Varney, the Vampire

"Varney, the Vampir: or, the Feast of Blood" is a sprawling Victorian penny dreadful published between 1845 and 1847, often attributed to James Malcolm Rymer or Thomas Peckett Prest. It follows Sir Francis Varney, a tragic and tormented vampire who haunts the Bannerworth family and their ancestral estate. Blending gothic horror, melodrama, and social commentary, the novel helped shape many modern vampire tropes—centuries before Dracula—through its exploration of guilt, monstrosity, and the cursed hunger for immortality.