Varney the Vampyre, or, the Feast of Blood: A Romance
This Edition is a work in progress. Please stay tuned as we prepare, edit, and construct this edition.
Varney the Vampyre, or, the Feast of Blood: A Romance (1845-7) is one of the longest-running and most successful Victorian penny fiction serials, popularly termed "penny bloods." Written by James Malcolm Rymer, the creator of penny fiction villain Sweeney Todd, Varney is an innovative, wide-ranging contribution to nineteenth-century British vampire lore; a missing link between Polidori's "The Vampyre" (1819) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). This documentary critical edition, created by Gary A. Rhodes and Rebecca Nesvet, presents the original text of Varney the Vampyre, complete with its illustrations, as well as a facsimile and transcription of a 'minor theatre' adaptation of Varney, recently discovered by Rhodes.