After 100 years of neglect, the potboiler Penny Dreadful Varney The Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood returns in this innovative critical edition to entertain a whole new generation of readers. Sold for a penny a chapter on the streets of London in 1845, Varney the Vampire is a milestone of Vampire fiction, yet ignored and overlooked for nearly 100 years, until now!

The Critical Edition of Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood includes:
· A critical introduction about the Penny Dreadful Press and the lore of the Mid 19th Century Vampire
· Over 200 notes explaining references, historical information, and corrections to the text
· A variety of 19th century essays explaining the horrors and dangers of (gasp!) reading Penny Dreadfuls
· Contemporary critical essays on James Malcolm Rymer and his most famous Penny Dreadfuls: Varney the Vampire and Sweeney Todd
· Four additional early Penny Dreadfuls detailing insanity, family cannibalism, torture gone wrong, and other bedtime stories
· A reader's guide
· Reproductions of the original woodcut illustrations