The vampire archives The most complete volume of vampire tales ever published

Review by Booklist Review

In the soberly literary-historical foreword to this doorstopper of an anthology, Kim Newman argues that the prototype of the modern vampire is Lord Byron as satirized by his annoying traveling companion John Polidori in The Vampyre (1819). Editor Penzler declares in the introduction, however, that Polidori's seminal tale is far too tedious to include in this collection. It's about the only important vampire yarn since its time that's not in the book. For here are Goethe's Bride of Corinth, Keats' La Belle Dame sans Merci (though not their fellow classic vampire poem, Coleridge's Christabel ), Poe's Ligeia, LeFanu's Carmilla, and Braddon's Good Lady Ducayne to attest that before Dracula (1897), the great literary vampires were often female. Ambrose Bierce's murkily stylish The Death of Halpin Frayser and M. R. James' saucy Wailing Well (one of three James stories included) show how masterfully wry humor and stark horror can be blended. Sterling performances by dozens of popular fiction's greatest names as well as by authors only specialists will recognize further ensure a bloody good time for all.--Olson, Ray Copyright 2009 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Penzler's second massive anthology for Black Lizard (following 2007's The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps) collects an astoundingly thorough and enjoyable set of 86 vampire tales, poems and true stories. Classics such as Le Fanu's "Carmilla," Poe's "Ligeia" and Stoker's "Dracula's Guest" are nicely interspersed with lesser-known older and newer works. Fredric Brown's "Blood," an old-school sci-fi short-short, is a hoot, and D.H. Lawrence's "The Lovely Lady" is a witty satire that in many ways harks back to Polidori's "The Vampyre." Other standouts include Lisa Tuttle's "The Replacements," a gothic feminist tale, and Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann's "Down Among the Dead Men," a chilling story set in a Nazi concentration camp. Neil Gaiman's introduction and Daniel Seitler's superb 100-plus-page bibliography of vampire fiction round out the anthology. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

Literary interest in vampires never dies. Adams, assistant editor at the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and anthologist (Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse), has assembled a superb mixture of modern vampire tales that range from humor to horror, from poignant to romantic. Neil Gaiman begins the volume with a macabre retelling of the Snow White fairy tale, "Snow, Glass, Apples." Barbara Hambly's "Sunrise on Running Water" is the hilarious story of a vampire who chooses to sail on the unsinkable Titanic. And in the chilling "One for the Road," Stephen King revisits Salem's Lot. Other authors include Kelley Armstrong, Lilith Saintcrow, Carrie Vaughn, Joe Hill, and Brian Stableford. Unfortunately, editor Penzler's compilation disappoints. Owner of New York City's popular Mysterious Bookshop and editor of The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps, Penzler gathered 84 stories in a volume of more than 1000 unwieldy pages. Present are well-known, nicely wrought stories like Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla" and Bram Stoker's "Dracula's Guest," but missing are significant tales like Suzy McKee Charnas's "The Unicorn Tapestry" and the Saint-Germain stories by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. Included is an extensive bibliography of vampire novels and short stories. Verdict Highly recommended for all vampire fiction fans. Only libraries with large horror collections should consider purchase of The Vampire Archives.-Patricia Altner, BiblioInfo.com, Columbia, MD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by School Library Journal Review

Adult/High School-This collection of more than 80 tales and poems has been meticulously compiled for rabid vampire-lit fans to sample and enjoy. The book is divided into 13 distinct sections. Stories predating Dracula include Edgar Allan Poe's "Ligeia" and Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla." "Classic Tales" features Bram Stoker's "Dracula's Guest," published posthumously and edited from the final draft of Dracula. Unexpectedly included is D. H. Lawrence's "The Lovely Lady," under the heading "Psychic Vampires." Penzler offers up some newer tales with Anne Rice's intriguing "The Master of Rampling Gate," Stephen King's humorous "Popsy," Ray Bradbury's creepy "The Man Upstairs," and Gahan Wilson's chilling "The Sea Was Wet as Wet Can Be." Penzler has also selected works of lesser-known authors but just as varied and pleasurable for horror aficionados. Also not to be missed are the interesting and entertaining extras: the preface by Neil Gaiman, the foreword by Kim Newman, the introduction by Penzler, and the outstanding extensive vampire bibliography compiled by Daniel Seitler. There is a substantial amount of history and lore to be found here about the fictional vampire and its popularity in modern-day culture.-Melanie Parsons, Fairfax County Public Library, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

"Rubbish, Watson, rubbish! What have we to do with walking corpses who can only be held in their grave by stakes driven through their hearts? It's pure lunacy." Thus Sherlock Holmes, a rare grown-up voice to counter an infantilized world of werewolves, monsters, zombies and vampires. To scan today's bookstore shelves is to see that the last category of fictional beings is a hot ticket. It raises a contrarian question as well: In a nation where most adults believe that the Earth is 6,000 years old, might they not also believe that vampire books count as nonfiction? Maybe. But the 6,000-year-old-Earth types aren't likely to be big readers to begin with. Not so the vampire-lit crowd, huge, growing and not content to sink its teeth into a single volume, as witness the success of Stephenie Meyer and Charlaine Harris. There are better books in the genre, notably Dacre Stoker's new Dracula the Un-Dead. Yet, if zombie buffs have long had a better inventory from which to drawPride and Prejudice and Zombies and World War Z can do wonders of a listless evening, after allvampires clearly win the argument, if only in sheer literary bulk. Witness, as evidence, Otto Penzler's new anthology The Vampire Archives (Vintage; $25.00; October; ISBN 978-0-307-47389-9), which weighs in at more than 1,000 pages. So big is the book that, if carefully positioned atop one, it would keep all but the sturdiest of the undead from opening a coffin lid from inside, which, come to think of it, might make a nice premise for a sequel to the film Vampire's Kiss. Penzler, chief mysterian at the Mysterious Bookshop in New York and a well-practiced anthologist, is clearly of the more-is-better school, and he turns up little gems of vampirosity from all sorts of writers. Among the better known of them are Arthur Conan Doyle (of aforementioned Sherlock Holmes fame) and the always satisfying M.R. James, who had very specific rules for spinning out a supernatural tale (no sex, lots of malevolence), as well as Edgar Poe, Ambrose Bierce, D.H. Lawrence (who would have known that Lawrence ever wrote a vampire story?), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (ditto) and Guy de Maupassant (ditto ditto). Then there are legions of tale-spinners from the dime-store magazines of yore, perhaps best represented by Ray Bradbury, who closes a little vampire tale, as is his custom, on a note of delicious irony. (Beware the innocent kid, bloodsucker. Always beware the kid.) Stephen King gets a say, natch, and he does it with spine-tingling efficiency and sanguinary spurts. There are those who grew up outside the pulp tradition, too, such as Anne Rice and Clive Barker, who spin fine tales of their own. Only the very youngest writers seem to be missing, perhaps because there are so few suitably pulpy publications left for them to work in. Penzler has assembled what ought to be the last word in vampire-ish verbiage. Yet, given that there's money to be made in the puncture wounds, unreflective mirrors and pallid complexions of vampire lit, there will doubtless be many more such words to come. All we can do is hope for another fad to take its place, and soon. Killer robots? Flesh-stripping mosquitoes? Monster mutant MRSA? We're on the edge of our seats. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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Good Lady Ducayne   M. E. BRADDON   Bella Rolleston had made up her mind that her only chance of earning her bread and helping her mother to an occasional crust was by going out into the great unknown world as companion to a lady. She was willing to go to any lady rich enough to pay her a salary and so eccentric as to wish for a hired companion. Five shillings told off reluctantly from one of those sovereigns which were so rare with the mother and daughter, and which melted away so quickly, five solid shillings, had been handed to a smartly-dressed lady in an office in Harbeck Street, London, W., in the hope that this very Superior Person would find a situation and a salary for Miss Rolleston.   The Superior Person glanced at the two half-crowns as they lay on the table where Bella's hand had placed them, to make sure they were neither of them florins, before she wrote a description of Bella's qualifications and requirements in a formidable-looking ledger.   "Age?" she asked, curtly.   "Eighteen, last July."   "Any accomplishments?"   "No; I am not at all accomplished. If I were I should want to be a governess--a companion seems the lowest stage."   "We have some highly accomplished ladies on our books as companions, or chaperon companions."   "Oh, I know!" babbled Bella, loquacious in her youthful candor. "But that is quite a different thing. Mother hasn't been able to afford a piano since I was twelve years old, so I'm afraid I've forgotten how to play. And I have had to help mother with her needlework, so there hasn't been much time to study."   "Please don't waste time upon explaining what you can't do, but kindly tell me anything you can do," said the Superior Person, crushingly, with her pen poised between delicate fingers waiting to write. "Can you read aloud for two or three hours at a stretch? Are you active and handy, an early riser, a good walker, sweet tempered, and obliging?"   "I can say yes to all those questions except about the sweetness. I think I have a pretty good temper, and I should be anxious to oblige anybody who paid for my services. I should want them to feel that I was really earning my salary."   "The kind of ladies who come to me would not care for a talkative companion," said the Person, severely, having finished writing in her book. "My connection lies chiefly among the aristocracy, and in that class considerable deference is expected."   "Oh, of course," said Bella, "but it's quite different when I'm talking to you. I want to tell you all about myself once and forever."   "I am glad it is to be only once!" said the Person, with the edges of her lips.   The Person was of uncertain age, tightly laced in a black silk gown. She had a powdery complexion and a handsome clump of somebody else's hair on the top of her head. It may be that Bella's girlish freshness and vivacity had an irritating effect upon nerves weakened by an eight-hour day in that overheated second floor in Harbeck Street. To Bella the official apartment, with its Brussels carpet, velvet curtains and velvet chairs, and French clock, ticking loud on the marble chimney-piece, suggested the luxury of a palace, as compared with another second floor in Walworth where Mrs. Rolleston and her daughter had managed to exist for the last six years.   "Do you think you have anything on your books that would suit me?" faltered Bella, after a pause.   "Oh, dear, no; I have nothing in view at pres- ent," answered the Person, who had swept Bella's half-crowns into a drawer, absent-mindedly, with the tips of her fingers. "You see, you are so very unformed--so much too young to be companion to a lady of position. It is a pity you have not enough education for a nursery governess; that would be more in your line."   "And do you think it will be ver Excerpted from The Vampire Archives: The Most Complete Volume of Vampire Tales Ever Published All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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