The history of Dracula’s weird uncle

The forgotten legacy of Varney the Vampire

Robert Egger’s newest horror film, Nosferatu, is making big swings at the box office, passing Smile 2 as the highest grossing horror movie in recent years and is expected to earn over $180 million by the end of its theatrical run. Egger’s atmospheric flick is based on the iconic 1922 German expressionist silent film of the same name, which itself was an unlicensed adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. While the film changed all of the original settings and character names in order to (unsuccessfully) avoid a lawsuit, the story in both the 2024 and 1922 versions of the film remain similar to the novel. Dracula’s interpretation of the mythology has become synonymous with the idea of the vampire in the last 100 years and has entrenched itself deeply in the zeitgeist, from Edward Cullen to Sesame Street’s resident numbers expert, Count von Count.

 

However, the novel’s titular Count Dracula was far from the first bloodsucking denizen of the night. The basic idea of the vampire is present in a number of cultures’ folklore throughout history. It is theorized that many of these superstitions stemmed from a lack of understanding about how corpses decomposed. Swelling could lead to deceased bodies looking well fed and skin on the corpses could retract, exposing unseen nails, and teeth, creating the illusion of these features growing. To many, this could have been seen as indisputable evidence that these remains were feasting on the living. These creatures were often depicted with more similarities to what we now associate with zombies and other shambling humanoid monsters. It was not until the 1819 short story, The Vampyre, did we see the vampire depicted as a high class aristocrat. The story was written by Lord Byron’s personal physician, John William Polidori, who based his villain on the famous poet’s reputation in high society.

Michaela Cabot – Argosy Illustrator

The Vampyre was a big hit and inspired a wave of 19th century vampire hype. In 1845, English writers James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest began a series of ‘penny dreadfuls’ entitled Varney the Vampire. ‘Penny dreadfuls’ were cheap, weekly, serialized pamphlets sold on the streets of English cities. While the pamphlets were immensely popular, they were seen as low brow and, more often than not, low quality entertainment. Varney the Vampire followed Varney as he continuously attempted to harass the upper class Bannerworth family. In each weekly installment, Varney would attempt different disguises and dastardly plans to infiltrate the colorful cast of characters that made up the Bannerworth family. At first, his motivation for his tricks is to feast on their blood for sustenance, however in later issues his motivation becomes more about stealing their riches. It is rough in this economy, even for immortal demons.

 

Interestingly, Varney the Vampire is where many of the tropes and ideas we now associate with vampires originated, as these stories were published 50 years before Bram Stoker would invent Count Dracula. Varney has fangs, leaves two puncture wounds on the necks of his prey, comes through a window to attack sleeping victims, and has hypnotic abilities. As well, Varney appears to be the first example of a vampire who does not embrace his status as such, portraying his vampiric tendencies as a curse that he must adhere to to survive. 

 

So how come Varney is not spoken about with the same reverence as Dracula? While Varney’s antics were popular at their time of publication, they are quite the chore to get through nowadays. The authors of Varney were paid by the line of text, meaning that the more they could stretch out their weekly pieces, the more cash they would rake in. This, along with the extremely persistent production of these pamphlets, led to a long, sprawling narrative, filled with unnecessary filler. Around chapter 30, Varney strays from his original motivations and begins to travel the world. When the series concluded in 1847, the collected edition was published with a whopping 232 chapters written over 2000 pages. Storylines end abruptly and characters are forgotten about throughout the story, leading to a confusing and slightly ridiculous read.

 

Varney’s story tragically ends with the vampire bringing an end to his curse by cannon-balling into Mount Vesuvius. While Varney’s story may be lost to time, as well as wholly unpleasant to read, his legacy lives on in the multitudes of vampire lore and fiction that remains popular to this day. Anyone interested in reading some of Varney’s adventures can do so at gutenberg.org, where the collected edition has been preserved through Project Gutenberg.



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