More From Richard Dalby

[joysilence]

The other week I was thrilled to find a copy of another Richard Dalby anthology, Dracula's Brood, containing vampire stories by relatively obscure authors more or less coeval with Bram Stoker. As it's an Equation Chiller edition, I had pretty much despaired of ever finding an affordable copy - most of the line seems to be out of print now, and a battered paperback of their A.M. Burrage collection Warning Whispers is currently going for £45 second-hand! But for some reason Dracula's Brood:Neglected Vampire Classics cost only a couple of quid via Fantastic Fiction. The Equation Chillers series came out in the nineties and was composed of titles by once famous pre-war ghost story authors who are now out of print, and in some cases the lesser-known or previously unpublished stories of authors who are still well-loved today. Thanks to the charity shops of the Westcountry I already have their collection of Algernon Blackwood's lesser-known stories, The Mist In The Mirror, and The Flint Knife, a book of uncollected E.F.Benson tales. Equation Chillers seem to be characterized by the scholarship of their editors and I enjoyed those two books a lot. Luckily Dracula's Brood holds its own in such company.

( Where Are They Now? )

All in all Dracula's Brood is a really first-class anthology, with enough obscure material to satisfy the most well-read fan of vampire fiction (and ghost stories in general.) Like the other Equation Chillers, it also benefits from a scholarly introduction by Dalby which places Dracula in its historical, social and literary context. There are even some lurid illustrations, including a reproduction of John Tenniel's satirical cartoon 'The Irish "Vampire"', which depicts a huge bat with, frankly, Bram Stoker's face, hovering over a sleeping Victorian belle whose bizarre proportions surely owe very little to Nature. What more do you want? Blood? :p You can also visit The Vault of Evil discussion board for a full contents list and a bit of discussion.