Varney the Vampire
Gothic horror | |
Publication date | 1845–1847 (serial) 1847 (book) |
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Media type | |
Pages | 876 (book) |
Varney the Vampire; or, the Feast of Blood is a
It is the tale of the
Story
Setting
The story has a confused setting. While ostensibly set in the early eighteenth century,[7] there are references to the Napoleonic Wars and other indicators that the story is contemporary to the time of its writing in the mid-nineteenth century. Varney's adventures also occur in various locations including London, Bath, Winchester and Naples.
Human characters
The plot concerns the troubles that Sir Francis Varney inflicts upon the Bannerworths, a formerly wealthy family driven to ruin by their recently deceased father.[7] Initially the Bannerworths consist of Mrs Bannerworth and her adult children Henry, George, and Flora (George is never mentioned by name after the thirty-sixth chapter). A family friend, Mr Marchdale, lives with the Bannerworths in early chapters. Later, Flora's fiancé Charles Holland, his seafaring uncle Admiral Bell, and Bell's jovial assistant Jack Pringle also take residence with the Bannerworths.
Varney
Though the earliest chapters give the standard motives of blood sustenance for Varney's actions toward the family, later ones suggest that Varney is motivated by monetary interests. The story is at times inconsistent and confusing, as if the author did not know whether to make Varney a literal vampire or simply a human who acts like one. Varney bears a strong resemblance to a portrait in Bannerworth Hall, and the implication throughout is that he is actually Marmaduke Bannerworth (or Sir Runnagate Bannerworth; the names are confused throughout the story), but that connection is never clarified. He is portrayed as loathing his condition, and at one point he turns Clara Crofton, a member of another family he terrorizes, into a vampire for revenge.
Over the course of the book, Varney is presented with increasing sympathy as a victim of circumstances. He tries to save himself, but is unable to do so. He ultimately commits suicide by throwing himself into
Legacy
Scholars including A. Asbjørn Jøn have suggested that Varney was a major influence on later
In popular culture
The makers of Marvel Comics were influenced by this story. In the Marvel Universe, "Varnae" is the name of the first vampire, created by the people of Atlantis before it sank.[10]
In the thirteenth episode of the 1991 television series Dracula: The Series, Varney treated Dracula (going by Alexander Lucard in the series) from blood poisoning. He was played by Sam Malkin.
In the sixth episode of the TV series Penny Dreadful (2014), Abraham Van Helsing gives a copy of Varney the Vampire to Victor Frankenstein, explaining that the story is more truth than fiction and that the mysterious creature the series' characters are pursuing is a vampire.[11]
Varney is one of the main characters in Strange Practice (2017) and its sequels by Vivian Shaw.[12][13][14]
The 2017 film The Man Who Invented Christmas shows Charles Dickens reading it at the time that he was developing the supernatural elements of his novella A Christmas Carol; however, Varney was not published until 1845, and the film's action is set in 1843.[15]
In 2021, Varney appears as a character in
Authorship
The story was published by
Footnotes
- ^ David J. Skal (1996). V is for Vampire: An A to Z Guide to Everything Undead. Plume. pp. 210–212.
- ^ The last page number of the 1847 edition is printed as 868, but this does not take into account that pages 577–584 were repeated.
- ^ The last chapter of the 1847 edition is printed as "CCXX" (220), but this was due to numerous errors in the chapter numbering, possibly caused by confusion over roman numerals, resulting in 12 more actual chapters than the final chapter numeral would indicate.
- ^ Calculated from the complete text at the University of Virginia
- ^ ISBN 0-452-27173-8.
- ^ Cronin, Brian (29 October 2015). "Did Vampires Not Have Fangs in Movies Until the 1950s?". HuffPost. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f Hellman, Roxanne (2011). Vampire Legends and Myths. The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 217.
- ^ Jøn, A. Asbjørn (2001). "From Nosteratu to Von Carstein: shifts in the portrayal of vampires". Australian Folklore: A Yearly Journal of Folklore Studies (16): 97–106. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
- ^ a b Lisa A. Nevárez (2013). The Vampire Goes to College: Essays on Teaching with the Undead". p. 125. McFarland
- ^ "Vampire". The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Book of the Dead. Issue 5. 1985 Ser. 20. Feb. 1988. [1]
- ^ "Penny Dreadful' Kicks Into a Terrifying New Gear in Episode 6 as Eva Green Takes BDSM to Another Level". IndieWire.
- ^ "Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw". Kirkus Reviews. 15 May 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
- ^ Sheehan, Jason (26 July 2017). "Strange Practice: The Doctor Is In". NPR. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
- Tor.com. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
- ^ Sobczynski, P. (22 November 2017). The Man Who Invented Christmas at Roger Ebert.com
- ^ "Castlevania: Who Is Varney?". Den of Geek. 2021-05-14. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-84022-632-4.
- S2CID 164738572– via JSTOR.
- – via JSTOR.
References
- E. S. Turner's Boys Will be Boys (1948) discusses this story and many others.