Peter Haining - The Vampire Omnibus

[dem bones]

Peter Haining (ed.) - The Vampire Omnibus (Orion 1995)

Introduction - Peter Haining
Preface: The Destruction of Castle Dracula! - Bram Stoker (an extract from the original manuscript of Dracula)

Elizabeth Grey - The Skeleton Count or, The Vampire Mistress
James Malcolm Rymer - The Vampyre’s Story (extract from Varney the Vampyre; or, The Feast of Blood)
Alexandre Dumas & Paul Bocage - The Pale Lady
Julian Hawthorne - The Grave of Ethelind Fionguala (aka Ken's Mystery)
Mary Cholmondeley - Let Loose
Count Eric Stenbock - A True Story of a Vampire
Frank Norris - Grettir at Thorhall-Stead
Morley Roberts - The Blood Fetish
Gustav Meyrink - The Land of the Time-Leeches
Charles Caldwell Dobie - The Elder Brother
Henry Kuttner - I, the Vampire
James Robinson Planche - The Bride of the Isles
Eugène Sue - Les Vampires
Paul Monette - Nosferatu (an extract from Nosferatu: The Vampire)
Bela Lugosi - The Bat
Peter Tremayne - Son of Dracula
Val Lewton - The Cat People
'Jimmy Sangster' [John Burke] - Dracula: Prince of Darkness
Simon Raven - Incense for the Damned (extract from Doctors Wear Scarlet)
Marilyn Ross - Dark Shadows (extract from The Secret of Collinwood)
Stephen King - One for the Road
Anne Rice - Interview with the Vampire (extract from Interview with the Vampire)
Clive Sinclair - Uncle Vlad
Ray Russell - Sanguinarius
Woody Allen - Count Dracula
Ray Bradbury - West of October
Richard Matheson - First Anniversary
Theodore Sturgeon - So Near the Darkness
Roger Zelazny - Dayblood
Ron Goulart - Vampirella (extract from Vampirella #1: Bloodstalk)
William F. Nolan - Getting Dead
Basil Copper - Reader, I Buried Him
Richard Laymon - The Bleeder
Jack Sharkey - Dracula: The Real Story

As has been remarked elsewhere, he liked an extract from a novel did our Mr. Haining, and this can be irritating if it's disguised to make it look as if you're getting one of the author's "lost" works, but, as with The Midnight People, and Vampire: Chilling Tales Of The Undead, we can forgive much on the strength of the rest, especially the finds and less familiar exhumations.

includes:

Peter Tremayne - Son Of Dracula: Dark Oak Siblings, Louisiana (or some such state where there are plenty of swamps). Kay Caldwell is due to marry Frank Stanley in a fortnight. Despite the fact that she's lived her life on father's plantation next to the swamp, she can't move for sinister Hungarian's, one of whom, a cackling old biddy known as 'Queen Zimba' advises her to immediately "Flee from this place, child. Seek the Sanctuary of a church. After tonight, it will be too late.'
"Why? I don't understand. I am to be married.'
"Then you will marry a corpse and live in a grave. Be gone!"
Kay heads for home with the hag's laughter ringing in her ears, but this is abruptly cut short by a huge bat which launches itself at the fortune-teller and claws out her eyes.

Kay has her husband-to-be wait at the station to greet her guest, Count Alucard of Borga Pass, Transylvania, but all that shows up is his luggage and - would you believe it? - one coffin-shaped box is packed with nothing but his native soil. I wonder what his problem is.

When Count Alucard finally arrives at Kay's home he chooses a very inconvenient moment, as her engagement party has just ended in tragedy. Her dear old dad's corpse has just been discovered. The Doctor reckons it was cardiac arrest that did for him, but that doesn't explain the twin punctures to his throat or the look of abject terror that horribly distorts his face. Alucard offers his condolences and says he'll call on Kay again soon. He's clearly very angry to learn that she's going to be wed before he can have a decent crack at her, but not to worry. Using his highly developed powers of mesmerism, he draws her out into the night in her bare feet and how can she fail to be impressed when he comes surfing across the swamp to her using the coffin as his board? Sure enough: "I am yours, my love" cried Kate with abandon. "Take me, I am yours forever!"

Frank is not best pleased to learn that this foreign Johnny has gazumped him and nabbed Kay for his wife. When he pays the happy couple a visit and his former fiancee blanks him, something inside Frank snaps. He pulls a gun on the sneering Alucard but the bullet passes straight through him - and takes out Kay instead! Distraught, he hands himself into the sheriff, only to be consoled with the news that Kay's death wasn't all that serious and she's right as rain now.

Meanwhile Count Alucard outlines his big plan to his bride.

"You shall be flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood; kin of my kin; my bountiful winepress for a while. You shall be my companion and my helper. This is a young country, with young, fresh blood, and here I will take my vengeance on those puny mortals who dare to think they can thwart my will and purpose!"

Eventually, once she's joined the ranks of the undead, it transpires that Kay doesn't really have any feelings for Count Alucard. She knew he was a vampire all along and only became his victim so that she could make Frank immortal too, thereby ensuring that they could be together for eternity. She busts him out of the madhouse on the understanding that he meets her in the drainage tunnel where Alucard keeps his coffin. All he has to do is burn it and the evil vampire will be out of the picture for good. But what is he to do about the woman he loves?

Tremayne's mini-novelisation (according to Haining, it's original to The Vampire Omnibus) might not be up there with his masterly The Hound Of Dracula, but in a mere fifteen pages he does a wonderful job of nailing the inspired lunacy of the plot! Apparently, it's one of his all-time favourite Dracula films and you can tell he had as much fun adapting it as I did reading it. Tremayne is class.

Ray Russell - Sanguinarius: Confession of Elizabeth Bathory, incarcerated in Castle Csejthe for her part in the torture-murders of several hundred young women. Russell’s treatment of the story is interesting in that he places much of the blame on her husband, Count Ferencz Nadasdy and his mistress Dorottya for leading her into their wicked ways, while the much-maligned Ilona Joo goes to the stake a martyr, admitting to crimes she didn’t commit to save her beloved Elizabeth. The Countess decides to starve herself to death, but before that, she wishes to make a pact with Satan to unleash a curse on her enemies.

Bela Lugosi - The Bat: Transcript of a story Lugosi read for NBC Radio in 1955, explaining why he has been unlucky with wives (he was onto his fourth) and how the vampire that has plagued him ever since he was a youth in Hungary continues to haunt him to the present day. He apologises at the end in case he's frightened us.

Count Eric Stenbock - A True Story of a Vampire: Very quiet account of a case of psychic vampirism, much admired by the decadents. When he misses his train, Count Vardalak is invited home by Dr. Wronski. The multilingual Count grows attached to a young boy and remains gentle and devoted to him even as he's draining away his life. The narrator, Carmela, who is now an old woman, admits that although he killed her little brother and hastened the death of her father, still she can't find it within herself to despise Vardalak.

Woody Allen - Count Dracula: The King Vampire pays the baker and his wife a visit, intent on drinking their blood. Unfortunately, what he takes to be the nighttime is actually a midday solar eclipse and he has to hide in their closet until the sun goes down. His hosts get impatient, open the door, and ... he's blasted to dust. Allegedly hilarious.

Mary Cholmondeley - Let Loose: Wet-Waste-On-The-Wold, Yorkshire. When Sir Roger Despard, a man of many vices, lay on his deathbed, he did so denying God and his Angels, declaring that all were damned as he, and that Satan was strangling him to death. Taking a knife, he cut off his hand and swore an oath that, if he were to go down and burn in hell, his hand would roam the earth and throttle others as he was being throttled. Thirty years after his death, a young man persuades an old clergyman to open the crypt …

Henry Kuttner - I, The Vampire: "It's awful - I'm not sure yet what happened. His wife ... came to life while they were cremating her. They saw her through the window, you know ...screaming and pounding at the glass while she was burned alive. Hess got her out too late. He went stark raving mad ..."
People tend to develop pernicious anaemia when Chevalier Futaine, the mysterious star of forthcoming Hollywood blockbuster Red Thirst, is around. And now he has his designs on Jean, who he believes to be the reincarnation of his soul-mate, Sonja, staked some centuries earlier by a busybody priest.

Clive Sinclair - Uncle Vlad: Wait a minute. The Clive Sinclair? Anyhow … A descendant of the infamous impaler - with all the family niceties off pat - initiates the far-from-unwilling Madelaine into the clan.

Richard Laymon - The Bleeder: Byron Lewis, 28 year old Usher at the Elsinore theatre and wannabe poet, follows a trail of blood through the streets until he arrives at a derelict house. His fantasy - that he's about to save the life of a young model - over-rides his reluctance and he slips inside to find a weird looking guy with a customised straw hovering over a corpse. The vampire is just finishing his takeaway but he's thirsty for more blood ....

William F. Nolan - Getting Dead: Beverly Hills, 1991. Count Arnold, mortified by his inability to commit suicide despite innumerable attempts over 6,000 years, eventually consults Anything Inc. - "Come to us if all else fails. For the proper fee, we'll do anything." The solution the bald guy behind the counter comes up with isn't entirely satisfactory.

[dem bones]

When you're down and need cheering up some, who better to turn to than Peter Haining! Been hauling this around waiting rooms & co. for much of week and between them, Bertha the bloofer lady, the Skeleton Count, Vampirella, Adeliene and that wonderful blood-sucking severed hand have done much to keep the spirits up.

"Elizabeth Grey" - The Skeleton Count or, The Vampire Mistress: According to Haining, an extract from a serial published in The Casket , 1828, and likely the first vampire story written by a woman. Those who make it their business to know about such things suggest that whoever wrote it, it wasn't Elizabeth Grey, and there is even speculation that Mr. Haining may have been perpetuating yet another act of literary mischief! Whatever the truth, the extract is top notch 'Penny Dreadful' blood and thunder from first line to last.

Germany. By the terms of his compact with Lucifer, Count Rudolph of Ravensburg Castle is guaranteed eternal life, but each night will see him pared to a fleshless, animated skeleton. Small consolation - the transformation won't begin until the seventh night, so he needs to work fast if he's to secure a bride. Rudolph continues his study of Black Magic and has two of his cronies exhume the corpse of a beautiful, sixteen year old peasant girl for a necromantic ritual. It is a magnificent success. Bertha Kurtel is restored to life, all memory of her previous existence wiped, and throws her arms around her beloved master and "creator", Count Rudolph. Rudolph pronounces her mistress of Ravensburg and leads her up to the bedroom.

Meanwhile, In the neighbouring village all is not well. First an infant is attacked in her bed, then lovely Theresa Delmar awakens from a nightmare to find a big tits lesbian vampire sucking blood from her neck - big tits lesbian vampire who bears an uncanny resemblance to recently dead Bertha Kurtel! The know-it-all blacksmith reopens her grave - empty!

Seven nights on from his bargain to the devil, Count Rudolph's castle is besieged by angry villagers chanting "Down with the vampire!"

Morley Roberts - The Blood Fetish: (The Strand, Oct. 1908). Dr. Simcox Smith, dying from malaria in the West African jungle, mails a parting gift to hated rival anthropologist Dr. A. J. Hayling in St. John's Wood. Hayling has always scoffed at all things mumbo jumbo - lets see him laugh off the cursed, blood-sucking severed hand of a cannibal and murderer! The hand first shrivels a mouse, then the cat gets it. Mrs. Farwell, the house-keeper has a fortuitous escape. Who will be next?

Another cracking yarn. Bonus point to M. Roberts for including character named Dr. Winslow.

Ron Goulart - Vampirella: Extract from Vampirella #1: Bloodstalk (Sphere, 1976). A plane crash in the mountains. Vampirella is found wandering in the snow by a faceless Yeti who brings her to the Westron Sanitorium, domain of Dr. Tyler Westron, the lecherous mad scientist!

Marilyn Ross - Dark Shadows: (According to Haining, an extract from something called The Secret of Collinwood, no idea). "I sacrificed Carolyn. My own flesh and blood. Elizabeth's daughter."
Julia said, "Because you couldn't help yourself."
"Her death is still on my head," he said, his fists clenched as he was tormented by the thought.
"That is past. We mustn't think about it."

The beautiful Dr. Julia Hoffman visits Barnabus Collins at his Collinwood home and pulls a crucifix on him! She's not come to destroy him, but to help. Julia claims she can cure him of his vampirism by isolating a rogue, destructive cell in his bloodstream. Reluctant monster that he is, the two hundred year old vampire agrees to submit to her experiment. Romance blossoms, Barnabus, free of his blood lust, devotes his existence to destroying all creatures of darkness, etc.

Jack Sharkey - Dracula: The Real Story: (Extract from I Want A Ghoul, Playboy, Sept. 1971). Throwaway contemporary retelling of Harker's attempt at escape from Castle Dracula. Moral: the compulsive diarist should never leave home without a biro.

Richard Matheson - First Anniversary: (Playboy, July 1960). They've been happily married exactly a year when Norman first notices something alarming. Adeliene tastes sour and exudes a "dank, foetid stench." When they dance, she is cold and clammy in his arms. Soon he can no longer taste, smell, or feel her at all. Are his senses in atrophy? Has he developed an allergy to the woman he dearly loves? Richard Matheson has had many wonderful E.C. moments, but the horrible climax to First Anniversary may be the greatest of them all.

[dem bones]

The Bounty 2003 instant remainder

'Jimmy Sangster' - Dracula: Prince Of Darkness: Chapters eight and nine of the (uncredited) John Burke's novelization from The Second Hammer Horror Film Omnibus, Pan, 1967). "Please .... let me in, Diana. I'm cold out here, so cold." Helen Kent, now one of the undead, appears floating outside her sister-in-law's window as Ludwig, the Renfield of the piece, admits Dracula to the Monastery. Father Shandor and Charles Kent rush to Diana's rescue. Helen is overcome, held down by the monks for that once seen never forgotten super-sadistic staking. A high speed wagon-chase before action brought to abrupt conclusion with famous 'Dracula on ice' finale.

Gustav Meyrink -The Land of the Time-Leeches: (The Quest, July, 1920). Johann Hermann Obereit explains the secret of longevity is to root out want and wait from your existence. Do that, and you'll outdistance Methuselah and all the other Biblical long-livers. Obereit learnt the secret on a visit to the nightmarish and of the Time-Leeches, where the greedy spectres of the living contrive to drain dry the lifeblood of their human counterparts. This will give you a clearer idea.

FORTUNA
LOTTERY OFFICE
EVERY TICKET
WINS
THE FIRST PRIZE

Out of it came thronging a grinning crowd carrying sacks of gold, smacking their puffed lips in greedy contentment - phantoms in fat and jelly of all who waste their lives on earth in the insatiable hunger for a gambler's gains."

Roger Zelazny - Dayblood: (Twilight Zone, May-June 1985). Dr. Morgan, Father O'Brien and Ben Kelman sneak inside the ruined Church of the Apostles intent on destroying Brodsky, the very dim vampire, and his latest victim, ex-majorette Elaine Watson, Ben's bride-to-be. Press reporter Wayne volunteers his assistance only to kill off the wannabe Van Helsings, not through any affinity with the undead but out of sheer necessity. Wayne, aka Werdeth, is a Drud.

Charles Caldwell Dobie - The Elder Brother: (Harper’s, Feb 1925). "Elena's teeth flashed in the dusk, and again she let down her blue-black hair, and again her two lips burned my throat. And again I forgot everything that was or ever had been. For it was as if the sea had crept in and covered us."

Josef Vitek, a young Greek refugee in San Francisco, falls under the captivating spell of Elena thel fortune teller. As his love-life takes a turn for the interesting, so his work suffers until an older colleague intervenes on his behalf. According to Haining, the first story to centre around a native American vampire. Be that as it may, it 's surely the first to feature a vampire-busting baker?

'Lord Byron' - The Bride Of The Isles: Oscar Montcalm, Scotland's most accomplished Black Magician, is executed for murder. Decapitation proves only a minor hindrance - Montcalm merely reanimates a corpse and continues his evil ways, this time in the guise of a lecherous vampire. Previously included in Haining's The Shilling Shockers: Stories Of Terror From The Gothic Bluebooks, though not, on that occasion as by 'Lord Byron', who is unlikely to have had anything to do with it.

[ripper]

Hi Dem, it was in my mind that Alice and Claude Askew's Aylmer Vance and the Vampire was included in one of PH's vampire anthologies; would you happen to know if he did, in fact, include it, or perhaps I am confusing PH with another anthologist?

[dem bones]

Hey rip, Haining included it in The Vampire Hunter's Casebook. And Wordsworth reissued the Askew's stories as Aylmer Vance: Ghost Seer in 2006.

[ripper]

Thanks for that, Dem. I must have read PH's Vampire Hunters' Casebook, but the only story that I could remember was the Askews' contribution (and which lead me to purchase the Wordsworth Aylmer Vance collection). I do recall the Vampire Omnibus anthology, and must, I think, have been more impressed with it, but I had mistakenly attributed the Vance story to the Vampire Omnibus, rather than to its true source :-D.

[ripper]

I picked up a copy of this one a while ago. It's another recommended if you prefer more obscure stories. Like Dem, I didn't find Woody Allen's tale to be all that funny, in contrast to the one by Jack Sharkey, that final line made me burst out laughing. I was intrigued by the Elizabeth Grey extract. The introduction mentions that a bound run of 'The Casket' had been found and I presume it was from that source that Haining took his extract. I don't know if any other extracts or stories have been resurrected from 'The Casket' but Haining's description of the magazine made it sound very interesting.

[ripper]

I enjoyed Peter Tremayne's 'Son of Dracula' adaptation. The scene with Count Alucard in the swamp was nicely atmospheric. A good contrast with John Burke's 'Dracula: Prince of Darkness' with its updated take on the Count. It's the only adaptation by Burke that I can remember reading.

[dem bones]

Aug 27, 2016 12:19:34 GMT ripper said:

I picked up a copy of this one a while ago. It's another recommended if you prefer more obscure stories. Like Dem, I didn't find Woody Allen's tale to be all that funny, in contrast to the one by Jack Sharkey, that final line made me burst out laughing. I was intrigued by the Elizabeth Grey extract. The introduction mentions that a bound run of 'The Casket' had been found and I presume it was from that source that Haining took his extract. I don't know if any other extracts or stories have been resurrected from 'The Casket' but Haining's description of the magazine made it sound very interesting.

Re The Skeleton Count; or, the Vampire Mistress, interesting article by John Adcock on the Yesterday's Papers blog suggests Haining was up to his old tricks, and the story may have been written by James Malcolm Rymer of Varney The Vampyre infamy.

[jamesdoig]

Aug 28, 2016 19:12:49 GMT dem bones said:

The Skeleton Count; or, the Vampire Mistress

[/color], interesting article by John Adcock on the Yesterday's Papers blog suggests Haining was up to his old tricks, and the story may have been written by James Malcolm Rymer of Varney The Vampyre infamy.
[/quote]

Talking of Penny Bloods, Victorian Secrets, a publisher which is new to me, is bringing out some interesting titles: www.victoriansecrets.co.uk/book/the-skeleton-crew-or-wildfire-ned/

[ropardoe]

Aug 28, 2016 19:12:49 GMT dem bones said:

Re The Skeleton Count; or, the Vampire Mistress, interesting article by John Adcock on the Yesterday's Papers blog suggests Haining was up to his old tricks, and the story may have been written by James Malcolm Rymer of Varney The Vampyre infamy.

More and more about Haining's fakery and economy with the truth seems to be coming to light, and there is clearly a good deal of research still to be done. Someone should start a website collecting together everything on the Net and elsewhere on the subject, and conducting further investigations. Haining's false claims concerning "The Vampire of Kring" still cause trouble in M.R. James circles and I quite often have to point out the facts to people (can't deny that I was taken in by them myself to begin with).  There's a thread somewhere on the Vault about "The Vampire of Kring" problem. (Oh, and I have other reasons for disliking the man!)

[ripper]

I am not too knowledgeable about penny bloods, so is it being contended that 'The Casket' didn't actually exist at all, or that 'The Skeleton Count' was actually published much later than 1828 and possibly elsewhere than 'The Casket'? According to Wikipedia, Rymer was born in 1814, making it rather unlikely that Rymer could have had something published in 1828, when he would have been 14 years old. So, if Rymer was the author it would have had to have been written rather later than the date of 1828 mentioned in Haining's book. Haining also says that a collector, David Phillips, came across a bound run of 'The Casket' and I assumed Haining took 'The Skeleton Count' from that source.

I hadn't heard of the controversy over 'The Vampire of Kring' mentioned by Rosemary, and I presume she is referring to claims in Haining's 'M.R. James Book of the Supernatural' regarding it being a source for Stoker's 'Dracula'. This is very interesting stuff of which I was completely unaware.

[dem bones]

Aug 29, 2016 10:12:30 GMT ropardoe said:

More and more about Haining's fakery and economy with the truth seems to be coming to light, and there is clearly a good deal of research still to be done. Someone should start a website collecting together everything on the Net and elsewhere on the subject, and conducting further investigations. Haining's false claims concerning "The Vampire of Kring" still cause trouble in M.R. James circles and I quite often have to point out the facts to people (can't deny that I was taken in by them myself to begin with).  There's a thread somewhere on the Vault about "The Vampire of Kring" problem. (Oh, and I have other reasons for disliking the man!)

Aug 29, 2016 12:02:03 GMT ripper said:

I hadn't heard of the controversy over 'The Vampire of Kring' mentioned by Rosemary, and I presume she is referring to claims in Haining's 'M.R. James Book of the Supernatural' regarding it being a source for Stoker's 'Dracula'. This is very interesting stuff of which I was completely unaware.

You're right, Rip, it's this thread. M. R. James Book Of The Supernatural. And 'The Skeleton Count, or The Vampire Mistress' was likely published a few decades later than 1828. It certainly has that Penny Dreadful feel to it.

Aug 29, 2016 6:56:02 GMT jamesdoig said:

Talking of Penny Bloods, Victorian Secrets, a publisher which is new to me, is bringing out some interesting titles: www.victoriansecrets.co.uk/book/the-skeleton-crew-or-wildfire-ned/

James, presumably this is the same Skeleton Crew as castigated in James Greenwood's essay Penny Packets Of Poison (A Short Way To Newgate), as included in *ahem* Peter Haining's supremely entertaining (if sometimes bibliographically suspect) The Penny Dreadful? If you're logged in you can download a PDF of the article HERE

[ripper]

Thanks for the confirmation, Dem. Am I right in thinking that 'The Casket' weekly periodical's existence is also open to question.

[dem bones]

Aug 29, 2016 13:53:30 GMT ripper said:

Thanks for the confirmation, Dem. Am I right in thinking that 'The Casket' weekly periodical's existence is also open to question.

It seems there was a The Casket, even a The New Casket, but whether or not they contain the story in question is a matter of some doubt. Much as I detest referencing Wikepedia, whoever posted this entry appears to have their act together. The Skeleton Count, or The Vampire Mistress.