“The Last Lords of Gardonal” (1867)

All my internet sources are hurrying to tell me that the author of this long story, William Gilbert, is the father of the W.S. Gilbert in Gilbert & Sullivan—noted. I like this vampire tale and sly critique of the feudal system because it moves along well, it’s always interesting, and it’s fully committed to the blood-sucking too. There’s the bad baron who does what he wants and takes what he wants. And there’s a magician (or something) called the Innominato—this story is actually part of a longer series involving him, or it. This bad baron taxes and mistreats the peasants and also marauds over a wider region, raiding towns, robbing travelers, etc. On one of his expeditions he sees a peasant woman he wants to marry, so great is her beauty. Neither she nor her family will have him, however, so he resorts to extortion and violence. Most of the family dies in the fire when the baron burns down their house, but it appears the beautiful Teresa escaped. The Innominato comes in when the peasants turn to him for help against the baron. There is quite a bit of incident as the baron foolishly takes him on. He is fixed on having Teresa. As it turns out—as we may have suspected—spoilers—Teresa did die in that fire. And in the machinations between the baron and the Innominato she is delivered to him as her bride, but she is actually of course now a vampire beast. In fact, though this story takes its time getting there, she is one of the better vampires I’ve seen. A beautiful woman by day or for public viewing (as always, the vampire rules are fungible, sunlight apparently no problem here), in private she turns into a loathsome corpse that gnaws at the baron’s wound on his neck. And it couldn’t happen to a better guy, so all’s well that ends well. Gilbert was prolific, writing a fair amount of fantastical literature like this and a good deal more besides. Trying to place this and/or Gilbert historically, the story is plainly Enlightenment-informed and opposed to the feudal system for all its inevitable corruption. The bad baron is very bad, and so is his brother, though they had a kindly father. They are repulsive bullying miscreants, a certain object lesson in human psychology. The bad baron gets everything he deserves, which makes the story as satisfying as it is well told (if, you know, somewhat antiquated). I’m still OK with vampire stories.

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