probably in an attempt to get away from admiral Bell and his tendency to show up long after his story arc is done. Varney murders a monk and impersonates him, then tries to kidnap a woman who's been sent to a nunnery to stop her from eloping. He's discovered, and flees.
In chapters 164-168, Varney is in a shipwreck and is the only one who makes it alive to the shore (or rather, he was dead, but he got revived by moonlight). He's brought into the house of the fisherman and feeds off his daughter.
In chapters 169-173, Varney saves the life of an Italian count, who's been attacked by assassins, and tries to get the count's daughter's hand in marriage as reward. He's foiled again and flees.
In chapters 174-178, Varney stops at an inn and kills the landlord's daughter by feeding on her.
In chapters 179-194, Varney stops at a hotel, where there's a plot afoot with a heiress and an attempt to steal her fortune. I was kinda bored at this point, but the gist of it is that her uncle is trying to convince her she's a foundling, and thus penniless, in the hopes that she'll marry her cousin and thus bring the family money into the uncle's hands.
Varney sucks her blood a bit, but all ends well - she remains alive, the plot against her is discovered and she marries her sweetheart. (SO MANY women marrying their sweethearts.)
There are also two chapters in which Varney gets summoned to help raise another vampire - apparently, vampires rise if they committed a terrible crime, or if someone turns them. At this point, the author was like, "oh, yeah, world building, that thing I was supposed to do 150 chapters ago - well, better late than never".
But most importantly, this is when Varney learns how to place his hand over the mouth of a victim to stop her from screaming! You go, Varney! Learn useful skills!
In chapters 195-226, Varney is kind of sick of life. Unfortunately, whenever he dies, something happens to bring him under the moonlight and revive him. So he decides to jump off a ship in the middle of the ocean and hopefully sink to the bottom of the ocean, where the moonlight can't reach him.
It's a good plan, but God sends another coincidence to torment him: he's saved by two fishermen and brought back to their house. Sick of everything, he turns their sister into a vampire. I don't know if he wanted her to be his bride (it would certainly fit the theme), but she barely has a chance to terrify a single girl in the village before she's quickly killed by a mob.
In chapters 227-236, a clergyman shows Varney kindness, in exchange for the story of how Varney became a vampire.
Varney writes down a story in which he was alive during the reign of Charles I and of Cromwell. He was involved in smuggling political dissenters out of London until he was discovered by Cromwell and murdered.
He became a vampire because, in a fit of anger, he hit his son who'd come to warn him about the plot, striking him dead.
At the end, in the very last chapter that's about one page long, there's a report that Varney committed suicide by throwing himself in the lava of Mt. Vesuvius. It's oddly satisfying.
“Varney, the Vampire
- or the Feast of Blood -
A Romance of Exciting Interest”
First of all, holy mother of long novels, this was LONG. I think it’s the longest published novel I’ve ever read.
When I decided I wanted to read it, I downloaded the Project Gutenberg version. Everybody’s seen Dickens novels, so I’ll just say it was 330,000 words long, which is slightly shorter than Bleak House, and vaguely longer than Our Mutual Friend.
Little did I know that the Gutenberg version isn’t complete – only about half of it is there, and the rest is hard to find on the internet (But not impossible).
“Varney” is actually longer than “War and Peace”, and considerably less action-packed.
Because it's relatively unknown and reading it in its entirety is a bit of a commitment, I'll write a longer review than usual, with a full summary of the book.
But first, what's it about, right?
"Varney, the Vampire" was published in 1845-1847. It was a penny dreadful, which means it came out in weekly installments, each costing a penny. There are no pretenses that this is high art - and even the authorship is debated.
"Varney" came before Dracula and before our concepts of what a vampire is solidified. He can walk in the sunlight, but moonlight really makes his vampiric nature shine. It revives him if he's died again, and it makes him stronger if he's weak. He can eat normal food, but it doesn't agree with him. If he dies, the entirety of nature conspires to bring him into the moonlight to revive him again. He can never get rest - for once, it's pretty clear why being an immortal vampire is a curse, not a blessing.
The book itself is strangely down-to-earth, especially in the first part. In fact, it often reads like the author himself couldn't decide whether Varney was a vampire or a scoundrel. In the first half of the novel, he has huge money issues and he does his best to get his hands on a fortune, the way a scoundrel would.
The main characters don't even know whether he's a vampire at all, or if it's a trick to swindle them - they eventually decide it's a trick. Later on, it's revealed that he was a vampire pretending to be a gentleman, pretending to be a vampire. I bet the author himself didn't know that to start with.
Varney is a very depressed, sad, gallant figure. He seems to want to get his way, but preferably without harming anyone - if he can frighten instead of harm, it's all for the good. (Except he does kill people in cold blood a few times)
This might sound cool, but it's very long and very uneven, with splatterings of purple prose and passages which seem to have been inserted for the word count.
And, since I promised a summary...
The first chapter is quite cool and gothic. Flora Bannerworth is asleep in her bed, when the dreaded vampire makes its way into her chamber and proceeds to suck her blood. She screams for help, and her two brothers, Henry and George Bannerworth, rush to her aid, along with their friend, Marchdale, who happens to be staying with them and their mother for awhile.
The attacker looks EXACTLY like the portrait of one of their ancestors, who's been dead a hundred years. If you remember this throughout the book, your memory is better than the author's. Varney gets a different origin story by the end.
In chapters 2-10, Henry, George, Marchdale and the local doctor go off to check the coffin of the Bannerworth ancestor who resembles the vampire. There's nobody there!
Meanwhile, the vampire shows up at the house, who's shot by Flora. After this deed of bravery, she turns around and swoons in the arms of her fiancee, Charles Holland, who happened to arrive from the continent precisely in time to make sure she doesn't get any bruises from collapsing on the floor. A true romantic hero!
In chapters 11-26, people fret. Francis Varney (rrooooolll credits), a neighbor of the Bannerworths, says he wants to buy their house, which is quickly losing value since it has a vampire attached. The fact that he looks precisely like that vampire is Highly Suspicious to everyone.
Charles Holland's uncle, admiral Bell, shows up along with his friend, the sailor Jack Pringle. They're a bit of comic relief and they speak in ocean-related terms a lot (it gets tiring, and then it starts being cute again).
There's a lot of fretting, but not much going on. The vampire keeps showing up, then running off. Sir Francis Varney is repeatedly challenged to about a million duels.
When the author forgets where he's going, he has a character read a story, and we read that story instead of the usual chapter.
In chapter 27, Charles Holland vanishes. We later find out he's been kidnapped by Varney and Marchdale, the friend of the Bannerworths who was staying with them, and trapped in some old ruins. He'll eventually be set free - and Marchdale will die a terrible death, squashed to death when the old ruins collapse over him. This happens in chapter... 75? Maybe?
Seriously, he's gone half the arc. And Marchdale would be a good Disney villain.
In chapters 28-39, we find out Varney owes people money. He later persuades Flora that he wants to suck her blood because he loves her - therefore, she should run far, far away. Because this isn't "Twilight", she thinks this is a very sensible idea, but the people around her want to catch the vampire, so she can't leave, either.
Varney actually fights a duel, but refuses to shoot at his opponent. He's such a gentleman.
The phrase "interview with the vampyre" shows up in chapter 36.
In chapters 40-89, we meet the most remarkable character in the book: the mob. (I'll capitalize it, because heck.) The Mob is truly frightening, and when it gets going, it stops at nothing. It's superstitious and it wants to kill the vampire.
But The Mob isn't a clever force. It's brutal and irrational. It digs up a corpse in the graveyard, it stakes the corpse of a stranger who happened to die at the inn, it burns down Varney's house, it burns down the ruins where Charles was entrapped and where Marchdale lies dead, it kills a stranger who arrived in the village to demand blackmail money from Varney and, finally, it chases Varney around with such criminal intent that Flora Bannerworth decides to help him out by hiding him in her bedroom.
You know, being brutally murdered by The Mob is too terrible a fate even for a vampire.
Somewhere around this time, Flora's second brother, George, is completely forgotten and left out of the story. I'd have mentioned how she does nearly nothing except be protected and talked to like a pre-feminism heroine, but to be honest, her brother vanishes out of the story. He was so useless I even forgot he existed before checking wiki. And everyone around her is so incompetent that Varney doesn't even need to try hard to escape them - his single real enemy is The Mob.
Somewhere in there, we find out that Chillingworth, the doctor who's a friend of the Bannerworths, attempted to revive a cadaver Frankenstein-style - and that cadaver was Varney. So that's an origin story (but, we later find out, not the real one). (Although, to be honest, I don't think the author remembered much of his own story by the end.)
Also, a Hungarian nobleman who doesn't drink... wine... shows up at the local inn (he specifically says this! A century before the movie!) He wants to meet Varney, but The Mob catches him and shoots him. He falls into a river, is revived by the moon, fished out by a fisherman, then tries to suck the blood out of the fisherman's daughter.
In chapters 90-92, Varney manages to get his hands on the treasure in Bannerworth house!
It turns out he used to be gambling buddies with the father of the Bannerworths. After he and daddy dearest lost a fortune, they killed the guy who won it from them, stole it, then the elder Bannerworth hid it in a portrait and killed himself. Yes. He hid the money and offed himself. Varney's life is basically one big bag of suck.
In chapters 93- 126, the Bannerworths become less important. Flora Bannerworth and Charles Holland get married. The admiral Bell has a bit of comic relief with a quaker.
What's more important is that Varney pretends to be a baronet from the continent and throws money around in the hopes of marrying quickly. And he quickly finds a bride in the person of a greedy widow's beautiful daughter. The daughter has another sweetheart, but who cares? Definitely not Varney and the mother.
The Hungarian nobleman vampire comes to visit and ask for money, and Varney tries to kill him - to no avail, because the guy escapes on a boat on the sea. I suppose the author was going somewhere with this, but just like Flora's brother George or the origin story with the Bannerworth portrait, the other vampire sails off the page, never to return.
At Varney's wedding to the unwilling girl, the Bannerworths show up and recognize him, prompting him to run off.
In chapters 127-142, Varney goes to London, where he pretends he's a rich and retired colonel from India, in order to lure a greedy widow's greedy daughter into marriage. However, admiral Bell shows up at the wedding and interrupts it, unmasking the vampire and causing him to flee again. (Varney also tries to feed off of another girl, unsuccessfully, because she screams and wakes up the whole house - like all of his victims, really.)
In chapters 143-144, we find out what happens to Varney if he doesn't feed: he dies of natural causes, then is revived again. This apparently Sucks Big Time - it's a Suck of a Million Sucks. Varney doesn't want to harm people, but he's caught between a rock and a hard place.
In chapters 145-156, Varney encounters a group of travelers and gives them a hand on the road, supposedly saving two women from a tragic fate. He tries to woo the unmarried one (and tries to feed on her during the night), but she doesn't like him (I wonder why - could it be the fact that he sucks? Specifically, sucks her blood?).
When her family pressures her into marrying the nice vampire, admiral Bell shows up at the wedding, interrupting it and prompting him to flee.
In chapters 157-163, Varney goes to Naples - probably in an attempt to get away from admiral Bell and his tendency to show up long after his story arc is done. Varney murders a monk and impersonates him, then tries to kidnap a woman who's been sent to a nunnery to stop her from eloping. He's discovered, and flees.
In chapters 164-168, Varney is in a shipwreck and is the only one who makes it alive to the shore (or rather, he was dead, but he got revived by moonlight). He's brought into the house of the fisherman and feeds off his daughter.
In chapters 169-173, Varney saves the life of an Italian count, who's been attacked by assassins, and tries to get the count's daughter's hand in marriage as reward. He's foiled again and flees.
In chapters 174-178, Varney stops at an inn and kills the landlord's daughter by feeding on her.
In chapters 179-194, Varney stops at a hotel, where there's a plot afoot with a heiress and an attempt to steal her fortune. I was kinda bored at this point, but the gist of it is that her uncle is trying to convince her she's a foundling, and thus penniless, in the hopes that she'll marry her cousin and thus bring the family money into the uncle's hands.
Varney sucks her blood a bit, but all ends well - she remains alive, the plot against her is discovered and she marries her sweetheart. (SO MANY women marrying their sweethearts.)
There are also two chapters in which Varney gets summoned to help raise another vampire - apparently, vampires rise if they committed a terrible crime, or if someone turns them. At this point, the author was like, "oh, yeah, world building, that thing I was supposed to do 150 chapters ago - well, better late than never".
But most importantly, this is when Varney learns how to place his hand over the mouth of a victim to stop her from screaming! You go, Varney! Learn useful skills!
In chapters 195-226, Varney is kind of sick of life. Unfortunately, whenever he dies, something happens to bring him under the moonlight and revive him. So he decides to jump off a ship in the middle of the ocean and hopefully sink to the bottom of the ocean, where the moonlight can't reach him.
It's a good plan, but God sends another coincidence to torment him: he's saved by two fishermen and brought back to their house. Sick of everything, he turns their sister into a vampire. I don't know if he wanted her to be his bride (it would certainly fit the theme), but she barely has a chance to terrify a single girl in the village before she's quickly killed by a mob.
In chapters 227-236, a clergyman shows Varney kindness, in exchange for the story of how Varney became a vampire.
Varney writes down a story in which he was alive during the reign of Charles I and of Cromwell. He was involved in smuggling political dissenters out of London until he was discovered by Cromwell and murdered.
He became a vampire because, in a fit of anger, he hit his son who'd come to warn him about the plot, striking him dead.
At the end, in the very last chapter that's about one page long, there's a report that Varney committed suicide by throwing himself in the lava of Mt. Vesuvius. It's oddly satisfying.
thewintersings's review against another edition
I'll come back to this. It's just so long, and since it was originally serialized anyway, I'll read it in chunks.
softstarrynights's review against another edition
4.0
Looking for more bookish content? Look no further than www.cartonmanettedarnay.wordpress.com!
If you've been here for a while then you may remember that this was one of my dissertation texts, only problem was that it's over 1,000 pages, and I was pressed for time. On 31st of October 2018, I can announce that I have finally finished! Varney is a penny dreadful from the mid 19th century and is absolutely terrible, but in the best way. The plot is pretty much what you'd expect for a vampire novel from this period, complete with at least three interrupted weddings, the murder of a monk, and buckets of dramatic irony. You have to have a lot of patience to get through it, but I can't not recommend it.
If you've been here for a while then you may remember that this was one of my dissertation texts, only problem was that it's over 1,000 pages, and I was pressed for time. On 31st of October 2018, I can announce that I have finally finished! Varney is a penny dreadful from the mid 19th century and is absolutely terrible, but in the best way. The plot is pretty much what you'd expect for a vampire novel from this period, complete with at least three interrupted weddings, the murder of a monk, and buckets of dramatic irony. You have to have a lot of patience to get through it, but I can't not recommend it.
richardr's review against another edition
I think I bought the Kindle edition of this for about a pound a while back and then forgot about it. As I had a cold a few weeks ago, I decided that I needed to read something that required minimal neural activity and picked this. As I started to feel better I became mildly annoyed to realise that the Kindle edition has an error in its page count and I has therefore accidentally committed myself to reading 1,966 pages of 19th century penny dreadful, longer than War and Peace, Middlemarch or The Man Without Qualities. Essentially a extended abuse of the serialised novel format, the general experience of reading this is roughly analogous to being forced to wade through congealed treacle. The plot shuffles and lumbers about, frequently contradicting itself; Rymer probably had forgotten what he'd written 500 ages earlier. Repetition, hesitation and deviation are basically Rymer's authorial credo.
The results of this make for a book that is wildly inconsistent. The first and third volumes are the most obviously gothic throughout; the Italian scenes in the third are reminiscent of Walpole and Radcliffe while the English scenes are pretty comparable to Fanu and Stoker. The second volume regurgitates a Dickensian style plot where Varney intrigues to marry for money, only to be foiled repeatedy at the wedding. Characters like Admiral Bell are decidedly Dickensian as well, giving an overall effect similar to Lucy Westenra being replaced by Mrs Gamp and Dr Seward replaced by Pecksniff. I did rather warm to some of the Admiral Bell's catchphrases though; discovering 'I'll have none of your gammon' and 'Stop it with your gammoning' as slang phrases made a lot of the novel worthwhile. In fairness, it should also be said that there's an intriguingly Faustian aspect to Varney's character, who remains horrified by his crimes throughout. Human characters like Marchdale and the mob that destroys Varney's house are treated considerably less sympathetically.
The results of this make for a book that is wildly inconsistent. The first and third volumes are the most obviously gothic throughout; the Italian scenes in the third are reminiscent of Walpole and Radcliffe while the English scenes are pretty comparable to Fanu and Stoker. The second volume regurgitates a Dickensian style plot where Varney intrigues to marry for money, only to be foiled repeatedy at the wedding. Characters like Admiral Bell are decidedly Dickensian as well, giving an overall effect similar to Lucy Westenra being replaced by Mrs Gamp and Dr Seward replaced by Pecksniff. I did rather warm to some of the Admiral Bell's catchphrases though; discovering 'I'll have none of your gammon' and 'Stop it with your gammoning' as slang phrases made a lot of the novel worthwhile. In fairness, it should also be said that there's an intriguingly Faustian aspect to Varney's character, who remains horrified by his crimes throughout. Human characters like Marchdale and the mob that destroys Varney's house are treated considerably less sympathetically.
eldritchscholar's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
kn0tp0rk's review against another edition
2.0
Okay, I'm going to free myself from this book since I haven't touched it since 2017.
I finished the first volume and got a little bit into the second.
I liked it. It's wordy and the two brothers are too enamored with being gentlemen, but it's still an amusing read. There's plenty of slapstick that gave me a chuckle, and is one of the reasons I didn't want to sell off this book until I had entirely finished it, but alas. Admiral Bell and Jack Pringle are like quarreling boyfriends and it was rather amusing.
It was interesting to see what powers people imagined vampires had before the publication of Carmilla and Dracula. At times Varney seems weak compared to the characters we're more familiar with.
I definitely would have finished this if it were abridged. RIP.
I finished the first volume and got a little bit into the second.
I liked it. It's wordy and the two brothers are too enamored with being gentlemen, but it's still an amusing read. There's plenty of slapstick that gave me a chuckle, and is one of the reasons I didn't want to sell off this book until I had entirely finished it, but alas. Admiral Bell and Jack Pringle are like quarreling boyfriends and it was rather amusing.
It was interesting to see what powers people imagined vampires had before the publication of Carmilla and Dracula. At times Varney seems weak compared to the characters we're more familiar with.
I definitely would have finished this if it were abridged. RIP.
msgtdameron's review against another edition
5.0
Varney is an imposing read. This tome is 807 pages long and should be more as the size is 12 by eight inches with standard margins. (Some one who is a publisher can do the math) It's a five star tome because the characters are very well developed, the plots are good, the story line that connects all the shorter, 100 to 500 pages, stories is excellent. In this edition the original printing errors, misspelling, terrible syntax, missing lines are all there, but these original discrepancies don't distract from the overall enjoyment of the read. Honestly I couldn't put this one down.
Lets look at some of the characters.
First off Varney himself. Introduced as the typical vampire, but soon becomes something else. By the end of the first book(?) the reader and the other characters actually feel sorry for him and the abuse heaped upon him. This is where the subtitle "The Feast of Blood" is a real misnomer. With this title I was expecting a very vampire like story along the lines of the end of Fanu's Carmilla. Lots of blood, buckets of blood, crypts erupting with blood. NO one vampire attack and a lot of blood shed by village mobs chasing the vampire, each other, anyone suspected of being in league with the vampire, and each other getting killed and maimed by their own foolishness. Varney, our Vampire, only makes one unsuccessful attack. The first 400 to 500 pages are more a social commentary on Victorian morals and the mob mentality. The last 400 pages are more stories of Varney trying to collect two things. One, a good meal. it is not until the first three stories are completed, around page 600, that we get to see Varney get a good meal of blood. Two is Varney's continuing hunt for more cash. Living forever costs a lot of money and having to feed on virgins means having to move around in the upper strata's of society and that requires cash.
However through out the book many of Varney's potential victims also are trying to marry him for his supposed large estate. With a husband with one foot in the grave. Sorry but I could not resist the pun. The other on a banana peel, one is left to wonder if these victim's do become a meal is that not poetic justice? This is another staple of Victorian life, especially for young women. Find a rich husband and marry him for the estate. Love has nothing to do with it. In many ways Varney the Vampire is a picture of Victorian life as seen from the underside. The strata, the injustice, the misogyny, the economic strife of the poor are all seen in these 800 pages.
We also need to mention some of the other characters. Flora Bannerworth comes first. She is Varney's first victim. She starts as a typical Victorian damsel being attacked. She swoons when Varney first bites her, she adds nothing to her own defense that her brothers want to provide, she is described as pale, she is supposed to be the victim. But, there are flashes where she breaks out of this mold. She actually shoots Varney and causes him grievous injury. She sits and talks to him about not only her own fate, but the fate of her family and future husband. She gleans information from the vampire that is discarded by her "protectors" until they figure it our themselves. In many cases her protectors mule headedness in not listing to Flora is most maddening to the reader. Rymer, Varney's author, had no choice but to paint her this way. It was standard convention and he was writing for the masses. Even so Flora is NOT a women to be played with. She still comes across as one of the smarter characters and is quite capable of looking after here self if given the means: a brace of pistol would be a good start.
Two more characters who must be mentioned, Admiral Bell and his First mate Jack Pringel. These two combined are one of the funniest comic characters ever written. Admiral Bell is a Nelson type officer who has served well and with honor. Jack Pringel is the seamen who has been with the Admiral for 30+ years and the Admiral continually threatens to "Put him on the beach" IE discharge him and then bring jack back into the bosom of the family. Jack is a Seamen of the early 1800's or 1700's, 1900's, 21st Century or 12th Century. He drinks hard, fights hard, is exceptionally street smart or savvy, has a huge amount of common sense and his relation ship with the Admiral is one of love, respect, and commitment. Many times during the story one thinks of the two as an old married couple. They can't stand the other at times, but as soon as one or the other is gone the one that stayed misses the one that went dreadfully. Jack also provides many comic moments. Imagine you are a bride that has been forced to marry an old man. That during the wedding a guest announces that the old man is a Vampire. That on this most joyous day of your life this announcement starts a chase through your wedding party, a fist fight, and the discovery that the man you actually love is in the room. As your true love takes you to the dinning room and try's to settle you down in comes Jack Pringel. Bottle of champagne in one hand and a bottle of rum in the other. He hands you the rum and says that he knew the old Baron was Varney but he let the Admiral do the honors and now that the Admiral and house hold was a chasseing the Vampire he was going to enjoy the show. Jack then leaves you already three sheets to the wind. As the reader knows Jack may be drunk but he almost always gets to Varney first, drunk or sober. One is left wondering if Jack will once again pull that neat trick off. Many times I got strange looks from people in the library when I was laughing so hard that I cried over Jacks antics, then the people would look at the title. As I said many misnomers in that subtitle.
If you enjoy vampire stories this is a must read. Many of the vampire motifs we most associate with modern vampire stories got there starts here. Varney is also a very deep character who has wishes and dreams that we never see with other vampires. Rymer created a deep troubling character in Varney while also making social commentary on Victorian morals, the place of women, foreigners, the economic system, and the hunt for money by all levels of society. Even if you aren't a fan of the vampire genera this is still a good read on Victorian England in the 1850's and also well worth the time. This edition is especially good as the editor has added many useful comments on the penny dreadful/penny blood not only from himself but other academics who specialize in the genre. A great read.
Lets look at some of the characters.
First off Varney himself. Introduced as the typical vampire, but soon becomes something else. By the end of the first book(?) the reader and the other characters actually feel sorry for him and the abuse heaped upon him. This is where the subtitle "The Feast of Blood" is a real misnomer. With this title I was expecting a very vampire like story along the lines of the end of Fanu's Carmilla. Lots of blood, buckets of blood, crypts erupting with blood. NO one vampire attack and a lot of blood shed by village mobs chasing the vampire, each other, anyone suspected of being in league with the vampire, and each other getting killed and maimed by their own foolishness. Varney, our Vampire, only makes one unsuccessful attack. The first 400 to 500 pages are more a social commentary on Victorian morals and the mob mentality. The last 400 pages are more stories of Varney trying to collect two things. One, a good meal. it is not until the first three stories are completed, around page 600, that we get to see Varney get a good meal of blood. Two is Varney's continuing hunt for more cash. Living forever costs a lot of money and having to feed on virgins means having to move around in the upper strata's of society and that requires cash.
However through out the book many of Varney's potential victims also are trying to marry him for his supposed large estate. With a husband with one foot in the grave. Sorry but I could not resist the pun. The other on a banana peel, one is left to wonder if these victim's do become a meal is that not poetic justice? This is another staple of Victorian life, especially for young women. Find a rich husband and marry him for the estate. Love has nothing to do with it. In many ways Varney the Vampire is a picture of Victorian life as seen from the underside. The strata, the injustice, the misogyny, the economic strife of the poor are all seen in these 800 pages.
We also need to mention some of the other characters. Flora Bannerworth comes first. She is Varney's first victim. She starts as a typical Victorian damsel being attacked. She swoons when Varney first bites her, she adds nothing to her own defense that her brothers want to provide, she is described as pale, she is supposed to be the victim. But, there are flashes where she breaks out of this mold. She actually shoots Varney and causes him grievous injury. She sits and talks to him about not only her own fate, but the fate of her family and future husband. She gleans information from the vampire that is discarded by her "protectors" until they figure it our themselves. In many cases her protectors mule headedness in not listing to Flora is most maddening to the reader. Rymer, Varney's author, had no choice but to paint her this way. It was standard convention and he was writing for the masses. Even so Flora is NOT a women to be played with. She still comes across as one of the smarter characters and is quite capable of looking after here self if given the means: a brace of pistol would be a good start.
Two more characters who must be mentioned, Admiral Bell and his First mate Jack Pringel. These two combined are one of the funniest comic characters ever written. Admiral Bell is a Nelson type officer who has served well and with honor. Jack Pringel is the seamen who has been with the Admiral for 30+ years and the Admiral continually threatens to "Put him on the beach" IE discharge him and then bring jack back into the bosom of the family. Jack is a Seamen of the early 1800's or 1700's, 1900's, 21st Century or 12th Century. He drinks hard, fights hard, is exceptionally street smart or savvy, has a huge amount of common sense and his relation ship with the Admiral is one of love, respect, and commitment. Many times during the story one thinks of the two as an old married couple. They can't stand the other at times, but as soon as one or the other is gone the one that stayed misses the one that went dreadfully. Jack also provides many comic moments. Imagine you are a bride that has been forced to marry an old man. That during the wedding a guest announces that the old man is a Vampire. That on this most joyous day of your life this announcement starts a chase through your wedding party, a fist fight, and the discovery that the man you actually love is in the room. As your true love takes you to the dinning room and try's to settle you down in comes Jack Pringel. Bottle of champagne in one hand and a bottle of rum in the other. He hands you the rum and says that he knew the old Baron was Varney but he let the Admiral do the honors and now that the Admiral and house hold was a chasseing the Vampire he was going to enjoy the show. Jack then leaves you already three sheets to the wind. As the reader knows Jack may be drunk but he almost always gets to Varney first, drunk or sober. One is left wondering if Jack will once again pull that neat trick off. Many times I got strange looks from people in the library when I was laughing so hard that I cried over Jacks antics, then the people would look at the title. As I said many misnomers in that subtitle.
If you enjoy vampire stories this is a must read. Many of the vampire motifs we most associate with modern vampire stories got there starts here. Varney is also a very deep character who has wishes and dreams that we never see with other vampires. Rymer created a deep troubling character in Varney while also making social commentary on Victorian morals, the place of women, foreigners, the economic system, and the hunt for money by all levels of society. Even if you aren't a fan of the vampire genera this is still a good read on Victorian England in the 1850's and also well worth the time. This edition is especially good as the editor has added many useful comments on the penny dreadful/penny blood not only from himself but other academics who specialize in the genre. A great read.