Published in the same year as Dracula, an overlooked nineteenth-century Gothic novel centered around a queer, feminist vampire that challenged the norms of Victorian society

In 1897, the same year Dracula by Bram Stoker was published, Florence Marryat released The Blood of the Vampire, featuring a protagonist ahead of her time: a female, bisexual, biracial, psychic (feeding off life force rather than blood) vampire. In contrast to Stoker’s predatory vampire, Marryat’s vampire is a gentle and caring young woman who searches for love but is instead accused of killing those who get too close. Marryat — who wrote dozens of works of “sensation fiction”, a genre akin to thrillers — implores readers to sympathize with rather than demonize the vampire, and by extension the communities she is part of, and to understand the intricacies of her identity and the societal norms that oppress her. In this vampire novel steeped in the New Woman feminist ideology of the late Victorian era, Marryat issues a strong critique of her generation’s gender norms, racism, and medical discrimination in clear and engaging prose accessible to the everyday general reader, a contrast to the verbose and didactic writing of her contemporaries. Marryat’s thrilling plots about women who rejected the traditional notions of Victorian womanhood were both transgressive and widely popular, reviled and celebrated during her time, and this edition will introduce readers to an overlooked influence on the vampire genre.

A nineteenth-century novel about a bisexual, biracial vampire, written by a forgotten legend of Victorian horror

A Penguin Classic

Published the same year as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Florence Marryat’s The Blood of the Vampire introduced readers to one of the most revolutionary protagonists of her time: the biracial, bisexual, feminist psychic vampire Harriet Brandt. Feeding off life force rather than blood, Harriet is a charming, caring young woman in search of love who is accused of killing those who get too close. Harriet’s ostracization mirrors that of the author, Florence Marryat, whose thrilling plots about women eschewing the norms of Victorian womanhood were widely read during her time but reviled by critics and overlooked for more than a century. Recontextualizing Marryat’s place at the vanguard of Victorian horror, The Blood of the Vampire is a timeless critique of gender norms, racism, and medical discrimination—a fresh, century-old spin on the expanding canon of vampire fiction.

Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.