From The Delaware Valley News
'Varney the Vampire' beats 'Dracula'
Thursday, February 14, 2008
By Kevin J. Guhl
Curt Herr, who lives in a Victorian house in Ferndale, Pa., teaches gothic fiction at Kutztown University. He has written the critical edition of what he said is considered the most notorious novel of the 19th century -- James Malcolm Rymer's, Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood. The book was originally published in weekly installments from 1845-1847. It littered the streets of London, sold at a penny a page, and kept England's working class readers enthralled. The story eventually became so popular, it was reprinted in 1847 and again in 1853. However, the last edition before Herr's was in 1972. Rymer also penned the better-known penny dreadful Sweeney Todd, also known as The String of Pearls, which found fame as the 1979 Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim and is now a Tim Burton film, starring Johnny Depp.
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