Story summary
Samenvatting van De vampier
- 8 min. leestijd
- 10 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
In winter 1804, Paris anglers fish the Seine for a diamond ring while a vampire rumor spreads.
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De vampier in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 5 h 55 min4 h 40 min fast, 7 h 5 min slow
- Lengte
- 84.600 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1865by Paul Féval
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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De vampier in short
The Vampire unfolds in winter 1804, when a city on the brink of empire is gripped by a rumor, with flashbacks revealing René's earlier encounters. A beautiful countess is said to marry young foreigners, drain them of money and life, and vanish. Around her move a fencing master with a golden heart, his foster daughter Angèle, her fiancé René, a tiny medical student and a clerk who loves his own notes.
What De vampier is about
Paris, winter 1804. Fishermen crowd the Quai de Béthune with lines in the freezing Seine, hoping to land a diamond ring like the one the tavern keeper Ezekiel pulled from a sea monster. Behind the joke runs a darker rumor. A female vampire, people whisper, is taking rich young foreigners and leaving no trace.
The Vampire is a gothic novel by Paul Féval, the French writer of adventure and mystery. He mixes dread with real history, including the plot against Napoleon. You get a hunt through churches, hidden rooms and taverns, led by a fencing master with a golden heart on his lapel.
Voor wie is het?. Readers who love candlelit gothic tales, old Paris streets, secret passages and ghost stories with a sly humor, and anyone curious how a vampire legend could reach Napoleon's Paris.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
Paris trembles and laughs at one rumor
In early 1804 Paris is full of whispers. People say that twenty young foreigners, all rich and new to the city, have vanished without a trace. The police deny it, but the louder they deny, the more the suburbs believe. The unseen culprit gets a name, the Vampire.
The first strange sign is the fish. Along the Quai de Béthune, anglers pull pike and barbel from the winter Seine. Many care little for fish. They hope for a diamond signet ring like the one Ezekiel is said to have found in a sea monster, and his tavern, the Miraculous Catch, grows rich on that dream.
Politics adds heat. Napoleon is about to become emperor, and Cadoudal plots against him, so several police forces trip over one another. Some Parisians decide that the police themselves are the vampire. The city laughs while it trembles, as country people sing loudly on a dark road. A rumor grows fastest where people mock it and believe it anyway.
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A quiet follower trails a girl into church
On the last day of February, a tall man in plain clothes crosses the Marché-Neuf.
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The boss in the tavern is a famous swordsman
Jean-Pierre walks alone into the Miraculous Catch, a gambling den dug into the corner of a grand mansion.
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Angèle keeps watch on a cold boundary stone
The story steps back a few hours.
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René follows a spell to the isolated house
Weeks earlier, René knelt beside Angèle at evening prayer in a Paris church.
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Lila tells the tale of the vampire Addhéma
In the pavilion, René sits beside a dark-haired woman named Lila, who looks exactly like the blonde countess.
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A clerk takes notes while a keeper tells everything
Two days later, Jean-Pierre visits the police prefecture and meets the secretary general, Monsieur Berthellemot.
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A beautiful countess has the police at her door
The same night, the prefect Dubois receives a visitor with dazzling blond hair, Countess Marcian Gregoryi.
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Obsession is the real vampire of the story
Féval keeps asking what the word vampire means.
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A storyteller who winks while the shivers come
Féval narrates as a talkative friend who steps out of the plot whenever he likes.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Jean-Pierre Sévérin A fencing master called Gâteloup and keeper of the Paris dead, he searches for the children he raised and fights with a stick.
- René de Kervoz A young Breton law student and Cadoudal's nephew, he loves Angèle yet follows a veiled stranger across Paris.
- Angèle The gentle foster daughter of the Sévérins and René's promised wife, she watches in the cold and refuses to give up hope.
- Countess Marcian Gregoryi A dazzling Hungarian noblewoman whose hair changes color, she charms priests, foreigners and the police prefect for her own ends.
- Lila A dark-haired woman who looks like the countess, she tells René the legend of Addhéma and claims to love him.
- Germain Patou A tiny, quick-witted medical student and follower of Hahnemann, he spies for his old guardian and believes in everything.
- Berthellemot The vain secretary general of the police prefecture, he takes notes on all things and longs to replace his chief.
- Ezekiel The sly keeper of the tavern called the Miraculous Catch, he serves the countess and the police at once.
How it ends (spoiler)
Georges Cadoudal is caught after a wild cabriolet chase through the crowded streets. René finds the countess at his uncle's hideout and shoots her, but too late to save Angèle, who has drowned herself. The Brothers of Virtue blow themselves up in their lonely house, and their bodies open the new Morgue. Patou keeps the countess's body for one night, and the book closes on the legend of Szandor and Addhéma, vampires who kill each other in a ruined Hungarian castle.
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Vragen over De vampier
What is The Vampire by Paul Féval about?
It follows a rumor of a female vampire in Paris in 1804. A fencing master, his foster daughter, her fiancé and a young medical student are drawn into a hunt that crosses churches, taverns and a plot against Napoleon.
Who is Countess Marcian Gregoryi?
She is a stunning Hungarian noblewoman whose hair seems to change color. She marries or promises to marry rich young foreigners, moves in churches and the police prefecture, and stands at the center of the Vampire rumor.
What does the motto In life, death; in death, life mean?
It is the family motto on the countess's crest, her handkerchiefs and her rooms. It points to the vampire legend of a creature that lives by taking life and who is never wholly alive nor dead.
Is The Vampire a true story and when was it written?
It is fiction set among real events, including the 1804 plot of Georges Cadoudal and the opening of the new Paris Morgue. Paul Féval wrote it in the nineteenth century as a linked sequel to his story The Chamber of Love.
Is The Vampire easy to read?
Féval writes in a chatty, humorous voice with short scenes, lively dialogue and a strong mystery. Comic police officials, a tiny student doctor and quick changes of place keep the plot moving.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Féval, Paul. The Vampire. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-vampire.
Féval, P. (2026). The vampire. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-vampire (Original work published 1865)
Féval, Paul. The Vampire. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-vampire.
@book{feval2026vampire,
author = {Féval, Paul},
title = {The Vampire},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-vampire},
note = {First published 1865}
}
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