{"product_id":"2940014053747","title":"The True Story of A Vampire and more","description":"Vampire stories are generally located in Styria; mine is also. Styria\u003cbr\u003eis by no means the romantic kind of place described by those who have\u003cbr\u003ecertainly never been there. It is a flat, uninteresting country, only\u003cbr\u003ecelebrated for its turkeys, its capons, and the stupidity of its\u003cbr\u003einhabitants. Vampires generally arrive at night, in carriages drawn by\u003cbr\u003etwo black horses.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOur Vampire arrived by the commonplace means of the railway train, and\u003cbr\u003ein the afternoon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou must think I am joking, or perhaps that by the word \"Vampire\" I\u003cbr\u003emean a financial vampire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo, I am quite serious. The Vampire of whom I am speaking, who laid\u003cbr\u003ewaste our hearth and home, was a real vampire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVampires are generally described as dark, sinister-looking, and\u003cbr\u003esingularly handsome. Our Vampire was, on the contrary, rather fair,\u003cbr\u003eand certainly was not at first sight sinister-looking, and though\u003cbr\u003edecidedly attractive in appearance, not what one would call singularly\u003cbr\u003ehandsome.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYes, he desolated our home, killed my brother--the one object of my\u003cbr\u003eadoration--also my dear father. Yet, at the same time, I must say that\u003cbr\u003eI myself came under the spell of his fascination, and, in spite of\u003cbr\u003eall, have no ill-will towards him now.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDoubtless you have read in the papers passim of \"the Baroness and her\u003cbr\u003ebeasts.\" It is to tell how I came to spend most of my useless wealth\u003cbr\u003eon an asylum for stray animals that I am writing this.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI am old now; what happened then was when I was a little girl of about\u003cbr\u003ethirteen. I will begin by describing our household. We were Poles: our\u003cbr\u003ename was Wronski: we lived in Styria, where we had a castle. Our\u003cbr\u003ehousehold was very limited. It consisted, with the exclusion of\u003cbr\u003edomestics, of only my father, our governess--a worthy Belgian named\u003cbr\u003eMademoiselle Vonnaert--my brother, and myself. Let me begin with my\u003cbr\u003efather: he was old and both my brother and I were children of his old\u003cbr\u003eage. Of my mother I remember nothing: she died in giving birth to my\u003cbr\u003ebrother, who was only one year, or not as much, younger than in self.\u003cbr\u003eOur father was studious, continually occupied in reading books,\u003cbr\u003echiefly on recondite subjects and in all kinds of unknown languages.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe had a long white beard, and wore habitually a black velvet skull-\u003cbr\u003ecap.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow kind he was to us! It was more than I could tell. Still it was not\u003cbr\u003eI who was the favourite.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis whole heart went out to Gabriel--Gabryel as we spelt it in Polish.\u003cbr\u003eHe was always called by the Russian abbreviation Gavril--I mean, of\u003cbr\u003ecourse, my brother, who had a resemblance to the only portrait of my\u003cbr\u003emother, a slight chalk sketch which hung in my father's study. But I\u003cbr\u003ewas by no means jealous: my brother was and has been the only love of\u003cbr\u003emy life. It is for his sake that I am now keeping in Westbourne Park a\u003cbr\u003ehome for stray cats and dogs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was at that time, as I said before, a little girl; my name was\u003cbr\u003eCarmela. My long tangled hair was always all over the place, and never\u003cbr\u003ewould combed straight. I was not pretty--at least, looking at a\u003cbr\u003ephotograph of me at that time. I do not think I could describe myself\u003cbr\u003eas such. Yet at the same time, when I look at the photograph, I think\u003cbr\u003emy expression may have been pleasing to some people: irregular\u003cbr\u003efeatures, large mouth, and large wild eyes.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47152705962224,"sku":"2940014053747","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014053747_p0.jpg?v=1763599768","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014053747","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}