#paul feval

Well I finally watched Baccano! and in episode 5 they just used the word Camorra, and that fascinates me.

The Camorra was historically a Neapolitan in origin gang of Brigands. But in 19th and early 20th Century fiction references to Italian Organized Crime were usually to them not the Mafia or Silly. That includes Paul Feval's Bell Demonio and it's sequel The Campions of Silence which were in turn tied into the lore of The Blackcoats (Les Habits Noirs), then at least one Sherlock Holmes story and an arch nemesis of A.J Raffles.

Anne Radcliffe, Vampire Hunter by Spearhafoc

Quote Spearhafoc

“This is the character Anne Radcliffe from La Ville Vampire (1875) by Paul Féval. She's supposed to be the real-life Gothic writer Ann Radcliffe (Féval spells her name wrong for some reason), who according to this account, was forced by circumstances to take a band of her friends to hunt down the evil vampire Doctor Otto Goetzi in Selene - the mysterious city of vampires in the middle of Yugoslavia. It's a comedy, meant to parody and exaggerate the conventions of Gothic literature (though Radcliffe never actually wrote about vampires herself). The book takes place before her marriage, so she's usually referred to in it by her maiden name of Ward. The vampires in the book are the most bizarre I've ever come across, and that's saying something. When left to their own devices, they glow green, except for yellow eyes and red lower lips. They drink blood by piercing the skin with their sharp tongues. When they kill a person, that person becomes a "sub-vampire" (or "vampiricule"), a slave who is transformed into a strange form of the vampire's choosing. Goetzi's sub-vampires in the book include a duplicate of himself (not pictured here), as well as a dog with a man's face, a parrot, an urchin boy, a man with no face, and a woman with no hair. Each one can also duplicate itself. These sub-vampires become a part of the vampire (the book describes it as some form of biological clockwork, with each one being a gear in the machine). They need to combine together every so often or the vampire becomes weakened. Vampires can be killed by removing their hearts and burning them. They also explode when the ashes of a dead vampire are sprinkled on them. Although she leaves most of the vampire killing to her friends, Radcliffe leads the expedition. In the idea of her as a vampire hunter, the book predates modern literature that makes historical figures monster hunters (say, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), and also predicts female vampire hunters like Buffy Summers. The book ends in a spectacularly disappointing way, but I'm choosing to ignore that.” End Quote

The protagonists of Paul Féval, père’s Vampire City (1867) - manga style

Ann(a) Radcliffe, fearless gothic literature author Merry Bones, the cheery, indestructible Irish valet Grey Jack, the handyman who thinks he and Merry Bones are sworn rivals Cornelia, Anna’s childhood best friend and Damsel in Distress No. 1 Ned Barton, Anna and Cornelia’s other childhood friend, Cornelia’s fiancé, and Damsel in Distress No. 2

The Countess Marcian Gregoryi aka Lila aka The Countess Addhema, a Serbian vampire who craves gold, the love of men, and the hair of young women. The titular character from Paul Féval, père’s The Vampire Countess.