“The True Story of a Vampire” (1894)

The modest Count Stanislaus Eric Stenbock published most often as “Eric Stenbock,” along with some other variations, of which the one I prefer of course is “Count Stenbock.” It’s crisp and to the point, no false modesty, and also, as with Lord Dunsany, brings an aristocratic twang of authority that can’t help but impress me. Vampire stories particularly should be written by the wealthy and landed. It suits them—they have the inside track. The tone of the narrator here plays to that. She sounds infinitely sophisticated and world-weary. The Vampire Tales anthology I found it in had it under an alternate title, “The Sad Story of a Vampire,” which actually fits it better. The narrator is an older sister who witnessed the terrible events detailed, including the deaths of her beloved brother and father. The story is set as usual in Central Europe—specifically Styria, a region in southeastern Austria. This vampire has a Northern European look and manner, insinuating his way by luck and circumstances into the placid life of this happy little family. There is no mother, she died giving birth to the younger brother, and the father is rather old, nearing or past 60. The narrator is telling the story in her own old age, when she is known locally as “the Baroness and her beasts” for her eccentric project of caring for stray animals. The story opens, “Vampire stories are generally located in Styria; mine is also.” A sad tone is established at once, even as the information about certain malevolence pulls against it. The story is short and proceeds quickly. The vampire is besotted at first sight of the brother. In due order, the vampire’s health and vigor swing up and down in opposition to the boy’s, who had been a healthy, animal-loving nature boy all his life. He carries on his activities communicating with the wild animals and collecting specimens. They all love him. Birds sit on his shoulder and squirrels gather ‘round his feet, etc. But with the arrival of the vampire—the father found him stranded at the train station—the boy’s health flags. Interestingly, the vampire’s health improves. The father is blind to it all—he kind of likes the guy, who presents himself as a knowledgeable antiquarian, and he invites him to stick around—but the older sister sees plainly what is happening. The visitor’s name is Count Vardalek, recalling the story “The Family of the Vourdalak” by Russian author Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, although a google search of the name mostly produces only results related to this story by Count Stenbock, which is pretty good overall. It doesn’t try to be any more than what it is, the story of an unholy monster that moves in and takes what it wants, including a family’s most prized member. Even the animals must have wept.

Vampire Tales: The Big Collection, pub. Dark Chaos
Read story online.
Listen to story online.