The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

"Knoc, knoc, knoc and other stories", by Ivan Turgenev.
11:38 Jun 26 2023
Times Read: 90




I am researching gothic novels originally written in languages other than English and I am getting some very pleasant surprises.

One of them has been the discovery of a collection of short horror stories by Russian novelist Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (or, simpli, Ivan Turguenev, 1818-1883).

Classic Russian author Turgenev is considered one of the best stylists in Russian literature. His lyrical novels, plays, and poetry reflect themes of class suffering and profound humanity at the same time as they portray idealized nostalgic love, innocent young women, and the bittersweet fading of Russia's nobility.

It should be noted that a couple of these stories (Knock, Knock, Knock. A Study; Three Encounters), more than fantastic stories, are of intrigue, where an apparent supernatural event turns out to be a misunderstanding or a chance occurrence that is revealed in the end. Other stories barely touch genuinely on the fantastic genre beyond the presence of some ghostly visions, which are nonetheless essential to the plot. These ghostly and spectral apparitions are not the sudden irruption of the inexplicable and ominous into physical reality, but are the origin of profound psychological alterations in those who suffer them, usually leading to death. In any case, these long stories or nouvelles of Turgenev move away from both the traditional English Ghost story and the frenetic horrors of Germanic and French Romanticism. The settings in the rural world and the typology of the characters -generally young people moving between the countryside and the big cities of St. Petersburg or Moscow-, as the reader will observe, are typically Russian.

In any case, these stories should be considered within the "gothic genre" as they contain the most common elements: a feeling of uncanny in the reader, dark atmosphere, great importance of the architectural fact (castle, villa, country house, urban mansion...), family plots, supernatural beings, etc.

Undoubtedly, a highly recommended book.

Vampires ~ Stories of the Supernatural (The Vampire; The Family of a Vourdalak)
12:20 Jun 20 2023
Times Read: 112




This novel was originally published under various titles and was written by a non-English and non-American writer, Alexei Tolstoi, (not Leo Tolstoi, the one of Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Resurrection or The Cossacks).

Alexei is "another Tolstoi", related to the previous one, but different. This does not detract from his work, but on the contrary. A close friend of Tsar Alexander II, Wikipedia informs us that, with the title of count, he was born in St. Petersburg in 1817 and died in Krasny Rog in 1875. He was a Russian poet, novelist and playwright, considered the most important Russian historical dramatist of the 19th century, mainly for his dramatic trilogy The Death of Ivan the Terrible (1866), Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich (1868) and Tsar Boris (1870). He also gained fame for his satirical works, published under his own name (History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev, The Dream of Councilman Popov) and under the name of collaborator Kozma Prutkov. His fictional works include the novel that concerns us today, i.e. The Family of the Vurdalak - The Vampire (1841) and the historical novel Prince Serebrenni (1862).

But let's go back to our novel: can we say that it is "gothic" or merely one of the usual "horror novels"?

The first thing we find is the literary skill with which the author mixes historical facts with literary creation. He begins by placing the reader in the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which, held after the defeat of Napoleon, sought to return Europe to the previous situation of the Ancien Régime.

Needless to say the social class of the participants and, in a very subtle way, Tolstoi informs us of the lavishness, parties and meetings that followed the Congress. And it was at one of these social gatherings that the Marquis d'Urfé (also called De Jurfé, in other translations) narrates the central story of the novel.

That said, we can find a sufficient number of details that make us affirm the novel's gothic quality. Perhaps we miss the omnipresent medieval castle which, in this work, is missing. In fact, the bulk of the story takes place in the cottage of the Vurdalak family. Well, for the purists who want a castle, there is a castle, that of the widowed countess of the prince of Schwarzenberg, in whose rooms the nobles of the Congress of Vienna meet after the end of the Congress, to rest, poor people, and talk about this and that.

The atmosphere, yes, is gothic. Told by the Marquis d'Urfé in the first person, it puts the author in the situation of traveling to Moldavia, the mood he finds in the villages he passes through, the cold air or the sounds of the forests. The reader begins to feel a warm glow running down his back, certainly very pleasant.

I love that the protagonist digresses to explain to the ladies of the gathering, in the castle of the Dowager Countess of Schwarzenberg what a vampire is, to their horror, oh my God!... and the peculiarities of Slavic vampires, who are fiercer than those of other countries because they preferentially suck the blood of their closest relatives and best friends, and these, in turn, when they die, become vampires. So, so they say, there are in Bosnia and Herzagovina, whole villages, whose inhabitants are all vampires. I add, when are we going? I wonder...

That regomello I was talking about, becomes "uncanny" as the novel progresses. I don't want to spoil the plot by spoiling things for you, but the "uncanny" is felt, or not felt. I had to throw my cardigan over my shoulders and, for me, it's a sign that the novel is gothic.

In closing, I highly recommend reading this work. For all of the above, perhaps for not being British and finding "another way of telling things". All in all, think that the Russian aristocracy drank from the hands of the English nobles whom they imitated, so you will not find great differences, but the reader will see something.