Vampire City

Written in 1867 - 30 years before Bram Stoker's Dracula - Vampire City is one of three classic vampire stories penned by Paul Féval, along with Knightshade and The Vampire Countess. To save her friends from the dreaded vampire lord Otto Goetzi, gothic author Ann Radcliffe and her fearless vampire hunting companions, Merry Bones the Irishman, Grey Jack the faithful old servant, the revenge-driven Doctor Magnus Szegeli, and Polly Bird, one of the vampire's earlier victims, launch an all-out attack on Selene... "With the aid of hindsight," writes Stableford, "we can easily see in Vampire City the ultimate literary ancestor of Buffy the Vampire-Slayer. Although Radcliffe is not permitted by her gentlemanly author actually to slay any vampires with her own hand she is nevertheless the prime mover of the expedition to Selene; she watches with a distinctly proto-feminist fascination as the Irish hero carefully excises the heart from the breast of Goetzi..." Winner of the Dracula Society's "Children of the Night" award for best novel of 1999!