James Malcom Rymer Thomas Peckett Prest: Varney the Vampire

[andydecker]

James Malcom Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest: Varney the Vampire; or, the Feast of Blood (1847, E. Lloyd)

It is one of the often cited "Penny Dreadfuls". According to a bibliography by Montague Summers the first publication as a novel had 220 chapters and 868 pages. Before this it was sold as weekly pamphlets. Summers says that it was written by Prest, E. F. Bleier says Rymer. Its influence on vampire fiction is naturally huge and the character is often cited in later vampire stories, from Marvel comics to Kim Newman.

Here are a few illustrations taken from a German translation of 1976. The illustrator is uncredited, but they seem to be lifted from the original pamphlets or the compilation as a novel.

[Dr Strange]

Those illustrations are hilarious - that skeleton looks like someone has opened the toilet door while he was mid-dump.

[Michael Connolly]

BBC Radio 3 at 22.00 tonight - Free Thinking: Vampires and the Penny Dreadful

Varney the Vampire was a blood-soaked gothic horror story serialised in cheap print over the course of a couple of years in the nineteenth century. The resulting "penny dreadful" tale spilled out of a large volume when it was finally published in book form. In spite of his comfort with crosses, daylight and garlic, Varney's capacity to reflect on his actions made him an early model for Dracula. Matthew Sweet explores why a work, so often overlooked, was so important to the development of the vampire genre.

As Matthew Sweet is always knowledgeable and never condescending about the topics he covers, this should be worth listening to tonight or after its transmission. See details here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0018h4y

[humgoo]

Varney The Vampyre or, The Feast of Blood (Dover, first edition second printing, 1973), a two-volume facsimile edition of the 1847 edition published by E. Lloyd, Salisbury Square, London (876 pages), with an introduction by E. F. Bleiler

Bleiler plays literary detective in his "A Note on Authorship":

Identifying an author by his style is a very suspect process, even though literary historians and critics have perpetually attempted it. Apart from questions of methodological precision and personal opinion, there are such uncontrollable variables as stylistic change on the part of the author and editorial revision. Occasionally, however, an instance occurs where attributing a book seems possible by relatively gross criteria.

Varney the Vampyre and much of the comparable literature of the period would seem to be relatively free of the limitations that occur in such comparisons. Such literature was written in great haste, without revision, so that the author's naked writing style or mannerisms were made manifest. The Lloyd novels were obviously not edited by an outside hand, as may have been the case with more formal writing; the Lloyd presses did not have time to wait, for much of this fiction was written right in the pressroom with devils flying back and forth between desk and typecase. As a result, any idiosyncrasies of style (not compelling enough to make the publisher warn the writer to avoid them) — peculiarities in sentence structure, vocabulary, development, and similar aspects of writing — were likely to be clearly precipitated on the printed page.

To determine whether Prest or Rymer was the author of Varney the Vampyre, several long sections of Varney (to make allowance for possible multiple authorship) have been compared with Angelina, or The Mystery of St. Mark's Abbey and The Death Grasp, or A Father's Curse, both printed under Prest's name by Lloyd, and with The Black Monk, or The Secret of the Grey Turret, by Rymer. While The Black Monk is not directly attributed to Rymer by Lloyd, it is offered as "By the Author" of books that Rymer wrote: Ada the Betrayed, Jane Brightwell, etc.

In all tests that were made, Prest's novels fall on one side, and Varney the Vampyre and The Black Monk fall together on the other side.

The most obvious difference between the work of Prest and Rymer is the use of conversation words. Prest uses almost countless synonyms for "said": observed, continued, returned, interrupted, cried, replied, claimed, exclaimed, demanded, answered, added, remarked, shrieked, insisted, asked, repeated, urged, sighed, etc. Particularly characteristic of Prest is the word "ejaculated," which is normally used in a situation of high emotion. Free statement, without a verb of saying, is rare. Rymer and Varney the Vampyre however, share a different approach: "said" is used for almost 50 per cent of quotations; no verb at all for another third. The only other verbs of saying that are at all frequent in Rymer and Varney the Vampyre are "cried" and "muttered." Both agree on this.

Prest often uses adverbs of manner after verbs of saying: hastily, quickly, fiercely, peremptorily, thoughtfully, etc. While Rymer and Varney the Vampyre occasionally use such words, a much more frequent device is a qualifying phrase: with a sigh, with a groan, etc.

Prest's conversations are usually emotion-laden, and social in context. Rymer's and Varney the Vampyre's are either non-committal or physical in tone. This difference is difficult to describe, but it is the difference, persistently between Prest's "'As you hope for mercy,' implored Angelina, grasping the hands of the woman in hers and fixing her tearful eyes with ardent entreaty upon her countenance" and Rymer's "Eldred Weare trembled anxiously, and his sister Agatha regarded him with a look of deep meaning. She whispered in his ear, 'There is a time for all things. Morgatani will yet succeed.'"

In expositional prose Prest maintains a short sentence. His average sentence length is about three lines of printed text; about 50 per cent of his sentences fit this pattern, about 20 per cent consist of two lines, and about 10 per cent run longer than four lines. Rymer and Varney the Vampyre use a longer line in expositional prose: three lines, about 25 per cent; four lines, about 15 per cent; five lines, about 15 per cent; on up to 7, 8, and 10 lines. This is fairly uniform over long stretches of prose.

Other differences are also obvious on examination: the use of repeated utterance or interruption; relation of short sentence passages to long sentence passages; complete statements before verbs of saying, and other points which it did not seem profitable to tabulate, since the picture was already clear.

An analysis such as this obviously should be done by a computer, even without the larger detail that a computer might accrete, if programmed properly, it would seem clear that Thomas P. Prest was most definitely not the author of Varney the Vampyre and that J. M. Rymer is quite acceptable. A full analysis of the Lloyd ménage might reveal other authors who conform as closely to Varney the Vampyre as Rymer does, but at this moment the seems to be only a remote possibility.

[jamesdoig]

Aug 31, 2023 8:05:15 GMT humgoo said:

Bleiler plays literary detective in his "A Note on Authorship":

Made it to Poland okay but sadly the antiquarian bookshop I visited in Gdansk didn't have a first edition of Demon Ruchu, in fact he had nothing by Grabinski at all. Made it to Hel yesterday. Looking forward to visiting other secondhand bookshops in Poland, and even hope to get across to Jarndyce in London. Thought I'd pipe in and mention an important 2002 essay by academic Helen Smith (and published by Jarndyce) shedding new light on the authorship of Varney - she agrees with Bleiler but has a lot more evidence from those 'by the author of' drop-downs, basically proving Rymer's authorship.

[andydecker]

Sept 1, 2023 5:55:00 GMT jamesdoig said:

Aug 31, 2023 8:05:15 GMT humgoo said:

Bleiler plays literary detective in his "A Note on Authorship":

Made it to Poland okay .

Have a good and safe trip, James!

[Swampirella]

Sept 1, 2023 5:55:00 GMT jamesdoig said:

Aug 31, 2023 8:05:15 GMT humgoo said:

Bleiler plays literary detective in his "A Note on Authorship":

Made it to Poland okay but sadly the antiquarian bookshop I visited in Gdansk didn't have a first edition of Demon Ruchu, in fact he had nothing by Grabinski at all. Made it to Hel yesterday. Looking forward to visiting other secondhand bookshops in Poland, and even hope to get across to Jarndyce in London. Thought I'd pipe in and mention an important 2002 essay by academic Helen Smith (and published by Jarndyce) shedding new light on the authorship of Varney - she agrees with Bleiler but has a lot more evidence from those 'by the author of' drop-downs, basically proving Rymer's authorship.

Yes, have a wonderful, safe trip & hope your bookshop visits are successful!

[sadako]

I’ve finally read some brief extracts from Varney the Vampire (in Christopher Frayling’s ‘Vampyres’, 1991) and really enjoyed them. Wanting to read more, I’m intimidated by the original’s 800 plus pages.

Is there a friendlier abridged version out there?

[dem bones]

Jan 3, 2024 0:13:32 GMT sadako said:

I’ve finally read some brief extracts from Varney the Vampire (in Christopher Frayling’s ‘Vampyres’, 1991) and really enjoyed them. Wanting to read more, I’m intimidated by the original’s 800 plus pages.

Is there a friendlier abridged version out there?

Don't know of any though perhaps others will. Several publishers issue it over two to (in Wildside's case) five paperbacks, so you might like to try it in smaller doses. Wordsworth Editions published a budget 1000+ page paperback (£2.99 if I'm not mistaken), though personal preference is for the Dover facsimile edition (2 vols). Opening chapter, The Midnight Visitor is an anthologist's favourite, and Haining features less familiar extracts in Vampires! and The Penny Dreadful should you have copies to hand.

[sadako]

Thank you. I’ll investigate your suggestions.

Am still surprised that the quality of writing in this famous Penny Dreadful wasn’t dreadful!

[andydecker]

sadako :

I recently bought The Complete Works of Bram Stoker in the Delphi edition, a digital version. They put even Stoker's Irving biography in.

But there is a lot of additional material beside Stoker included, among it Varney the Vampire. This version has 96 chapters. At least easy to read in that format.

Also included is Heinrich Ossenfelder - The Vampire; Lord Byron - The Giaour; John William Polidori - The Vampyre; Le Fanu - Carmilla. Basically a couple of thousand pages (can't say how much, not paginated) for 2,79 Euro. A cup of coffee is more expensive.

[jamesdoig]

Alternatively you can purchase the original from Lloyd Currey for $42,500: www.lwcurrey.com/pages/books/168021/authorship-not-established-has-been-attributed-to-james-malcolm-rymer-or-thomas-peckett-prest/varney-the-vampyre-or-the-feast-of-blood-a-romance

[andydecker]

Jan 15, 2024 21:05:20 GMT jamesdoig said:

Alternatively you can purchase the original from Lloyd Currey for $42,500: www.lwcurrey.com/pages/books/168021/authorship-not-established-has-been-attributed-to-james-malcolm-rymer-or-thomas-peckett-prest/varney-the-vampyre-or-the-feast-of-blood-a-romance

A bargain :-)

[sadako]

Jan 15, 2024 21:05:20 GMT jamesdoig said:

Alternatively you can purchase the original from Lloyd Currey for $42,500: www.lwcurrey.com/pages/books/168021/authorship-not-established-has-been-attributed-to-james-malcolm-rymer-or-thomas-peckett-prest/varney-the-vampyre-or-the-feast-of-blood-a-romance

Do you think they were ever sold like this new, or was there a service that bound your collections for safekeeping?

[jamesdoig]

Jan 16, 2024 9:38:36 GMT sadako said:

Do you think they were ever sold like this new, or was there a service that bound your collections for safekeeping?

Yes, there were bookbinders around for that purpose. People who collected the weekly penny parts would get a title page from the publisher and have the lot bound together by a bookbinder. In earlier times, publishers didn't bind books at all, and purchasers would need to go to a binder to have them covered. Later the additional protection of a dust jacket became the norm, though it would often get thrown away (much to the annoyance of book collectors).