Peter Haining – Vampire

Peter Haining (ed) – Vampire: Chilling Tales Of The Undead (Target, 1985)

Introduction – Peter Haining

James Malcolm Rymer – Varney’s Victim
Bram Stoker – Dracula’s Guest
Richard Matheson – No Such Thing As A Vampire
Robert Thurston Hopkins – The Vampire Of Woolpit Grange
John Flanders (Jean Ray) – The Graveyard Duchess (The Guardian Of The Cemetery)
Curt Siodmak – Experiment With Evil
Alexey Tolstoy – The Curse Of The Vourdalak
Francis Marion Crawford – For The Blood Is The Life
Frank Owen – The Tinkle Of The Camel’s Bell
Phil Robinson – The Last Of The Vampires
Edith Wharton – Bewitched
Robert E. Howard – The Horror From The Mound
Robert Bloch – Hungarian Rhapsody
Ray Bradbury – The Homecoming
James S. Hart – The Traitor

Another winning Vampire anthology from Haining, who clearly has a passion for the undead.

Some random picks:

James Malcolm Rymer – Varney’s Victim: In this short extract, the Vampyre explains all about what an undead existence entails to the horrified Flora Bannerworth. Varney professes his love and urges her to flee the ancestral home to be free of him. As usual, her brother bursts in at an inopportune moment.

Robert Bloch – Hungarian Rhapsody: Solly Vincent, retired racketeer, learns that his new neighbour, Helen Esterhazy, is not only “stacked” but prone to writhing nude on a bed of gold coins. When she cooly spurns his advances, Solly decides the situation calls for a course of rape, murder and pillage.

Richard Matheson – No Such Thing As A Vampire: Romania: Despite a bedroom liberally festooned with crucifixes and garlic, and the nightly vigils of her husband, Madam Alexis awakens each morning to find her nightgown shredded and blood-stained from the twin punctures in her neck.

Ray Bradbury – The Homecoming: A gathering of the clans at Halloween. An occasion for much celebration amongst the vampiric Elliott family (whose number includes witches, werewolves and sundry monsters), save for 14 year old Timothy, who, being a decidedly normal boy is shunned as the black sheep. One of the greatest stories Bradbury wrote, and utterly heartbreaking.

Francis Marion Crawford – For The Blood Is The Life: Southern Italy: When Christina surprises a pair of thieves burying the fortune they’ve stolen from the house of a dead miser, they hit her over the head with a spade and bury her where she falls. Thereafter, she lures her lover, Angelo, the miser’s ruined son to her grave and drinks his blood.

Edith Wharton – Bewitched: Old Prudence Rutledge knows her husband is having an affair, and demands that the girls father and the townsfolk intervene. The difficulty arises from the fact that the husband-snatcher died several months ago from a wasting disease …

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