50 episodes listed below
Midnight hail, a bite, and a household that cannot rest.
Varney the Vampyre is read aloud here one chapter per episode, from a midnight hailstorm and a bite on the neck to a pistol shot, a vanished body and a doctor keeping watch among the laurels. The prose is ornate and theatrical, and different LibriVox readers take different chapters.
PRESS PLAY
This feed carries the first volume of Varney the Vampyre as a run of LibriVox recordings, one chapter to an episode, each titled by its chapter number. Where the LibriVox preamble is heard, it says the recording is in the public domain and then moves to the chapter heading. The headings are long, breathless lists of events, such as 'The Night Watch, The Proposal, The Moonlight, The Fearful Adventure'. Chapter 1 is a midnight hailstorm, and much of it is told in the present tense. Wind, thunder and forked lightning batter the house. Flora wakes in an antique bed, prays for the people she loves and shrieks at the bay window, and then a figure with glassy, horrible eyes drags her head back by the hair and bites her neck. The prose does not look away from the blood. Chapter 2 turns to the household: doors open, voices call from room to room, and Henry is thrown to the floor by something bounding off Flora's bed. By the red glow of a nearly burnt-out mill, a figure almost as tall as the ceiling makes for the window. Henry ends the chapter sure that he has shot it. The heading of Chapter 3 announces the disappearance of the body, Flora's recovery in madness, and an offer of assistance from Sir Francis Varney, the man named in the title. Chapter 4 begins with the narrator reasoning that sunlight changes the air and so steadies the nerves. Henry and George then admit to the dreadful superstition that has occurred to them and to Mr. Marchdale, and they agree to keep it from Flora. Henry closes that chapter reading lore that a wounded vampire can recover by lying in the rays of the full moon, and he drops the book with a groan. The night watches that follow turn up the doctor, Mr. Chillingworth, who climbed the gate to keep his own watch among the laurels. Chapter 6 steps back from the terror to explain the family's position: an unknown party is eager to get the hall on any terms, the family refuses, and the servants leave while their replacements arrive in fear and trembling. Here the narrator addresses the audience directly and hopes readers have become interested in the family's fortunes. The writing is ornate, full of exclamations and prayers, and it lingers on weather and dread. Readers change from chapter to chapter, and Scott Jones, Jody Crangle and Liz Black are among those credited, so the story moves from one voice to another. Each chapter continues from the last, so Chapter 1 is the place to start.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants gothic horror in its original, lavishly worded form and is happy to follow one household's ordeal a chapter at a time, storms, blood and exclamations included.
What sets it apart: This is the novel's own text read aloud from LibriVox recordings, a chapter per episode. The readers change between chapters, and each episode is a continuous stretch of the story, introduced by the book's long chapter headings.
This is volume 1 of 3. Originally published as a penny dreadful from 1845 until 1847, when it first appeared in book form, Varney the Vampyre is a forerunner to vampire stories such as Dracula, which it heavily influenced. Flora Bannersworth is attacked in her own room in the middle of the night, and although her attacker is seemingly shot dead, the body is nowhere to be found. The discovery of two small bite marks on Flora’s neck leads Mr Marchdale, an old friend of the family, to the conclusion that she was bitten by a vampire. While Flora recovers, her brother Henry and Mr Marchdale begin their hunt for the vampire. Their suspicions soon fall on the mysterious Sir Francis Varney, who has…
A bedside vampire watch gives you one excellent reason to keep your curtains firmly closed.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A morning consultation gives the Bannerworth household's vampire fear a rule, and a sharper hold.
Daylight does not calm the Bannerworth household so much as give its terror a clearer outline. Henry Bannerworth has passed an undisturbed night watching over the sleeping Flora, and morning briefly steadies him.
Flora's bedroom becomes the center of a tense night watch after Varney's letter unsettles the household.
Sir Francis Varney's letter sets Chapter 5 moving with a show of sympathy and help, but Henry and George stay focused on Flora's safety. The planned night watch gives the episode its shape: the brothers remain close, the house feels charged, and every possible sound outside…
Patient tales from the uneasy dark.
A succession of screams draws Henry, George, Marchdale, and Flora’s mother into a locked chamber.
Henry Bannerworth spends the morning staring at a portrait fixed into the wall while Flora lies shaken after the night terror.
Chapter 5 of The Varney Vampyre opens with Henry Bannerworth reading a letter from Sir Francis Varney, who writes from Ratford Abbey with sympathetic concern after a family affliction.
Chapter 6 traces the Bannerworth family’s decline from generations of vice and extravagance to Henry Bannerworth’s heavily encumbered inheritance.
Flora receives two loaded pistols and promises to shoot any intruder without hesitation.
A reading of Chapter XXXIII of Varney the Vampyre, where Sir Francis Varney takes a lonely walk toward Bannerworth Hall, shrouded in mystery and supernatural undertones.
A dramatic reading of Chapter XXXIV of Varney the Vampyre, where Sir Francis Warney threatens a helpless victim.
This episode continues the serialized reading of Varney the Vampyre, focusing on the family's reaction to Admiral Bell's generous offer after Mr.
A dramatic reading of a chapter from Varney the Vampyre, featuring a tense confrontation between Sir Francis Varney and two gentlemen seeking satisfaction.
A reading of Chapter 39 of Varney the Vampire, featuring a storm and a tense conversation between the admiral and Varney.
This episode describes a popular riot against Sir Francis Varney, fueled by superstition and the revelation of his vampiric nature.
A dramatic reading of Chapter 41 of Varney the Vampyre, describing a prisoner in a subterranean vault.
A dramatic reading of a chapter from Varney the Vampyre, featuring a riot at a church and a character being thrown over a wall.