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11 Days Until Halloween
Oct. 20th, 2010 07:37 amMy most recent StarShipSofa "History of the Genre" segment, which discusses the popular penny dreadful Varney the Vampire, or The Feast of Blood (1845-1847), one of Dracula's most significant ancestors, is now available in the latest episode of the podcast. You can download it or listen to it here. If you listen, I hope you enjoy. (A full list of my past podcast segments, with links, is available here.)
And here are some noteworthy links related to Varney:
Text of the Day: Appropriately enough, our text is Varney the Vampire.
Teaser:
A tall figure is standing on the ledge immediately outside the long window. It is its finger-nails upon the glass that produces the sound so like the hail, now that the hail has ceased. Intense fear paralysed the limbs of the beautiful girl. That one shriek is all she can utter -- with hand clasped, a face of marble, a heart beating so wildly in her bosom, that each moment it seems as if it would break its confines, eyes distended and fixed upon the window, she waits, froze with horror. The pattering and clattering of the nails continue. No word is spoken, and now she fancies she can trace the darker form of that figure against the window, and she can see the long arms moving to and fro, feeling for some mode of entrance. What strange light is that which now gradually creeps up into the air? red and terrible -- brighter and brighter it grows. The lightning has set fire to a mill, and the reflection of the rapidly consuming building falls upon that long window. There can be no mistake. The figure is there, still feeling for an entrance, and clattering against the glass with its long nails, that appear as if the growth of many years had been untouched. She tries to scream again but a choking sensation comes over her, and she cannot. It is too dreadful -- she tries to move -- each limb seems weighted down by tons of lead -- she can but in a hoarse faint whisper cry, --
"Help -- help -- help -- help!"
Read more of Varney the Vampire, or The Feast of Blood here.
And here are some noteworthy links related to Varney:
- Read the full text of Varney the Vampire online here.
- See original illustrations from Varney here.
- Download unabridged narrations of Varney at Librivox here.
- Read more about the authoritative edition from Zittaw Press here.
- See the graphic adaptation (a work in progress) here.
Text of the Day: Appropriately enough, our text is Varney the Vampire.
Teaser:
A tall figure is standing on the ledge immediately outside the long window. It is its finger-nails upon the glass that produces the sound so like the hail, now that the hail has ceased. Intense fear paralysed the limbs of the beautiful girl. That one shriek is all she can utter -- with hand clasped, a face of marble, a heart beating so wildly in her bosom, that each moment it seems as if it would break its confines, eyes distended and fixed upon the window, she waits, froze with horror. The pattering and clattering of the nails continue. No word is spoken, and now she fancies she can trace the darker form of that figure against the window, and she can see the long arms moving to and fro, feeling for some mode of entrance. What strange light is that which now gradually creeps up into the air? red and terrible -- brighter and brighter it grows. The lightning has set fire to a mill, and the reflection of the rapidly consuming building falls upon that long window. There can be no mistake. The figure is there, still feeling for an entrance, and clattering against the glass with its long nails, that appear as if the growth of many years had been untouched. She tries to scream again but a choking sensation comes over her, and she cannot. It is too dreadful -- she tries to move -- each limb seems weighted down by tons of lead -- she can but in a hoarse faint whisper cry, --
"Help -- help -- help -- help!"
Read more of Varney the Vampire, or The Feast of Blood here.