Vampire Stories: Summary of Mrs. Amworth, A Health to the Street and Count Magnus by Montague Rhodes James.If you are looking for vampire stories you are in the right place. Below you will find summaries of the books: Mrs. Amworth by Edward Frederick Benson; Health to the Street by Stephen King and Count Magnus by Montague Rhodes James.
Mrs. Amworth: summary
Mrs. Amworth is set in the village of Maxely, a quiet and healthy place. The narrator lived near Francis Urcombe, a great friend of his who was passionate about paranormal phenomena. A certain Mrs. Amworth, widow of an official of the English administration in India, arrives in the village. The woman is well-liked by the population, except by Urcombe, who considered her an interesting subject from the point of view of his studies. One evening Urcombe tells his friend about the phenomenon of vampirism : a spirit takes possession of a person, inducing him to suck the blood of humans and giving him the ability to fly like a bat. Many cases had occurred in India only a short time before.
During the summer there had been a great invasion of large mosquitoes that bit in the neck area and caused a slight poisoning. According to Urcombe the boy had been attacked by vampires . Urcombe tells the narrator that at night he had seen Mrs. Amworth, with the body of a bat, fluttering in front of the boy’s bedroom window and trying to cling to the sill. The two then accuse her of being a vampire , but the woman falls into the middle of the road and dies hit by a car. Shortly after, however, the narrator saw her again wandering at night through the streets of Maxely and, with Urcombe, decides to go to the cemetery to pierce her heart.
Count Magnus: summary
Mr. Wraxall , a middle-aged and wealthy writer, decided to travel to Scandinavia to write a book and settled in an inn near the villa of some local noblemen. The large house had a church, next to which a mausoleum had been built, which the first member of the house, Count Magnus , had kept for himself and his family.
This was a kind of tyrant and it was said that, after having participated in a particular ritual, he had brought with him some strange being. Wraxall, intrigued by this character, asked the deacon of the church to show him the mausoleum. When they went the writer saw that in the center of the room there was the sepulchre of the count covered by a bronze plate. On this layer was drawn a man pursued by a hooded figure and the scene was observed from a height by a person wrapped in a cloak.
The sarcophagus also had 3 locks, one of which had fallen to the ground. Every now and then Wraxsall found himself chanting and calling the name of Count Magnus . Shortly afterward he went to the mausoleum alone again and saw that another lock was missing from the sarcophagus. The next day he was recalled to England. He then went one last time to say goodbye to Count Magnus and noticed that the third lock had also fallen and that the coffin was opening.
He ran away and was chased all the way back by a man wrapped in a cloak and a hooded figure. He arrived at his destination and found a furnished room. Two days later he was found dead in a terrible state.
To the health of the road: summary
It was evening and it was snowing hard, Booth and Tookey were talking inside a bar. A man arrives almost frozen, asking for help, because he had left his wife and daughter in the car in the middle of the storm. The two friends go out to look for the car, which was stopped on a small road that led to Jerusalem’s Lot. This city, a short time before, had been destroyed by fire and was known as a place infested by vampires. The three arrive at the car, but there was no one inside. Suddenly a woman all in white, with red eyes, comes out from a group of trees and calls her husband. The man approaches and is bitten by the vampire, until the two disappear. The same fate befell the man’s daughter.
