Pierre Kast - The Vampires of Alfama

[andydecker]

Pierre Kast – The Vampires of Alfama (Les Vampires de l'Alfama, Olivier Orban, 1975, W. H. Allen, 1976, 181 pages)

W. H. Allen: Peter Goodfellow                          J'ai Lu SF, France: Guyla Konkoly 1979
Covers found on the net. Thanks to the original scanners.

Pierre Kast, who died in 1984, was a French director and writer. According to French critic Jean-Marc Ligny he wanted to do a romantic vampire movie in 1964, which didn't work out. So he wrote this novel ten years later, his only genre novel.

The Vampires of Alfama is more a historical fantasy than a classic horror novel. The plot takes place in 18th century Lisbon, but it is kind of a dream image of the real Portugal of the time, as the writer says in his short foreword, a kind of parallel universe.

While the corrupt aristocracy is only interested in its power, intrigues and perverse pleasures, cardinal and minister João is the counsellor of the king. When not lusting after his beautiful niece Alexandra – who is not averse to this -, he is in a constant feud with the Marquis Da Silva who also lusts after Alexandra. Just to spite Da Silva the cardinal turns a blind eye to the Alfama. This part of Lisbon is kind of a safe haven for all kinds of undesirables, from Jesuits, gamblers, philosophers, jews and alchemists to astrologers. Then the vampire count Kotor and his two children arrive, on the run from the inquisition. He rents a house in the Alfama, and soon the vampires get caught up in the intrigues of the state when Alexendra falls in love with the vampire son.

Written in a kind of tranquil and fairy-tale-ish style Kast portrays the vampires as truly spiritual beings amid a political and spiritually corrupt society. The novel is well written, cynical with a lot of wit. "The audience with the king had been excruciating. The lack of will, the capriciousness, the indulgence of fleeting pleasures – in His Majesty João recognized with loathing his own likes, all his adorable faults, only multiplied in a distorting mirror. Of course this was also the reason for the influence he had on this feeble character. A Caligula without madness or greatness, consequently without class." (Re-re-translated.)

It is a odd novel, I guess more for readers who like writers like Pérez-Reverte than, say, Les Daniels or the usual suspects.

While others of Kast's novel have been re-issued as e-books in France, this has not. The English edition is hard to find; in Germany it got the hardcover treatment in 1979 and much later as a paperback.