The Vampire of the Val-de-Grâce
THE VAMPIRE OF THE VAL-DE-GRACE
by Léon Gozlan
adapted by Brian Stableford
cover by Mandy
"I wasn't able to steal her away while alive; I'll come and steal her away when I'm dead!"
US$ 20.95 /GBP 12.99
5x8 tpb, 264 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1-61227-123-1
In 1849, the mysterious Doctor Salomon Kanali and his family arrive in a Paris ravaged by a cholera epidemic. But is this Kanali the same embalmer who claimed to have the power to resurrect the dead? And why does his wife fear that her daughter Marthe is being wooed by the same vampire who once destroyed her mother?
The Vampire of Val-de-Grâce (1862) is a horror story, a love story, a mystery, a comedy and, marginally, a scientific romance; unique in its excess and its bizarre absurdity, it has a certain precious verve and a capacity to make the jaw drop.It belongs to the cynical and tongue-in-cheek tradition of Ponson du Terrail's The Vampire and the Devil's Son (1853) and Paul Féval's Knighshade (1860), which teasingly refuse explicitly to confirm or deny the existence of vampires, but play extravagantly with the idea, while merrily exploiting its sinister fascination.
Contents:
Le Vampire du Val-de-Grâce [The Vampire Of The Val-de-Grâce] (Dentu, 1862)
Encore un âme vendue au diable [Another Soul Sold to the Devil] (Bulletin de l'ami des arts, 1844)
Introduction and Notes by Brian Stableford.
READ THE REVIEWS...
I rather enjoyed this volume. I agree it was probably first published piecemeal, the structure and some inconsistencies lend it that appearance, but more importantly it is another pre-Stoker source that shows how vivid and varied the vampire genre was in nineteenth century France.
Taliesin