| Title | : | The Vampire Archives |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0307473899 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780307473899 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 1034 |
| Publication | : | First published September 29, 2009 |
Vampires! Whether imagined by Bram Stoker or Anne Rice, they are part of the human lexicon and as old as blood itself. They are your neighbors, your friends, and they are always lurking. Now Otto Penzler—editor of the bestselling Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps—has compiled the darkest, the scariest, and by far the most evil collection of vampire stories ever. With over eighty stories, including the works of Stephen King and D. H. Lawrence, alongside Lord Byron and Tanith Lee, not to mention Edgar Allan Poe and Harlan Ellison,
The Vampire Archives Reviews
-
What a great book to read as the days get colder and the sky gets greyer.
I have read some of the stories in other anthologies, but I also read quite a few new ones. Some were just good old fashioned scary reads, while others were thought provoking and disturbing.
This thick book is filled with a thousand pages of short stories from authors a few centuries back to the 21st century.
I give it four stars because I really cannot stand the modern writers. They have no sense of moral direction and I find a lot of fantasy writers to be mediocre in the craft and that includes their attempts at vampire stories.
But the bulk of this book has some really good creepy plots and characters. -
Having been impressed and much moved by
The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps: The Best Crime Stories from the Pulps During Their Golden Age--The '20s, '30s & '40s, I decided to get this book after seeing the same editor and overlooking the tacky and cheap-looking cover. I wasn't too familiar with Vampire fiction other than
Dracula and was quite hesitant to purchase and dive straight into such a thick and unfamiliar tome. But as I browsed through, the prose seemed good and the feeling just right, so I decided to fork out the cash.
And fortunately I did.
The Vampire Archives: The Most Complete Volume of Vampire Tales Ever Published is perhaps the best anthology of vampire short stories yet. Editor Otto Penzler did the same admirable job with this collection as he did with "The Big Book of Pulps". The omnibus contains stories from the Victorian era to the present and one is witness to all things toothy and bloody from castles and mansions with elegant gardens to cassettes and VCR's. Though the best stories here lack the punch and lingering timelessness of the Pulp anthology, this is a far more consistent book in terms of quality barely marred by duds. Memorable tales like Joseph Payne Brennan's outstanding "The Horror at Chilton Castle", Clark Ashton Smith's flawless "The End of the Story", Frederick Cowles' unsettling "Princess of Darkness", and perhaps the best vampire tale ever written, F. Paul Wilson's "Midnight Mass", make this arguably the best anthology of 2009.
Not only prose is included but verse as well. Fine efforts by literary behemoths like Byron, Goethe, and Keats add an interesting touch to a universal topic.
The only criticism I have on the book is the lengthy and unnecessary 100+ page bibliography at the end. Of importance to researchers but useless to the average reader (the entries don't contain any descriptions of the stories at all) the space taken by the bibliography could have used at least five more stories for the collection. Considering the number of books featured on the list, they certainly could have picked some of the best of those to round up an already rewarding compilation.
If you're a longtime fan of the genre and want to refresh your memory with it or familiarize yourself further with the subject, or if your a newcomer to this particular field, this is one volume that will take proud place in your bookshelf. -
Mixed bag of stories.
For reference, this is the list of contents:
Pre-Dracula:
Good Lady Ducayne by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
The Last Lords of Gardonal by William Gilbert
A Mystery of the Campagna by Anne Crawford
The Fate of Madame Cabanel by Eliza Lynn Linton
Let Loose by Mary Cholmondeley
The Vampire by Vasile Alecsandri
The Death of Halpin Frayser by Ambrose Bierce
Ken's Mystery by Julian Hawthorne
Carmilla by Sheridan LeFanu
The Tomb of Sarah by F. G. Loring
Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe
The Old Portrait and the Vampire Maid by Hume Nisbet
True stories:
The Sad Story of a Vampire by Eric Stanislaus Count Stenbock
A Case of Alleged Vampirism by Luigi Capuana
An Authenticated Vampire Story by Franz Hartman
Graveyards, castles, churches, ruins:
Revelations in Black by Karl Jacoby
The Master of Rampling Gate by Anne Rice
The Vampire of Kaldenstein by Frederick Cowles
An episode of Cathedral History by M. R. James
Schloss Wabenberg by Scott Moncrieff
The Hound by H. P. Lovecraft
Bite-me-not or Fleur de Feu by Tanith Lee
The Horror at Chilham Castle by Joseph Payne Brennan
The Singular Death of Morton by Algernon Henry Blackwood
The Death of Illa Lotha by Clark Ashton Smith
That's poetic:
The Bride of Corinth by Johann Wolfgang van Goethe
Giaur by Lord Byron
La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats
Hard time for vampires:
Place for Meeting by Charles Beaumont
Duty by Ed Gorman
A week in the unlife by David James Shaw
Classic tales:
Four Wooden Stakes by Victor Roman
The room in a tower by E. F. Benson
Mrs Amworth by E. F. Benson
Dr. Porthos by Basil Copper
For the blood is the life by F. Marian Crawford
Count Magnus by M. R. James
When it was moonlight by Manly Wade Wellman
The drifting snow by August Derleth
Aylmer Vance and the Vampire by Alice and Claude Askew
Dracula's Guest by Bram Stocker
The Transfer by Algernon Blackwood
The Stone Chamber by H. B. Marian Watson
The Vampire by Ian Neruda
The end of the story by Clark Ashton Smith
Psychic vampires:
The lovely lady
The parasite by Arthur Conan Doyle
Lonely women are the vessels of time
Something feels funny:
Blood by Frederik Brown
Popsie by Stephen King
The werewolf and the vampire
Drink my red blood
Day blood
Love, forever:
Replacements
Princess of Darkness
The silver collar
The old man's story
Will
Bloodlust
The Canal
When Gretchen was human
The story of Chugaro
They gather:
The men and women of Rivendell
Winter flowers
The man who loved a vampire lady
Midnight mass
Is that a vampire?:
The adventure of the Sussex vampire
A dead finger
Wailing well
Human remains
The vampire
Strigella
Marcius in Flanders
The Horla
The girl with the hungry eyes
This is war:
The living dead
Down among the dead men
Modern masters:
Necros
The man upstairs
Chastelle
Dracula's Chair
Special
Carrion Comfort
The sea was wet as wet could be -
Too massive to read in a single check-out from the library, I skipped large portions of the book. As it's an anthology, it's difficult to assign one overall rating. Some of the stories are five-stars, others are barely two. So I give the tome four stars as a nod to it's exhaustive scope. If you're a true and total fan of everything vampire, go ahead and plow through it. Otherwise, just pick and choose.
The first section of the anthology contains the older, "pre-Dracula" vampire stories which I found to be a bit repetitive. They all seemed to follow the same pattern of a long buildup to a climactic reveal that, yes, the antagonist is a vampire(!). Since we know from the cover that these are all stories about vampires, those reveals come across as less dramatic than they might if you had found the stories outside this anthology. The later entires generally assume you know these characters are vampires and rely on other devices to build their stories. I found these later offerings to be much better reading. -
This is one massive tome. Unfortunately, the paper quality is truly horrible, and neither it nor the binding were built to last. It's puzzling why so much trouble was gone through to put together a stellar collection if it wasn't built to last.
Is this anthology "the most complete volume of vampire tales ever published" as the subtitled claims? Quite possibly. The obligatory excerpt from Varney the Vampire and the short story that began it all "The Vampyre" by Polidori are glaring omissions, but a lot of harder to find pieces are included. The selection of early vampire stories is very good. Most of the modern vampire stories date from the 1970's and 1980's.
The arrangement is a bit odd. It's divided up into: Pre-Dracula, True Stories, Graveyards Castles Churches Ruins, That's Poetic, Hard Times for Vampires, Classic Tales, Psychic Vampires, Something Feels Funny, Love . . . Forever, They Gather, Is That a Vampire?, This Is War, and Modern Masters. Three stories published after Dracula are included in the pre-Dracula section that should be in the Classic Tales section, and several other stories that are pre-Dracula/pre-1897 are scattered throughout the other sections. Also, the title of the True Stories section is misleading as it contains three fictional stories rather than actual accounts of vampires. Reading some of the newspaper accounts from 18th Century Eastern Europe or New England or even more modern incidents at Highgate Cemetery would have been fun.
The bibliography included at the end is excellent for vampire novels contemporary within the last decade with a sprinkling of older works included as well. -
At over nine hundred pages, this weighty tome has given me some physical as well as mental exercise. I received THE VAMPIRE ARCHIVES as a birthday present. Since I am more of a novel kind of guy, a book of short stories that was literally as thick as a brick wasn’t exactly what I would have chosen. But once I started nibbling away at it, I found plenty to enjoy. This book is not all suave bloodsuckers in capes and evening dress (although you will find some). Lisa Tuttle’s ‘The Replacements’ is about creepy little vampiric animals that exert a strange allure. The story by Sabine Baring-Gould called ‘A Dead Finger’ is about… well, you guessed it. Many of the stories are old and more than a little creaky which I quite enjoy. There are more recent tales including some by contemporary masters such as Stephen King and Anne Rice. I revisited some old favorites like ‘Carmilla’, and made a few new finds like ‘Popsy’. In fact, I think I will drag the thing back to my coffin and bite down on another one right now.
-
This 1000+ page book is a treasure trove of vampire lore, with an incredibly rich array of vampire stories spanning the ages from classic to modern. Stories by Bram Stoker and Arthur Conan Doyle are included, as well as Roger Zelazny, Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Clive Barker. The bibiography alone is worth the price of the book. This 30-something page guide to all written vampire works is a masterpiece, and is pure entertainment in and of itself. A must-have for all lovers of the vampire fiction genre.
-
This is an excellent collection of short vampire stories. Over the last three years I've really embraced the short story medium in a big way. Editor / compiler Otto Penzler has done an excellent job in this compilation of vampire stories. A word of warning, make sure you get the English edition with the full page text, the paper is much better, too
-
It is a strange quirk of science that it has been found that the injection of young blood into an old person actually has restorative qualities. My understanding is that as we age the capability of DNA (or was it RNA) replication diminishes and the strands become shorter, so the effect of rejuvenation of new cells reduces over time - hence aging appearance. Regular transfusion of younger blood cells actually improves the appearance of older people. Countess Bathory and Vampire myths really were on to something?
Back to the book.
This collection is a massive, weighty tome, appropriate to start on Friday the 13th. Kim Newman's introduction (4/5) traces the history of vampire literature and how modern perception has comingled with the cinema interpretations and lineage of those stories. Neil Gaiman's foreword (5/5) is a brief autobiographical history of his relationship with vampires from a young age, I especially noted his dissatisfaction with the movie interpretations of these great stories as they couldn't live up to his imagination, something I'd agree with of the Hammer vampire movies of the 70s. They're trying but generally failing. Gaiman also mentioned that it was his disappointment in some of these stories that led him to construct his own.
As an anthology it does collect many of the big names both old and new (newish). It meant that I'd already read several of these. My favourites evoke folk tale style or up to the late gothic era.
The stories I liked:
Good Lady Ducayne by Mary Elizabeth Braddon: 3/5
This new lady's maid has found employment that appears to be too good to be true, but what might it cost her?
The Last Lords of Gardonal by William Gilbert: 3/5
Refreshingly the vampire isn't actually the most evil character in this story.
Carmilla by Sheridan LeFanu 5/5
Didn't reread here, I read this recently.
Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe 5/5
Reread, this remains my favourite Poe story.
The Old Portrait by Hume Nisbert: 3.5/5
Extremely short but fairly effective actually. A man buys a painting because he likes the frame, when removing the old paint what does he find beneath?
The Vampire Maid by Hume Nisbet : 4/5
This ethereal vampire story quickly delivers. The classic trope of the young man enchanted by the seemingly innocent beauty.
The Vampire of Kaldenstein by Frederick Cowles: 4/5
Solid if familiar story almost like a truncated Dracula, without leaving the old country.
Schloss Wabenberg by D Scott-Moncrieff: 3.5/5
I like the trope. Just like the Vampire of Kaldenstein and several others. The traveller in Central-eastern Europe somehow encounters the aristocratic vampires in their dilapidated castle. Unfortunately the protagonists (I think often if not always) seem to escape with generally unsatisfying ease.
In this one the events apparently happened in a collected projected dream as a visit to the castle afterwards in the daylight finds the dining room covered in undisturbed dust. None the less our heroes' escape the town post haste.
The Hound by H. P. Lovecraft: 4/5
Reread.
Bite-me-not or Fleur de Feu by Tanith Lee: 4/5
Tanith Lee's writing style is perfect for folk tales, I plan to read more of her work. This is a rather straight forward story but is well crafted.
The Horror at Chilton Castle by Joseph Payne Brennan: 3.5/5
A terrifying occupant inhabitants a secret room in the castle.
The Singular Death of Morton by Algernon Henry Blackwood: 3.5/5
For a very short story this builds an ominous atmosphere quickly. Simple but effective.
The Death of Illa Lotha by Clark Ashton Smith: 4/5
Great writing, I'd have liked a little more depth but for a very short story this is very effective.
The room in a tower by E. F. Benson: 4/5
Very Lovecraftian. A man dreams a house in subsequent nights in ever more detail. He ignores this until he happens coincidentally to arrive at the actual house. How strange that the horrific people in the dream bear no resemblance to the actual people living in the house. Until, he stays the night in the room in the tower.
The end of the story by Clark Ashton Smith: 3.5/5
This story appears to have a very long winded build up, everything of interest (mostly the meeting with Lamia) is stacked to the end of the story.
Replacements by Lisa Tuttle 3.5/5:
A bit of a stretch calling it a vampire story, but this story suggests that women want to nurture a small cute thing long term, and men just want youthful women who are in good shape and don't challenge their dominance (more or less).
Princess of Darkness by Frederick Cowles: 3.5/5
He can not escape the vampire's curse, he might evade for a while, but when his guard is finally dropped, he is her's. Mysterious eastern European location, unnaturally beautiful vampiress. No happy ending here.
The Old Man's Story by Walter Starkie: 3.5/5
Pour one out (wine) for the peasant girl who ran away with the vampire.
The Canal by Everill Worrell: 3.5/5
I think this is the non Derleth butchered version as there is no dynamite in the quarry, no instead our hapless hero plans to take a wooden sword and presumably to attempt to plunge it into the vampiress' heart. I think we all know he will fail. And that is such an appropriate way to end. I'll need to read more Everill Worrell.
Necros by Brian Lumley: 5/5
Read this recently. -
This is amazing and I would highly recommend, especially for the sci-fi ones. Well worth the time.
-
Some fun stories in this collection, some of which have been very hard to track down due to reprint rarities. I was very happy to find some old pulp authors I love like Carl Jacobi and Fredric Brown and Manley Wade Wellman herein.
Still, for writers of horror or dark fantasy, the greatest strength of this book could be its 111 page bibliography of every published vampire fiction short story or novel or collection. It does note that the bibliography doesn't include comic books, games, television, plays, or movies (which is a fair decision for a book on vampire tales, not total media). Even so, it's a great resource that's made me start hunting down a copy once this one goes back to the library. -
I enjoy this book, I still pick it up once in a while and read some stories. Some stories go on for pages upon pages and it's too much to handle.. However, I love short stories... so it's perfect. Some stories are over 5 stars worth, some are barely 2 stars worth. I wouldn't say it's the best collection ever, but it's definitely worth owning.
-
The stories in this anthology
Rate between 2 and 4 stars so overall I will rate the book at 3 stars. It's definitely a book to come and go with... It wasn't one I wanted to go from one story to the next all in a row... So if you do read this plan on doing so in starts and stops as the mood strikes you. You will like it much better that way! -
This is a great compilation of vampire stories ranging from classic stories published in the 1800's to the present day. I also liked the exhaustive bibliography provided at the end of the book as well as the combination of short stories, longer stories and even vampire poetry.
-
Some stories were really good, some not so much. But I'm glad I stuck it out. It was an interesting listen and I was introduced to some new authors and learned more about some I thought knew. It was worth my time.
-
Good Lady Ducayne by M. E. Braddon
The Man Upstairs by Ray Bradbury
A Case of Alleged Vampirism by Luigi Capuana
The Last Lords of Gardonal by William Gilbert -
I read a few short stories in this anthology but did not have time to read as much as I would have liked, especially since I had to return it to the library after a few weeks.
-
Huge comp of bad and good short stories related to vampires. Missing some classics like I am Legend but pretty darn complete!
-
Simply put: There are way too many modern stories in here for this to be considered an "Archive". It doesn't even include Polidori's "The Vampyre".
-
As with The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes, the other Penzler edited anthology I've read, I'm not going to try to review every single story in here. There are dozens and that would take forever, and given I read this on and off for over a year, I'm sure I've forgotten how I felt about a lot of them. Instead, I'm going to talk a bit about how I felt about this book as a whole. Overall, it's a fairly good collection, though I think it could be improved in some ways. There were certainly times reading this when I felt like it had gotten somewhat monotonous, with too many stories of vampires as monsters and not enough with sympathetic ones. Yes, vampires started out as figures of horror, but there's a number of different viewpoints about them now, and even vampire protagonists can still star in horror tales where they face evil vampires or other monsters. I also felt annoyed that Polidori's The Vampire isn't included here. Penzler says that's because he doesn't think it's very good, which is obviously fine as far as that goes, but I feel that anything purporting to be "the most complete volume of vampire tales every published" (as the cover declares) should include the foundational vampire story. And there was definitely a fair number of stories I didn't much care for, either finding them stupid or too long or just bad.
But there are also some very good stories here, and some important ones. Carmilla is reprinted, which is always nice, and there's a good array of other early vampire tales, some of which I hadn't read. Dracula's Guest appears, but personally I'd find the first four chapters of Dracula to be a much better choice. A number of classic and modern horror authors are represented, reminding me that I need to check out more MR James and Clark Ashton Smith. There's even a pretty good story by Anne Rice, one of her rare forays into short fiction, which I actually wish was fleshed out more since unlike Interview with a Vampire it stars a woman. There's a masterful story by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois about a Jewish vampire during the Holocaust, and the man who writes the Repairman Jack novels has a really good story about a Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi resisting a vampire conquest of Earth. (This last one was expanded into a full novel which I plan to read soon.) Given the length of the book and the high quality of the good stories, I think they will far outlive the terrible ones in my memory, which is the way I really judge an anthology.
I will say that, as with the Sherlock Holmes book, I found this a bit awkward to read, especially now that I'm doing much of my reading on the bus, an environment a tome of this size is totally unsuited for. So while there are more volumes like this by Penzler that look good, I'm not sure I'm likely to read any of them anytime soon, especially when they don't have ebook editions. Still if you want an almost overwhelming array of blood suckers, soul drinkers, and even some maybe-vamps, definitely give this a whirl. Just think of it as an excellent starting point, not the be-all and end-all of my favorite undead. -
Would probably give this 4.5 stars, but the size and work that went into it have me feeling generous. This book is a mammoth collection of vampire tales, stretching from the beginnings of the genre to the modern days. It's all short stories, with a few getting close to novella length, and they explore the various types of vampire stories people tell. Some are definitely better than others, and I don't remember any stinkers in the bunch. Some of the more modern stories do seem a little dated (late 20th century), and some of the older ones that have survived the test of time retain their power even now. It would be interesting to see how many of these are still being anthologized a century from now.
There are a few weaknesses, mainly in the inclusion of a lot of stories that are only tangentially related to vampires, or lack them entirely. I get wanting a diverse assortment of tales, but some in here are just confusing. One tale seems to focus around people who can control the minds of others, and the only thing vampiric about it is the phrase 'mind vampires' was used by a throw-away character. Still a decent story, but strangely out of place in a vampire collection. A few others like that are scattered about, but as a whole it remains a large, interesting collection of vampire tales. -
Although the collection is a good one, it isn't Penzler's best, and personally, I felt there should have been a section of the book called "The Copy Cats" as some of the stories in here were Dracula ripoffs.
Other than those complaints, it is a good collection of many stories dating from the "Pre-Dracula Era" to modern times (such as the story "Midnight Mass").
I will say it can be a bit monotonous reading vampire story after vampire story, but then again, it is a giant collection of vampire stories.
Don't get me wrong, I do very much enjoy Penzler's "Big Books." My personal favorite is "The Big Book of Rouges and Villains," and although "The Vampire Archives" is a great collection, it just didn't hold my attention as well, probably because it is (like I said) vampire story after vampire story. -
This anthology delivers on its promise of being possibly the most thorough collection of vampire stories in English ever assembled. I had encountered many of these stories before in other anthologies, but many were new to me. Certainly one can observe certain recurring themes and trends in vampire stories... and this anthology probably uses the word "sepulchral" a record number of times. Without going into detail on individual stories, I will simply say this collection provides value for money. I give it four stars, withholding the fifth only because a collection this thorough could have felt a bit more complete with the inclusion of just a few more familiar and wonderful stories. All in all: excellent.
-
This is a huge number of vampires, about 85, divided into categories. They include 1. Pre-Dracula 2.True Stories 3. Graveyards, Castles, Churches, Ruins 4. That's Poetic 5. Hard Times for Vampires 6. Classic Tales 7.Psychic Vampires, 8 Something feels funny 9. Love....Forever 10. They Gather 11. Is that a Vampire? 12. This is War 13. Modern Masters
There is also a lot of explanation about how vampire stories are in every culture with some history included. But enough about that. I am just going to read stories in my spare time and give a brief essay about each. This might be a long story or not so long. I may read 10 or 20 (however due to time constraints and more pressing reading...only read 7), but doubt I will complete the book since I have other books that I want and need to read, and this is sort of a "resource" book, as I see it.
Pre-Dracula
1. Good Lady Ducayne by M. E Brandon published about 1896 A young woman, Belle Rolleston hires on as a companion to a very elderly, feeble, but still mobile woman who has had two previous companions that died on her. Belle feels great at first but starts feeling less well and gets concerned. What could be happening to her?
2. The Vampire Maid by Hume Nisbet pub about 1890 A sensitive artistic man who grows tired of being around people, seeks a secluded area where he can find space for alone time. He finds just the place and meets a young girl with who he starts to go for walks until he starts feeling tired and having dreams.
True Stories
1. The Sad Story of a Vampire by Stanislaus Eric (Court) Stenbock pub 1890 An elderly woman shares the story of how a vampire took her brother and her father. She is at great pains to describe that he was indeed a real vampire although he didn't look like most of the stories bandied about such beings.
Psychic Vampires
1. The Lovely Lady- p1927 D H Lawrence -- a lovely lady, Pauline Attenborough looks 32 part of the time even though she is in her early 70s. It seems somehow connected to her conversations with her son in the evening. Unfortunately, her niece becomes suspicious and finds out her secret.
Is that a Vampire?
1. The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire - p1927 Arthur Conan Doyle --Sherlock Holmes has to solve the mystery of the unloving mother who attacks both her son and her stepson...in the country.
This is War
1. The Living Dead - p1967 Robert Bloch - A German "vampire" falls victim to his own trick after Germany loses.
Modern Masters (this is relatively speaking as it is a rather old collection)
1. The Man Upstairs pub 1947 Ray Bradbury -- a young boy growing up in his grandparent's rooming house finds out that the new tenant in the upstairs room is somewhat different from human. He is the first to realize it but is found to be correct.
I rated this book at 3 stars because for someone with the time to focus on it, it is quite a bank of vampire-related literature. The stories seem to be all "brands" of vampires in every configuration possible, but it is dated. You won't find anything much beyond the 1970s in this book. Asimov is about as "new" as it gets. No Hunger, or True Blood era short stories at all.
I am closing out now on this one. But suggest it to those having the time to devote to a sweeping look at "vampires through the ages" to give it a try. If I owned this book, I would certainly retain it and treat it as a resource book for short term reading of one or two short stores as time premits.
