Of all the vampire anthologies I’ve read over the years, Alan Ryan’s The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories (1987) remains my favorite. Ryan takes a chronological approach and this tends to show the evolution of vampire tales over more than a century.
“Good Lady Ducayne” by Mary Elizabeth Braddon impressed me so much, I ordered a collection of Braddon stories. Braddon’s moody vampire tale captures the angst that tends to be essential in this type of fiction. Of course, “Carmilla” by J. Sheridan Le Fanu is a classic and widely anthologized. But, for me, the stories that I most enjoyed in The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories starts with “A Rendezvous in Averoigne” by Clark Ashton Smith. I’m a huge Clark Ashton Smith fan and he’s at the top of his game in this story.
“Shambleau” by C. L. Moore, a story both famous and brilliant, takes vampires to Mars. I’m also fond of “School for the Unspeakable” by Manly Wade Wellman with its haunting ending.
The last third of The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories presents many of the best vampire stories ever written: “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes” by Fritz Leiber, “The Mindworm” by C. M. Kornbluth, “Place of Meeting” by Charles Beaumont, “The Living Dead” by Robert Bloch, and “Pages from a Young Girl’s Journal” by Robert Aickman.
The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories includes two novellas, “Cabin 33” by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (a Saint-Germain story) and “Unicorn Tapestry” by Suzy McKee Charnas which really creeped me out.
If you’re looking for best vampire anthology, give The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories a try. I wish Alan Ryan would publish a sequel featuring the best vampire tales since the mid-1980s to the present. Do you have a favorite vampire story? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction (Vampires) by Alan Ryan — xiii
Fragment of a Novel (1816)
George Gordon, Lord Byron — 1
The Vampyre (1819)
John Polidori –7
Varney the Vampyre, or, the Feast of Blood (excerpt) (1845)
James Malcolm Rymer — 25
The Mysterious Stranger (1860)
Anonymous — 36
Carmilla (1872)
J. Sheridan Le Fanu — 71
Good Lady Ducayne (1896)
Mary Elizabeth Braddon — 138
Dracula’s Guest (1897)
Bram Stoker — 163
Luella Miller (1903)
Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman — 175
For the Blood Is the Life (1911)
F. Marion Crawford — 188
The Transfer (1912)
Algernon Blackwood — 203
The Room in the Tower (1912)
E. F. Benson — 213
An Episode of Cathedral History (1919)
M. R. James — 225
A Rendezvous in Averoigne (1931)
Clark Ashton Smith — 241
Shambleau (1933)
C. L. Moore — 255
Revelations in Black (1933)
Carl Jacobi — 282
School for the Unspeakable (1937)
Manly Wade Wellman — 301
The Drifting Snow (1939)
August Derleth — 311
Over the River (1941)
P. Schuyler Miller — 322
The Girl with the Hungry Eyes (1949)
Fritz Leiber — 334
The Mindworm (1950)
C. M. Kornbluth — 349
Drink My Blood (1951)
Richard Matheson — 362
Place of Meeting (1953)
Charles Beaumont — 371
The Living Dead (1967)
Robert Bloch — 376
Pages from a Young Girl’s Journal (1975)
Robert Aickman — 382
The Werewolf and the Vampire (1975)
R. Chetwynd-Hayes — 415
Love-Starved (1979)
Charles L. Grant — 441
Cabin 33 (1980)
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro — 451
Unicorn Tapestry (1980)
Suzy McKee Charnas — 505
Following the Way (1982)
Alan Ryan — 562
The Sunshine Club (1983)
Ramsey Campbell — 574
The Men & Women of Rivendale (1984)
Steve Rasnic Tem — 579
Bite-Me-Not or, Fleur De Feu (1984)
Tanith Lee — 588
Appendix I: Vampire Novels — 613
Appendix II: Vampire Movies — 618