The Vampire is a short story collection, first published in Britain in 1965 by Pan Books. It is an adaptation of a 1960 anthology, I vampiri tra Noi that was published in Italy.
The book is ‘presented’ by Roger Vadim, who’s involvement seems restricted to a page and a half foreword. His name, prominent on the cover, was obviously considered the main selling point – the Italian edition of the book appeared in the same year as his vampire film Blood and Roses. The actual editors are Ornella Volta and Valeria Riva, and the English edition is adapted by Margaret Crosland.
Although the book claims to both ‘unabridged’ and an ‘adaptation with some additional material’, this collection is in fact considerably shorter than the original Italian edition. The contents of the Italian version are as follows:
Confessione, John Haigh (Confession, 1949)
Lettera di un Uomo Onestissimo, anonymous (da Augustin Calmet, Dissertationes sur les Apparition des Esprits et sur les Vampires, 1749)
Vampiri d’Ungheria e Dintorni, Augustin Calmet (an extract from da Dissertationes sur les Apparition des Esprits et sur les Vampires, 1749)
Non Dura, François Marie Arouet Voltaire (da Dictionnaire Philosophique, 1784-1787)
Il Vampiro in Convento, Louis-Antoine de Caraccioli (da Lettres à une Illustre Morte Décédée en Pologne Depuis Peu de Temps, 1771)
I Vampiri al Lume della Scienza, Prospero Lambertini, Papa Benedetto XIV (da De Servorum Dei Beatificatione et Beatorum Canonizatione, 1749)
Rapporto Medico sui Vampiri, Gerard Van Swieten (Remarques sur les Vampyrisme de Silesie de l’An 1755, 1755)
La Colpa È dei Preti, Prospero Lambertini, Papa Benedetto XIV (da Louis-Antoine de Caraccioli, La Vie du Pape Bénoît XIV, Prosper Lambertini, 1783)
La Fidanzata di Corinto, Wolfgang Goethe (Die Braut von Corinth, 1797)
Il Vampiro, John Polidori (The Vampyre, a Tale by the Right Honourable Lord Byron, 1819)
Vampirismo, Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (ind. Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffomann) (Vampirismus, 1828)
Il Vampiro per Bene, Charles Nodier (da De Quelques Phénomènes du Sommeil, 1831)
Berenice, Edgar Allan Poe (1835)
Il Vij, Nikolaj Vasil’evič Gogol’ (Vij, 1835)
La Macabra Amante, Théophile Gautier (La Morte Amoureuse, 1836)
La Bella Vampirizzata, Alexandre Dumas (La Belle Vampirisée, 1849)
La Famiglia del Vurdalak, Alekséj Konstantinovič Tolstòj (La Famille du Vurdalak, 1847)
Che Cos’Era?, Fitz James O’ Brien (What Was It?, 1859)
Lokis, Prosper Mérimée (Lokis, le Manuscrit du Professeur Wittenbach, 1869)
Il tuo Amico Vampiro, Isidore Ducasse, conte di Lautréamont (da Chants de Maldoror, 1868)
Carmilla, J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1872)
Perché il Sangue È la Vita, Francis Marion Crawford (For the Blood Is the Life, 1880)
L’Horlà, Guy de Maupassant (Le Horla, 1887)
Un Vampiro, Luigi Capuana (1907)
Il Conte Magnus, M.R. James (Count Magnus, 1904)
La Signora Amworth, E.F. Benson (Mrs. Amworth, 1922)
Il Vampiro del Sussex, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire, 1927)
Il Vampiro Passivo, Ghérasim Luca (da Le Vampire Passif, 1945)
Vampiro in Mezze Maniche, Thomas Narcejac, ps. di Pierre Ayraud (Le Vampire, 1950)
Sogno Rosso, Catherine Lucille Moore (Scarlet Dream, 1934)
Carnevale, Lawrence Durrell (da Balthazar, 1958)
Storia del Sesto Capitano di Polizia, anonimo (da Alf Laila Wa Laila [Le Mille e una Notte], XIII sec.)
Il Vampiro Ballerino, Aleksandr Nikolajevič Afanas’ev (ind. Afanasev) (da [Antiche Fiabe Russe], 1855-1864)
La Città Vampira, Paul Féval (La Ville Vampire, 1875)
L’Ebreo che Leggeva Storie di Vampiri, Guillaume Apollinaire (Le Juif Latin, 1910)
L’Uomo del Piano di Sopra, Ray Bradbury (The Man Upstairs, 1947)
Il Pivello, Edwin Charles Tubb (Fresh Guy, 1958)
Of these stories, only the ones listed in bold appear in The Vampire. However, there are several new additions, including an extract from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The contents of the British edition are as follows:
The Vampires of Hungary and Surrounding Countries, Augustin Calmet (da Dissertationes sur les Apparition des Esprits et sur les Vampires)
Carnival, Lawrence Durrell
Carmilla, J. Sheridan Le Fanu
The Beautiful Vampire, Théophile Gautier (La Morte Amoureuse)
Berenice, Edgar Allan Poe
Chriseis, Simon Raven (an extract from Doctors Wear Scarlet, 1960)
The Horla, Guy de Maupassant (Le Horla)
Mrs Amworth, E.F. Benson
The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Cloak, Robert Bloch (1948)
Viy, Nicolai Gogol
Fresh Guy, E.C. Tubb
A Vampire, Luigi Capuana (Un Vampiro, 1907)
The Man Upstairs, Ray Bradbury
The Death of Dracula, Bram Stoker (an extract from Dracula, 1897)
The book also has three pages of notes about the stories.
As vampire anthologies go, this is an impressive selection, more thorough than most and weighing in at 316 pages. You rather do wish that the longer Italian edition – which seems as thorough as you could hope for in 1960 – had been completely translated, however.
The Vampire proved popular enough to be later reprinted, and also appears in a French edition in 1961, Histoires des Vampires.
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