Varney the Vampire

The story has a confused setting. While ostensibly set in the early eighteenth century, there are references to the Napoleonic Wars and other indicators that the story is contemporary to the time of its writing in the mid-nineteenth century. Varney’s adventures also occur in various locations including London, Bath, Winchester, Naples and Venice.
The plot concerns the troubles that Sir Francis Varney inflicts upon the Bannerworths, a formerly wealthy family driven to ruin by their recently deceased father. Initially the Bannerworths consist of Mrs. Bannerworth and her adult children Henry, George and Flora. (George is never mentioned after the thirty-sixth chapter.) A family friend, Mr. Marchdale, lives with the Bannerworths in early chapters. Later Flora’s fiancé Charles Holland and his seafaring uncle Admiral Bell along with his assistant, the extremely humorous Jack Pringle, also take residence with the Bannerworths.