Hello and welcome! This is my sideblog for posting about the 19th century's most cringefail vampire, and also other obscure 19th century literary vampires as the mood strikes me.
My art can be found over at @mayhemchicken-artblog and @lxgentlefolkcomic.
Click here for my ao3, which as of this writing is 100% Varney the Vampire fics.
Part 1 of my chapter-by-chapter summary of Varney the Vampire, where I (re)read the entire book so you don't have to, starts here: [x]
Masterpost of my Captain Vampire/The Pale Lady crossover AU, When The Crows Arrive: [x]
General content warning: Due to the nature of the original text, many posts on this blog touch on or discuss the topics of suicide and/or disordered eating. Older posts on this blog may not be consistently tagged for these topics; reader discretion is advised.
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I was reading Plot Variations in the Nineteenth-Century Story of Lord Ruthven, and Introduction to Vampire Grooms and Spectre Brides: The Marriage of French and British Gothic Literature 1789-1897, and they identify which stories -adaptations aside- are inspired by The Vampyre, like Varney, but it's so interesting that you bring to the table a new comparison (Captain Vampire) so well. I don't know if it's been pointed out, but Ruthven is rumored to ruin womens' reputations, meanwhile Liatoukine actively does it; himself and through the lackeys. We know that he was alone when he met Mariora, so it's a lie that they saw what happened, and yet they slander her.
Side note, in Dumas, Ruthwen says “You shall learn what I can be when I hate.” to which Ziska replies “You shall learn what I can be when I love!” and they are such good lines but their basis sucks so bad. I agree with you about the play. Yes you shall see my redemption speedrun arc over a royal guy I saw at an inn once! At least Renfield got to know Mina first to become protective of her, the betrayal wasn't from suddenly falling in love with a noble destined to destroy Dracula.
To be fair, Captain Vampire is still very obscure, and I don't think it's necessarily an obvious comparison to make, aside from the general observation that Liatoukine takes inspiration from Ruthven. I wouldn't even necessarily say the direct story parallels I've pointed out were intentional on Nizet's part—a lot of them hinge on direct comparisons to the original Polidori story, as its adaptations often diverge quite drastically, and I have no proof Nizet ever even read it. The Relia:Aubrey parallels are easy to miss if you're not obsessing over the characters the way I am, because Relia is a supporting character; you would expect Ioan to be the one to parallel Aubrey.
I'm reading a review on this Dracula spinoff and
"This book definitely has horror elements—it stars Dracula, the daddy of all vampires, after all—"
I know more than you
slander, obviously lord ruthven is the daddy of all vampires
realized too late i didn't put varney in either of the fix-it categories because i couldn't decide if needed its own (reconstructing because it could have been good if it didn't have endless plotholes, cardboard humans, meandering subplots, repetition and undeceiveness on it being scooby doo or horror)
Honestly, in spite of all the fix-its I've done to the Varney timeline, I kind of don't want it to be good. In its meandering nonsensical badness it's created an endless sandbox of vampire shenanigans for me to play with. (Also, it's weirdly fun to imitate the style. Someday I will work up the courage to write 100% stylistically faithful Varney the Vampire smut and post it on ao3. This is a threat.)
I find it curious how in The Dead Lover (1839) Clarimonde has no hypnotic powers and needs to use sleeping pills to take blood from her victim despite her sleep-related power. Maybe hypnotic female vampires were not prominent yet in French literature? But imagine explaining to hypnotic vampires that yes I can create elaborate, vividly experienced dreams, no I cannot make someone swoon to feed on them.
It is strange, because Alinska predates Clarimonde, and she definitely does have the ability to make people fall asleep. Then again, I have no idea how popular/widespread The Virgin Vampire was. Maybe Gautier had never read it.
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w/ loeg and the pale lady: "beating you with hammers and reconstructing because god it could have been so good if it were good"
w/ captain vampire: "not you <3 you're the goat the hammers on the characters are out of love"
i was gonna place anno dracula in the first category but idk if the premise is salvageable. unless a good parody.
hgfjhskgjdhfg well. in attempting to write my anno dracula spoof i am discovering that, in fact, no. it's crumbling around me as i write it. why the fuck would dracula invite a bunch of other vampires to england. he can create thralls that are completely under his control. what he's doing in anno dracula is a massive deviation from his plan in the original novel, and with good reason: it doesn't make any goddamn sense!
boleslas: "so yeah heaven and earth altered around them"
relia: "you know i don't think the dead fighting the living has that effect...WHAT are they, should I be (even more) afraid? don't get shot now"
relia, a guy from a gritty war novel, realizing kostaki and gregoriska are in fact anime characters
When using Dracula as a villain, writers often strip away his context and turn him into an apocalyptic supervillain for a gruff but selfless heroic slayer to beat with anti-vampire gear: cults resurrecting him to rule or destroy the world in comics and Hammer, vampire gangs reviving him to fight Blade for them, him making his children conquer the world in Van Helsing, etc. He rains meteors to burn whole armies with, summons castles, travels through reflective surfaces, enslaves eldritch gods. Cool monster, but Dracula in name only. I much prefer how you take Prince Liatoukine and expand what he already does. The main characters never knew he could double himself, even after one copy dies, but now work with that experience. So this power is now put into full display. He wasn't shown making thralls, but it perfectly suits his themes. He canonically controls what rumors spread and how much you are allowed to know; he was never meticulously documented like Dracula was, so he can have aces up his sleeve. He's fixating on dominating victims and enemies beyond the current war because that is what he has always done. His antagonist mirrors him. It's good.
I guess if I had to pick one 19th century vampire to turn into an apocalyptic supervillain, Dracula "graduate of evil wizard school" Dracula is probably in my top 3, although I think as an exercise it's a little silly. There's much better apocalyptic supervillain candidates to be found in the works of, say, Machen or Chambers. (Or Poe or Lovecraft or—)
Anyway. Liatoukine is more interesting to me if he remains somewhat grounded. His supernatural abilities are all firmly tied to his symbolic role in the original story as a manifestation of war, conquest, and imperialism, and his role in the plot is, as it was in Captain Vampire, intensely personal.
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Some time ago, you said in a tag that if asked you would gladly drop a few paragraphs about Varney & Griffin (invisibleman) because you had thoughts about that combo.
I'm asking (no obligations if you no longer have thoughts about that combo though).
the new dracula daily entry with the brides manifesting as moonlit dust taking human form to again try to eat jonathan makes me curious if more vampires used to do misty transformations before the dracula ones
then, the scene that follows with dracula summoning animals to do his bidding, which is i think unique to him
and then dracula being "dead" the morning after scene, when the dawn is emphasized as almost sacred and jonathan finds dracula sleeping after imitating his climbing movements. the vampire falling asleep after the dawn is as old as vampire folklore, but i suspect stories of them being revealed in their tombs is not after the protagonist had risked their lives to discover them
As far as I'm aware, Dracula is the first vampire story to feature vampires turning into mist/dust.
I can't recall any other stories where the vampire has command over animals, either, although a few feature dogs or wolves being repelled by vampires. Dogs bark at Carmilla and at Geraldine in Christabel; in The Family of the Vourdalak, one of the family dogs barks at Gorcha and he makes them shoot it. It's implied that the dog barked at Gorcha because it could smell that he was dead. In La Guzla, crows avoid the vampire's corpse, while in the ballad in The Pale Lady which takes inspiration from the former, wolves and vultures flee from him. Wolves also flee from the vampire in The Mysterious Stranger (which, disclaimer, I have not read yet).
While I'm talking about dogs, I think the howling of dogs breaking someone out of a vampiric trance is unique to Stoker; protagonists in other stories tend to be aided by the power of God (Marquis d'Urfe in The Family of the Vourdalak is snapped out of his trance by the cross necklace he wears digging into his flesh, while Hedwig is protected from Kostaki's trance by a blessed palm frond dipped in holy water). Jonathan being helped by the dogs parallels another Stoker work, the short story "The Judge's House", in which the protagonist is aided by the rats living in the titular house, which attempt to ring a bell in the house in order to signal for help. It's an adorable recurring motif.
The passage about the dawn makes me think of this one from Varney the Vampire:
What wonderfully different impressions and feelings, with regard to the same circumstances, come across the mind in the broad, clear, and beautiful light of day to what haunt the imagination, and often render the judgment almost incapable of action, when the heavy shadow of night is upon all things.
There must be a downright physical reason for this effect—it is so remarkable and so universal. It seems that the sun’s rays so completely alter and modify the constitution of the atmosphere, that it produces, as we inhale it, a wonderfully different effect upon the nerves of the human subject.
Rymer being Rymer, he naturally has to insist that this is a physical, scientific phenomenon.
Vampires being discovered asleep in their tombs is actually fairly common, although generally the process of discovery is not quite so perilous as Jonathan's. Sometimes (as with Sigismund, Clarimonde, Clara Crofton, and Har (in "Manor")), the location of the vampire's grave is a known fact. Other times (Carmilla and After Ninety Years), discovering where the vampire is buried is a whole process. Generally, the vampire is defenseless in the daytime; Dracula's hate-filled gaze that (spoilers for Dracula Daily) causes Jonathan to fumble his shovel swing is something of an innovation. The closest we see to this in another vampire story is Kostaki in The Pale Lady, although this instance technically occurs before he rises as a vampire:
The corpse’s eyes opened and stared at me, more alive than I had ever seen them, and, as if the two rays they emitted had been palpable, I felt what seemed like two red-hot irons plunging into my heart.
It's not the only instance of an evil-eye type power in a vampire work prior to Dracula, but it's the only one (that I know of) that occurs while the vampire is dead/asleep.
...No, wait, I tell a lie. It's in Varney, sort of.
"The deed was done; there was sufficient light for us to look upon the features of the dying man. Ghastly and terrific they glared upon us; while the glazed eyes, as they were upturned to the bright sky, seemed appealing to Heaven for vengeance against us, for having done the deed.
"Many a day and many an hour since at all times and all seasons, I have seen those eyes, with the glaze of death upon them, following me, and gloating over the misery they had the power to make. I think I see them now."
"Indeed!"
"Yes; look—look—see how they glare upon me—with what a fixed and frightful stare the bloodshot pupils keep their place—there, there! oh! save me from such a visitation again. It is too horrible. I dare not—I cannot endure it; and yet why do you gaze at me with such an aspect, dread visitant? You know that it was not my hand that did the deed—who laid you low. You know that not to me are you able to lay the heavy charge of your death!"
I say "sort of" because the speaker here is Varney himself, and the dead man he speaks of is never explicitly confirmed to be a vampire; the story seems like it's kind of going that direction, but changes course at the last second, retcons Varney being a vampire altogether (yes, it's that part), and forgets all about this guy. Also, it's not clear this is intended to be a supernatural effect; it may simply be a product of Varney's trauma and guilt.
I'm not up to returning the gift. But, it seems to me as if Dracula's powers aren't meant to be vampiric. Not in this case, and maybe not even often. The powers of the vampire to reject death, feed on living blood, travel immaterially into their tomb, which are folkloric (reference needed) balance with the weaknesses peculiar to vampirism (anything related to Xtian resurrection, must consume blood of the living, must rest in tomb) and belong to all vampires.
His unique powers of storm summoning, mesmerism, lycanthropy, all the weird shit, comes down to his tendency to nerd out over any and all sorcerous study. He's been in this field of poppies for a long time. It's gotten pretty freaky in there. Even among ancient undead monstrosities the guy is built different.
Some of his powers are for sure products of his Scholomance education. However, quite a few of them aren't unique to him! Alinska in The Virgin Vampire shares his ability to control storms. Carmilla can shapeshift, as can Heira from The Vampire of Vourla (the latter turns into a bat, even). As for mesmerism, many if not most literary vampires possess the ability in some form or another, even the spectacularly unsupernatural Varney.
If Dracula were to go up against the rest of the literary vampire pack in a wizard duel, he might also find he has some competition. In addition to storm summoning, Alinska can also astral project (at least, that's my best interpretation for how she's able to remotely punch and slap people and destroy letters contained in locked boxes). Liatoukine from Captain Vampire can be in two places at once and kill with a stare. The Black Vampyre is an accomplished necromancer, and also has a potion that will cure vampirism—although he's a satire character, and thus playing in a different ballpark. Carmilla and her mother are forces to be reckoned with; the former can teleport like a ghost girl in a horror movie and inflict a person with permanent numbness with a touch, while the latter is capable of not only reading but modifying peoples' memories. Countess Karnstein can also oathbind (force a person to keep a promise/secret), a power she shares with Geraldine and Lord Ruthven. The vampires in The Family of the Vourdalak can completely hide their corpselike appearance and smell from humans, possibly through some sort of mesmeric trance. Clarimonde has immense power over dreams, creating entire fully-staffed palaces which she spirits people away to in their sleep and holds wild dream-parties. Sava Savanovič and Kostaki can both pass through locked and barred doors without obstacle, a power I'm sure the threshold-locked Dracula is burningly envious of. Kostaki is also fatal to fight, regardless of whether he wins: his brother, wielding a holy sword and backed by the power of God Himself, collapsed and died without a scratch on him less than a minute after killing Kostaki.
So, overall, I wouldn't say Dracula is built terribly different from his vampire peers. His Scholomance education gives him an edge, true, but they're a diverse supernatural group packing all sorts of strange powers.
#on a side note imagine the very real possibility that relia could have had a crush on liatoukine before all of the torture happened #and be devastated with me
so you've chosen Violence
i've set him up as having a Thing for dark brooding somewhat scary men (he definitely had a crush on ioan in the book, fight me on this) and you know his family were gassing up Liatoukine all the time. before he knew what Liatoukine was like? that's a tall dark and handsome, rich, high-ranking man in uniform with an impressive military record and a great deal of societal esteem, a deep (sexy) voice, and an enigmatic manner and reputation. and he's a friend of the family. relia's mother is actively pushing his sisters to flirt with him. why wouldn't he fantasize a little about what could never be, or get a little flustered when liatoukine calls him by name. maybe there was a little thrill of excitement when liatoukine and his buddies first showed up to relieve him of watch duty. he's being invited to their inner circle, wow!
Oh Liatoukine can absolutely tell, and is using it to his advantage. The nature of what he and his goons do to Relia makes that pretty clear. Making Relia talk about his "mistresses" in Paris (knowing full well he did not have any), making him say "I love you" to Igor under the pretext of a language lesson...even before the knouts come out it's all very pointed. (Yes, you could argue this behavior is targeting Relia's gayness more generally, but in the framework of a reading where Relia has a crush on Liatoukine it's hard to imagine Liatoukine not noticing.)
At one point, I'd considered what would have happened if Relia had lived, because Ioan's thoughts about how Relia was eventually going to become his superior made me wonder whether Relia would revert to seeing peasants as beneath him, or stay changed. But he was never going to make it that far, huh... because he'd have to be silenced before his sister could be warned. And unlike Aubrey, he had no binding oath. Truly doomed by the narrative...
He would have met with a horrible fate no matter what. If he had made it as far as being in a position to warn any of his family? I think he would have gone the way of Boleslas. His only hope for survival would be to keep his mouth shut, and consequently watch his sister marry and be murdered by his tormentor. I think at that point he'd be traumatized and losing it enough for his family to send him to an asylum, maybe even at Liatoukine's recommendation. And all of that presumes that Relia had a chance of making it off the battlefield without being conveniently picked off by a stray bullet, or perhaps murdered with a Turkish yataghan...like the one Ioan carries.
"There are no stars!" "This happened the first time they fought"
Damn ok......
And tons of brand new information dropping on Relia in the midst of bullets. I don't think he knows they fought.
At least Boleslas got a kill first rip
Lmao yeah it's kind of a bombshell being dropped on Relia. Sorry Kostaki and Gregoriska what. The sky what. Your great-aunt was there??? Come back from the dead and elaborate
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Squinting noticing Ioan not being around in the scene yet. I'm sure it's Fine.
he'll be around in a bit; he got shuffled off due to being unnecessary to the scene with The Fuckers since there's already so many characters in that scene.
what he's getting up to in the background is up to your speculation. he and all The Fuckers are in two places at once right now, so there's a lot that could be happening behind the scenes...
