Story summary
The Blood of the Vampire summary
- 8 min read
- 10 parts
A convent-raised heiress takes a seat at a Belgian hotel dinner, and the people who love her start to fade.
Renews every year · Cancel anytime
The Blood of the Vampire at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 5 h 40 min4 h 30 min fast, 6 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 81,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1897by Florence Marryat
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
Free for 3 months
Read the whole of The Blood of the Vampire, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
The Blood of the Vampire in short
The Blood of the Vampire follows Harriet Brandt, a rich, lovely and lonely young woman who leaves a Jamaican convent and lands in a Belgian seaside hotel. Wherever she goes, those she loves grow pale and tired. A baby, a convent friend, a lover and a boy all seem to lose their strength, and several characters decide she carries a hereditary power to drain life.
What The Blood of the Vampire is about
Picture a hotel bell ringing on a Belgian seafront at dinner time. Harriet Brandt is fresh from ten years in a Jamaican convent, free at twenty-one and rich enough to do as she likes. Within days the guests of the Lion d'Or are whispering, and the people she loves most begin to grow strangely weak.
The Blood of the Vampire is a Gothic novel by Florence Marryat, an English writer who died in 1899. Its monster is an idea: that a person might inherit a power to drain the life of others and never know it.
Who it’s for. Readers who love Victorian Gothic fiction, sharp social comedy and tales of love, money and secrets will enjoy this novel. It also suits those drawn to early ideas of heredity.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A convent girl arrives at a Belgian hotel
The story opens at the Hotel Lion d'Or in Heyst, a Belgian seaside town, at the dinner hour. An empty chair waits opposite Mrs. Pullen and her friend Miss Leyton. Into it sits a tall young woman with long dark eyes, blood-red lips and diamonds at her throat. Her name, the nurse soon learns, is Harriet Brandt.
Harriet eats with startling hunger. Miss Leyton is disgusted, but gentle Margaret Pullen is curious. That evening Harriet cries out on the sea wall that she is free after ten years in a convent. Her parents are dead and her fortune is her own.
Then comes the first strange moment. In a crowded music café Harriet rests her head against Margaret, and Margaret feels as though she is being scooped hollow. She stumbles out for air, and Harriet is left alone, hurt and puzzled.
A hungry need for love, not plain wickedness, is what first draws Harriet toward other people.
- 2Start free to read
The Baroness Gobelli rules over the dining room
No character takes up more room than the Baroness Gobelli.
- 3Start free to read
Those closest to Harriet begin to fade
After the café, Harriet continues seeking out Margaret, who is left with nerve pain and low spirits.
- 4Start free to read
Flattery and money point Harriet toward a husband
The Baroness sees an opportunity.
- 5Start free to read
Captain Pullen and Harriet share a secret
Ralph Pullen arrives by train, tall and golden-haired, stroking his drooping mustache.
- 6Start free to read
Doctor Phillips names a vampire inheritance
Doctor Phillips, an old family friend, arrives to examine Margaret's baby.
- 7Start free to read
A promise broken, a child lost, and a new home
Harriet leaves for Brussels with the Gobellis, sure that Ralph will follow in two days.
- 8Start free to read
The Red House hides business behind locked doors
The Red House is run by Miss Wynward, a thin, shabby gentlewoman treated half as a servant.
- 9Start free to read
Anthony Pennell comes to mend a quarrel and falls in love
Margaret asks her husband's cousin Anthony Pennell for help.
- 10Start free to read
Heredity, blame and the telling of the tale
The first theme is inheritance.
Read all 10 key ideas, then the whole book
Renews every year · Cancel anytime
- Nothing to pay today
- We email you before you pay
Check yourself
What pattern makes Harriet's affection seem dangerous?
Right. “Wherever she goes, those she loves grow pale and tired.”Not quite. “Wherever she goes, those she loves grow pale and tired.”
What explanation does Doctor Phillips offer for Harriet's effect on others?
Right. “His theory is that Harriet has inherited her mother's thirst.”Not quite. “His theory is that Harriet has inherited her mother's thirst.”
How does Pennell's view differ from the belief that ancestry determines character?
Right. “Pennell argues the opposite, that nobody should be punished for a father's sins.”Not quite. “Pennell argues the opposite, that nobody should be punished for a father's sins.”
Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Harriet Brandt A rich, beautiful young woman from Jamaica, just out of a convent, who longs for love and friendship and attaches herself to those who are kind.
- Margaret Pullen A gentle young mother staying at Heyst while her husband works in India, who befriends Harriet out of pity and loves her baby daughter.
- Elinor Leyton A proud, cold lord's daughter, secretly engaged to Ralph Pullen, who distrusts Harriet from the first and guards her dignity fiercely.
- Captain Ralph Pullen A handsome, vain army officer who accepts any admiration offered and is too lazy and conceited to be honest with the women who care for him.
- Baroness Gobelli A huge, loud, boastful woman who claims noble friends and unseen powers, bullies her family and servants, and wants to humble Miss Leyton.
- Bobby Bates The Baroness's frail, kind-hearted nineteen-year-old son, treated like a child by his mother, who falls helplessly in love with Harriet.
- Doctor Phillips An elderly physician and family friend who knew of Harriet's father in Jamaica and warns others about her inheritance.
- Anthony Pennell A successful author and social reformer, generous and open-minded, who goes to the Red House to settle a quarrel and finds himself in love.
How it ends (spoiler)
Anthony Pennell persuades Harriet to marry him and they take a long honeymoon in France and Italy. In Florence he grows weak and drowsy, and one morning she wakes to find him dead. Convinced that she has killed him as she believes she killed the others, including Bobby Bates, she leaves her fortune to Margaret Pullen and takes an overdose of chloral. A scrap of paper blames her parents for making her unfit to live.
Famous lines
free at last, after ten long years of imprisonment!
Harriet Brandt, Chapter 1. Harriet's joyful cry on the sea wall at Heyst, showing how starved she is for freedom and company.
I have ways of finding out things you know nothing about!
Baroness Gobelli. One of the Baroness's favorite boasts, hinting at secret powers that keep other people anxious and obedient.
the curse of heredity
Doctor Phillips, Chapter 8. The doctor's name for the inherited danger he believes Harriet carries, the idea that drives the novel.
The whole book is in your plan
Read The Blood of the Vampire in full, and keep this summary as a file.
Hold it in print: paperback, hardcover or large print, printed for you at cost. Order in print
Questions about The Blood of the Vampire
What is The Blood of the Vampire about?
It follows Harriet Brandt, a rich young woman from Jamaica, as she travels through a Belgian resort and London. People who grow close to her fall ill, and others blame an inherited power to drain life.
Is there a real vampire in The Blood of the Vampire?
There is no conventional fanged vampire, but vampire bats figure in the family legend and a little coffin marks Ethel's death. The vampire is a psychic idea, the belief that some people feed on the vitality of those near them. Characters discuss it, and readers judge how far to believe it.
Who is the Baroness Gobelli?
She is a huge, loud, comic and menacing woman who married a German baron and runs a boot firm. She boasts of royal friends and secret powers, bullies her son Bobby, and sets much of the plot in motion.
When was The Blood of the Vampire written, and by whom?
Florence Marryat, an English novelist who died in 1899, wrote it in the late Victorian period. It draws on the era's interest in heredity, medicine, spiritualism and the vampire legend.
What is the main message of the novel?
It asks whether a person should be blamed for what their parents were, and whether fear and superstition can do as much harm as any real curse. Pennell's kindness stands against the doctor's certainty.
Cite this page
“Summary of The Blood of the Vampire: the key points in 4 minutes.” Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/pages/the-blood-of-the-vampire-summary.
Library of Alexandria. (2026). Summary of The Blood of the Vampire: the key points in 4 minutes. https://libraryofalexandria.com/pages/the-blood-of-the-vampire-summary
“Summary of The Blood of the Vampire: the key points in 4 minutes.” Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/pages/the-blood-of-the-vampire-summary.
@misc{the_blood_of_the_vampire_summary_2026,
title = {Summary of The Blood of the Vampire: the key points in 4 minutes},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/pages/the-blood-of-the-vampire-summary}
}
Cite this edition
Marryat, Florence. The Blood of the Vampire. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-blood-of-the-vampire.
Marryat, F. (2026). The blood of the vampire. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-blood-of-the-vampire (Original work published 1897)
Marryat, Florence. The Blood of the Vampire. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-blood-of-the-vampire.
@book{marryat2026blood,
author = {Marryat, Florence},
title = {The Blood of the Vampire},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-blood-of-the-vampire},
note = {First published 1897}
}
Metamorphosis
Crime and Punishment
Wuthering Heights
Pride and Prejudice
The Iliad
Romeo and JulietFree for 3 months
Read the whole of The Blood of the Vampire, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
