Peter Haining (ed) - Vampire: Chilling Tales Of The Undead (Target, 1985)
Introduction - Peter Haining
James Malcolm Rymer - Varney’s Victim
Bram Stoker - Dracula’s Guest
Richard Matheson - No Such Thing As A Vampire
Robert Thurston Hopkins - The Vampire Of Woolpit Grange
John Flanders (Jean Ray) - The Graveyard Duchess (The Guardian Of The Cemetery)
Curt Siodmak - Experiment With Evil
Alexey Tolstoy - The Curse Of The Vourdalak
Francis Marion Crawford - For The Blood Is The Life
Frank Owen - The Tinkle Of The Camel’s Bell
Phil Robinson - The Last Of The Vampires
Edith Wharton - Bewitched
Robert E. Howard - The Horror From The Mound
Robert Bloch - Hungarian Rhapsody
Ray Bradbury - The Homecoming
James S. Hart - The TraitorBlurb:
THE BLOOD IS THE LIFE ...
The distant howl of a wolf in the night ... A faint but persistent tapping at your
window-pane ... An empty tomb ... A solitary figure swathed in black, his face the colour of death but for his lips which are a deep scarlet ...
Beware — for the Undead have risen from their graves.
And they must feed ...Another winning Vampire anthology from Haining, who clearly has a passion for the undead. The introduction is mostly devoted to his retelling of Augustus Hare's
The Vampire Of Croglin Grange which, however you dress it up (as Haining does: "The facts remain inescapable"), it's still a blatant rip off from
Varney the Vampyre fostered upon us by Montague Summers' and his many plagiarists who can't be arsed to do their own research.
Also includes:
James Malcolm Rymer - Varney’s Victim: In this short extract, the Vampyre explains all about what an undead existence entails to the horrified Flora Bannerworth. Varney professes his love and urges her to flee the ancestral home to be free of him. As usual, her brother bursts in at an inopportune moment.
Richard Matheson - No Such Thing As A Vampire: Romania: Despite a bedroom liberally festooned with crucifixes and garlic, and the nightly vigils of her husband, Madam Alexis awakens each morning to find her nightgown shredded and blood-stained from the twin punctures in her neck.
Ray Bradbury - The Homecoming: A gathering of the clans at Halloween. An occasion for much celebration amongst the vampiric Elliott family (whose number includes witches, werewolves and sundry monsters), save for 14 year old Timothy, who, being a decidedly normal boy is shunned as the black sheep. One of the greatest stories Bradbury wrote, and utterly heartbreaking.
Francis Marion Crawford - For The Blood Is The Life: Southern Italy: When Christina surprises a pair of thieves burying the fortune they’ve stolen from the house of a dead miser, they hit her over the head with a spade and bury her where she falls. Thereafter, she lures her lover, Angelo, the miser’s ruined son to her grave and drinks his blood.
Edith Wharton - Bewitched: Old Prudence Rutledge knows her husband is having an affair, and demands that the girls father and the townsfolk intervene. The difficulty arises from the fact that the husband-snatcher died several months ago from a wasting disease …
Virgil Finlay,
Hungarian Rhapsody,
Fantastic June 1958.
Robert Bloch - Hungarian Rhapsody: Solly Vincent, retired racketeer, learns that his new neighbour, Helen Esterhazy, is not only “stacked” but prone to writhing nude on a bed of gold coins. When she cooly spurns his advances, Solly decides the situation calls for a course of rape, murder and pillage.
Robert E. Howard - The Horror From The Mound: Luckless Texan farmer Steve Brill inadvertently releases the undead De Valdez when he disturbs an Indian burial mound. De Valdez celebrates his freedom by killing old Lopez who has written a history of his exploits these past two centuries. While Brill, the typical musclebound Howard hero, is reading through the papers a face appears at the window ....
Frank Owen - The Tinkle Of The Camel’s Bell: By the terms of her diabolical bargain Chinchu drains the life from all she touches in return for immortality. When the innocent Li Kan strays into her exotic garden he watches aghast as flowers wither at her kiss and the spark in a priceless opal dies in her hand. He is doomed to remain with the soulless beauty knowing that he can never give in to her embrace.
Phil Robinson - The Last Of The Vampires: A Professor from the Bierundwurst University wounds and captures Arinchi, the prehistoric vampire of the Amazons, in its cave. There follows a nightmare journey downriver for the German as the desperate blood-drinker twice breaks its muzzle while he slowly succumbs to the black fever. His diary entries are terrific.
John Flanders (Jean Ray) - The Graveyard Duchess:
"I was crushed by a formidable weight. Sharp teeth bit into my neck, and cold loathsome lips began greedily sucking my blood .... "Saint Guiton Cemetery, an immense Necropolis bought by the Duchess Opoltcheviska on the understanding that she should be the last person buried there and that three watchmen - her ex-servants and another of their choice - be employed to guard it. A hobo is the eighth man to join the ever-present Ossip and Velitcho who seem obsessed with making sure that he has plenty of food. Curiously, the more they build him up, the weaker he gets. One night he sees a dreadful figure leaving her Mausoleum and understands why the Duchess Opoltcheviska insisted on buying out the grounds.
Robert Thurston Hopkins - The Vampire Of Woolpit Grange: Stowmarket. The new owner of the Grange notices a stunning facial resemblance between Joan Springett, the lady in the neighbouring cottage, and the woman in a portrait that hangs in the gallery, 'Beatrix Springett - 1658', a woman who, jilted in her youth, devoted the rest of her life to "rivalling the wickedness of Cleopatra and Salome" ....
James S. Hart - The Traitor: A colony of New York-based vampires become increasingly wary of one of their number, the Medieval Italian Lorenzo, when he begins to demonstrate sympathy toward humans. Lorenzo views his undead condition as a curse, and he finally turns on his own kind when Casanova (still at it) makes known his intent to vampirise a beautiful innocent, Viola Whitney.