Vampire City - review

[Wreade1872]

Vampire City by Paul Feval (1867)
A horror/comedy, supposedly showing events which led Ann Radcliffe to write 'Mysteries of Udolpho'. This is a pre-D(racula) vampire story and as such none of the usual vampire rules apply.
The story is told to the author by a servant, who heard it from Miss Radcliffe. These layers of removal from the actual events make it feel like reading myth or urban legend and allows the reader to easily ignore any errors or contradictions that might arrive in the plot.
You would think that this distance from events would however be detrimental to any sense of horror but this is not the case due to the surreal and nightmarish form's of horror which the author uses, its almost Lovecraftian at times.
Towards the end things do go downhill a little, it feels like maybe this started as a pure vampire story and the gothic satire was added later on, it doesn't quite mesh.
One aspect i particularly liked was that our main action hero is irish. Much comedy is derived from this fact given that the story is being told by someone english, allowing the story to make fun of english prejudices.
I think this story would be a great piece to read alongside Carmilla and Dracula. 4/5 .

Although the original french text is out of copyright no english translation is that i'm aware of. Available to buy from blackcoatpress.com . That version also has plenty of notes to help you along.