The Vampire of Vourla (1845)

First printing of a rare early vampire story in The Chaplet

Author

Publisher

Printing Details

Undated, either 1844 or 1845. First edition. Hardback, full leather with gilt and blindstamped decoration and titling to both boards and spine. All edges gilt. 24 × 17cm, 189pp.

The Chaplet was a short-lived Victorian literary annual, first issued in late 1844 for 1845, and lasting only a few years. It presented a miscellany of short stories, poetry, travel writing, and steel-engraved plates.

This volume contains the landmark early vampire short story "The Vampire of Vourla; Leaves from a Mediterranean Log." Published anonymously, it lay forgotten until its rediscovery in 2017 by scholar Álvaro García Marín (later featured in Valancourt Books' 2024 anthology The Vampire: Stories 1800–1849). Running to 18 pages (pp. 60–78), it is historically significant as the earliest known story in English literature to feature a vampire transforming into a bat, as well as being a rare early 19th-century depiction of an autonomous female vampire.

The story is narrated by a Royal Marine named Tom Gahan while his ship is anchored in the Gulf of Smyrna (near modern-day Urla, Turkey—historically Vourla). His shipmate, Somers, sneaks ashore during a storm and takes shelter in a secluded manor. There he encounters Heira, a mysterious Greek woman speaking an ancient Ionic dialect. Despite her warnings, Somers falls deeply in love with her. As his nightly visits continue, Somers rapidly wastes away, growing deathly pale and looking "more like a corpse than a living man." One night, Gahan is awakened by a strange flapping sound in the crew quarters and discovers a gigantic bat with a near-human countenance perched on Somers' neck, draining his blood. Gahan hurls a bottle at the creature; the bat vanishes, but Somers succumbs to blood loss. Heira disappears, leaving behind the grim realization that she and the monstrous bat were one and the same.

Condition

A worn working copy. The leather binding is heavily rubbed with wear to extremities, and the inner hinges are weak with severe straining to the text block (though all leaves remain attached and no pages are loose). Foxing is present throughout the volume and plates. Complete with all 27 steel-engraved plates (none of which depict the vampire story). Pages 60–78 containing the vampire text remain fully intact and legible.

Sold