The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories

The terrifying and definitive collection of Vampire stories from the masters of literary horror They're lurking under the cover of darkness…and between the covers of this book. Here, in all their horror and all their glory, are the great vampires of literature: male and female, invisible and metamorphic, doomed and daring. Their skin deathly pale, their nails curved like claws, their fangs sharpened for the attack, they are gathered for the kill and for the chill, brought frighteningly to life by Bram Stoker, Fritz Leiber, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, Charles L. Grant, Tanith Lee, and other masters of the macabre. Careful—they are all crafty enough to steal their way into your imagination and steal away your hopes for a restful sleep.

Alan Ryan was an author, editor, and critic from New York City. He published six horror novels and numerous short stories, and contributed to The Washington Post, USA Today, The Smithsonian, and Travel and Leisure, among other publications.

Vampire StoriesAcknowledgments Introduction by Alan Ryan Fragment of a Novel (1816) George Gordon, Lord Byron The Vampyre (1819) John Polidori Varney the Vampyre, or, the Feast of Blood (excerpt) (1845) James Malcolm Rymer The Mysterious Stranger (1860) Anonymous Carmilla (1872) J. Sheridan Le Fanu Good Lady Ducayne (1896) Mary Elizabeth Braddon Dracula's Guest (1897) Bram Stoker Luella Miller (1903) Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman For the Blood Is the Life (1911) F. Marion Crawford The Transfer (1912) Algernon Blackwood The Room in the Tower (1912) E. F. Benson An Episode of Cathedral History (1919) M. R. James A Rendezvous in Averoigne (1931) Clark Ashton Smith Shambleau (1933) C. L. Moore Revelations in Black (1933) Carl Jacobi School for the Unspeakable (1937) Manly Wade Wellman The Drifting Snow (1939) August Derleth Over the River (1941) P. Schuyler Miller The Girl with the Hungry Eyes (1949) Fritz Leiber The Mindworm (1950) C. M. Kornbluth Drink My Blood (1951) Richard Matheson Place of Meeting (1953) Charles Beaumont The Living Dead (1967) Robert Bloch Pages from a Young Girl's Journal (1975) Robert Aickman The Werewolf and the Vampire (1975) R. Chetwynd-Hayes Love-Starved (1979) Charles L. Grant Cabin 33 (1980) Chelsea Quinn Yarbro Unicorn Tapestry (1980) Suzy McKee Charnas Following the Way (1982) Alan Ryan The Sunshine Club (1983) Ramsey Campbell The Men & Women of Rivendale (1984) Steve Rasnic Tem Bite-Me-Not or, Fleur De Feu (1984) Tanith Lee Appendix I: Vampire Novels Appendix II: Vampire Movies