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Post by dem bones on Oct 19, 2008 12:31:27 GMT
Alan Ryan (ed.) - The Penguin Book Of Vampire Stories (Penguin, 1988, originally Vampires: Two Centuries Of Great Vampire Stories, Doubleday, 1987)  Edward Gorey
Lord Byron - Fragment of A Novel
John Polidori - The Vampyre
James Malcolm Rymer - Varney The Vampyre, or The Feast Of Blood [excerpt]
Anonymous - The Mysterious Stranger
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - Carmilla
Mary Elizabeth Braddon - Good Lady Ducayne
Bram Stoker - Dracula's Guest
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman - Luella Miller
Francis Marion Crawford - For The Blood Is The Life
Algernon Blackwood - The Transfer
E. F. Benson - The Room In The Tower
M. R. James - An Episode of Cathedral History
Clark Ashton Smith - A Rendezvous In Averoigne
C. L. Moore - Shambleau
Carl Jacobi - Revelations In Black
Manly Wade Wellman - School For The Unspeakable
August Derleth - The Drifting Snow
P. Schuyler Miller - Over The River
Fritz Leiber - The Girl with the Hungry Eyes
C. M. Kornbluth - The Mindworm
Richard Matheson - Drink My Blood
Charles Beaumont - Place Of Meeting
Robert Bloch - The Living Dead
Robert Aickman - Pages From A Young Girl's Journal
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - The Werewolf And The Vampire
Charles L. Grant - Love-Starved
Chelsea Quinn Yarbo - Cabin 33
Suzy McKee Charnas - Unicorn Tapestry
Alan Ryan - Following The Way
Ramsey Campbell - The Sunshine Club
Steve Rasnic Tem - The Men And Women Of Rivendale
Tanith Lee - Bite-Me-Not or, Fleur De Feu
Appendix I: Vampire Novels
Appendix II: Vampire Movies Graced with a beautiful cover illustration by Edward Gorey, Ryan's collection attempts to compile the very best of close-on 200 years work, and outline the changing nature of vampire fiction from the crude (and bloody entertaining!) likes of Rhymer's melodrama, through to the present, look!-no-Gothic-props exponents of the form. We've met two thirds of these stories already in the Haining, Parry and Dalby books, but in this instance, that's excusable. Some of the more recent, oh-so clever stories are killed stone dead in this esteemed company but a great place to begin your acquaintance with the undead. As so many of these have already been given the treatment on threads devoted to such books as Peter Haining's The Midnight People and Vampire: Chilling Tales Of The Undead, Michel Parry's The Rivals of Dracula, Greenberg-Waugh 's Vamps, Weinberg & Co.s glorious Weird Vampire Tales and umpteen others, for the most part I've concerned myself with stories yet to be commented on (by me) but that doesn't stop anyone else doing the honours! Manly Wade Wellman - School For The Unspeakable: Burt Setwick, 15, has hardly arrived at the famous Carrington School when three elder boys - Hoag, Androff and Felcher - inveigle him into their Satanic cult! The trio are, of course, vampires and things are going badly for the newbie ... until the intervention of the equally dead scary headmaster! A classic of pulp vamp horror way up there with Wellman's Dracula versus the Nazi's romp The Devil Is Not Mocked. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman - Luella Miller: New England. Luella Miller drains the energy from all of those who attend her leaving them lifeless husks, she being either too ill or lazy to stir from her rocking chair. After a steady stream of helpers, including her own sister and physician, go to their graves, word gets around the village that Luella was responsible for their deaths and for a time she has to fend for herself. But the sight of her pathetically struggling proves too much for one kindly neighbour. More death, and the cycle endures beyond the grave .... Charles L. Grant: A non-sensational treatment of the sex-vampire theme. Carroll tells a prospective lover of Alice Chou, the woman "who stopped me from ever dreaming about marriage again, or about love in the sense you would ordinarily consider it." Ends on a note of quiet despair as Carroll reveals that, as with all aspects of vampirism, the condition is contagious. C. M. Kornbluth - The Mind Worm: The Mind-worm is a product of the Atomic testing in the Pacific during his mother's pregnancy. A dull and stupid boy by human standards, none are aware that he's really a powerful psychic sponge who incites and feeds upon the emotions of others, killing them in the process. It's left to a Slavic community in West Virginia to recognise him as a variant on an old enemy and they set out to dispose of him by traditional means. Ramsey Campbell - The Sunshine Club: Vampire on the psychiatrist couch again, and perhaps a little too deep for me. The Doctor attempts to explain away the fears of his patient, Clive Bent, who leaves the session almost reconciled with his condition. On the psychiatrist's recommendation Clive checks in at the Sunshine Club, home to a crowd who are similarly afflicted. Steve Rasnic Tem - The Men And Women Of Rivendale:Franks wife Cathy, dying of cancer, receives an invite from her family to join them at Rivendale. Frank is concerned: her weird, silent relatives look strangely similar and it's soon apparent (though the word is never mentioned) that they are indeed ancient vampires.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 20, 2008 13:49:38 GMT
 M. CauserCover of Guild hardcover edition, 1988 : abridgement of Chapters I & 2, beginning with Varney's attack on Flora Bannerworth in her bedroom during the storm and ending with his break for freedom when the house-guests answer her cries for help. Varney effortlessly evades capture despite being shot twice while making his escape. His pursuers are horrified that there is no trail of blood from the wound for them to follow! How could Montague Summers have failed to realise where Augustus Hare nabbed his 'true' history of the Croglin Vampire from when he ran both of them next to each other in The Vampire In Europe? and come come so many "experts" dutifully trotted out Hare's account as a genuine case of vampirism in their serious books on the subject as late as .... probably yesterday? Algernon Blackwood - The Transfer: Narrated by Mrs. Gould, the Governess of seven year old Jamie who is petrified of both a patch of black earth in the garden and Mr. Ferne, a man with an "enormous face". Ferne is a psychic sponge, unwittingly draining the life from those around him as he grows ever more vital. But what will happen when he comes in contact with the similarly draining soil? Never mentioned in the same breath as The Willows, but it's a great story and full marks to Ryan for including it. Speaking of whom, his own story handles controversial subject matter with commendable (for anywhere else but Vault, at least) restraint. Alan Ryan - Following The Way: The narrator is haunted for ever twenty years by his old teacher William Day, a Jesuit who tried to persuade him to take up Holy Orders. When they are reunited, our man finally enters the priesthood after listening to Day's revelations concerning the Communion wine and immortality of the Church. Robert Aickman - Pages From A Young Girl's Journal: "Love as the elect know it" or Aickman's re-imagining of Carmilla. Ravenna, 1809. Diary entries of a young Derbyshire girl record her encounters with a vampire lover in October of that year. To these eyes, that's just abut it as far as a plot is concerned, but .... it's gorgeous and sexy and strange. Cameo appearances from Byron and Shelley. |
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Post by dem bones on May 27, 2015 21:48:41 GMT
Another edition, this one an instant remainder job published by Bloomsbury in 1991. Cover artist uncredited, but almost certainly the work of Steve Crisp? |
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Post by Dr Strange on May 28, 2015 12:49:57 GMT
This is the cover of the paperback edition (1988) I've got - pretty uninteresting, apart from the weird gothic/esoteric font. Attachments:
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Post by bobby on May 30, 2015 20:11:25 GMT
Ramsey Campbell - The Sunshine Club: Vampire on the psychiatrist couch again, and perhaps a little too deep for me. The Doctor attempts to explain away the fears of his patient, Clive Bent, who leaves the session almost reconciled with his condition. On the psychiatrist's recommendation Clive checks in at the Sunshine Club, home to a crowd who are similarly afflicted. According to his introduction to his collection Inconsequential Tales, "The Sunshine Club" was written in 1969. (But it wasn't published until 1983, in The Dodd, Mead Gallery of Horror.) |
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Will E.
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 24
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Post by Will E. on Aug 9, 2015 22:14:58 GMT
Love this antho! Ryan really outdid himself with his choices. I recall really being impressed with CL Moore's "Shambleau," Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's "Cabin 33" and Suzy McKee Charnas's "Unicorn Tapestry." Essential.
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Post by ripper on Jul 29, 2016 10:29:00 GMT
A good anthology with varied stories, but reading through it, in association with similar offerings from Richard Dalby and Stephen Jones, made me realise how I prefer and enjoy the older type of vampire tale.
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