Varney the Vampyre (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Thomas Peckett Prest, James Malcolm Rymer
- First Published: 1847
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Fantasy—superbeing
- Time of Work: The eighteenth century
- Setting: England and Italy
- Genres: Long fiction, Fantasy
- Subjects: Folkloric or magical people, England or English people, Eighteenth century, Italy or Italians, Vampires
- Locales: England, Italy
The Plot
Varney the Vampyre: Or, The Feast of Blood was one of a long series of “penny dreadfuls” published in serial form in England during the 1840’s. Like such works as G. W. M. Reynolds’ Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf (1847), Varney the Vampyre was published in eight-page installments selling for a penny or two each and was the product of “house” writers. Modern scholarship has established James Malcolm Rymer as the probable author of a majority of the work. Lurid, rambling, sensationalistic, and often inconsistent in plot and character, penny...
[The entire page is 995 words long]
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