The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire by Arthur Conan Doyle (1921)
Tuesday’s Tale January 15, 2019
Arthur Conan Doyle—a contemporary of Bram Stoker—was a spiritualist, known to attend séances. Doyle believed in tiny females with transparent wings—fairies. Doyle fans might recall that he wrote a nonfiction book The Coming of the Fairies. In 1893 he joined the British Society for Psychical Research. He also investigated a haunting and was convinced the psychic phenomena was caused by the spirit of the dead child. So when he wrote this story The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire, a reader might wonder what he really did believe about the supernatural.
In this story, a husband suspects his wife to be a vampire. Vampires? In Sussex? Holmes laughs at such an idea. We begin our tale on Baker Street, of course, with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.
But then, Holmes and Watson depart for Sussex …
“It was evening of a dull, foggy November day when, having left our bags at the Chequers, Lamberley, we drove through the Sussex clay of a long winding lane and finally reached the isolated and ancient farmhouse …”
You can read the short story at Ebooks.adelaide.edu:
https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/doyle/arthur_conan/d75ca/chapter5.html
Listen to the audio (43 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08A9da6TYOc
If you enjoyed this short story you might like to read Vampire Stories, available on Amazon.com.
Days before his death Conan Doyle wrote,
“The reader will judge that I have had many adventures. The greatest and most glorious of all awaits me now.”
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Other Reading Web Sites to Visit
Kirkus Mystery & Thrillers Reviews
Books & Such Bibliophilica NewYorkerFictionOnline
Lovecraft Ezine Parlor of Horror
Slattery’s Art of Horror Magazine Chuck Windig’s Terrible Minds
HorrorAddicts.net Horror Novel Reviews HorrorSociety.com
Monster Librarian HorrorTalk.com
Rob Around Books The Story Reading Ape Blog
For Authors/Writers: The Writer Unboxed
