Think of vampires, you think of Dracula
– at least you would have done before TV shows like True Blood
brought the genre hurtling into the modern era.
But it is because of the success of
Dracula that an obscure, mainly Slavic, piece of folklore has endured
so long.
But Bram Stoker's bloodsucking
blueblood was not the first exsanguinating fiend to stalk the
fictional landscape.
Nick Rennison, pictured below, illuminates a dank corner
of vampire lore before and contemporary to Stoker's opus, with
fangtastic fables from so-called 'penny dreadfuls' and short stories
consumed by a voracious, newly-literate 18th century audience.
Rennison's ability to contextualise and
then let the obscure writers do the talking in this terrific
anthology is a real triumph.
It blends fact, fiction, history and
legend in a darkly spellbinding 287 pages, which touches on themes
such as sexuality, hysteria and primal fear.
The book features virtually unheard of
delights like MR James' Count Magus, Richard Marsh's The
Mask and Frank Norris' Grettir
at Thornhall-stead.
The many faces of the vampires in the anthology show archetypal fanged eastern European noble is not the only embodiment of a supernatural idea, which goes back to ancient history.
Count Magus
explores the dangers of meddling with and prying into history, a
theme which Dracula also used with the conflation of Dracula with
Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler as he is infamously known.
Vampire
legend is shown in the context of Norse mythology in Grettir
at Thornhall-stead as
an undead Icelander fights with Viking heroes in the days of the
sagas.
The
calm and calculating Count Dracula is also a million miles from the
homicidal maniac portrayed in The Mask.
This
book is a must for anyone with a penchant for the supernatural and a
thirst for Gothic horror.
- The Rivals of Dracula – Stories from the Golden Age of Gothic Horror is published by No Exit Press (@noexitpress) and priced at £9.99 (also available as an ebook). For more information click here
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