Varney the Vampyre, or, the Feast of Blood
Varney the Vampyre, or, the Feast of Blood: A Romance (1845-7) is one of the longest-running and most successful "penny bloods," or Victorian periodical serial fictions. Written primarily by James Malcolm Rymer, the creator of penny fiction villain Sweeney Todd, Varney is the missing link between John William Polidori's "The Vampyre" (1819) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). It established many lasting conventions of vampire literature and is an important precursor to the vampires of Silent Era American cinema. Our scholarly digital edition presents critically annotated versions of the original text of Varney the Vampyre, its illustrated plates, and a recently-discovered 1846 London stage adaptation.