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“Pages from a Young Girl’s Journal”
Robert Aickman(1974)
This story’s narrator is a precocious young girl
traveling through Europe with her parents, from
whom she seems quite remote. They have recently
arrived in Ravenna, home of Lord Byron, where
they are staying with a contessa and her daughter.
Despite her skepticism about foreigners, the pro-
tagonist feels increasingly sympathetic to and con-
nected with their hostess.
Shortly after noticing an apparent clandestine
embrace between the contessa’s daughter and one
of the servants, the heroine learns to her delight
that there will be a large formal party. The story
skips the party itself, but in the aftermath the nar-
rator wakens with a small scar on her neck and a
bloodstain on her pillow, a sight from which the
contessa recoils in horror, although the girl herself
dismisses it as inconsequential. Her memories of
the party are murky, and she is unusually weak and
pale. These symptoms she also dismisses, although
the reader will by now have anticipated the revela-
tion yet to come. She does remember having met
an older man and fancies herself in love with him.
Her mood of elation changes when her par-
ents inform her that they will be moving on
shortly, although she is convinced that her new-
found lover will be able to transcend any barrier
that might separate them. Other problems arise.
She feels faint when about to enter a church, and
the sun bothers her more than it did before. There
is no escape, however, for the vampire pursues her,
visiting her in the night. It is soon evident that

she welcomes his visits, even though she under-

stands what is happening to her, perhaps capti-

vated by his supernatural power, perhaps seeking

any escape from the life she has been forced to

live until now. Even the loss of her reflection and

her shadow do not upset her. Ultimately, she has

become a willing partner in her own seduction, for

at least it offers an escape from a life she finds col-

orless and boring.

The story was not original in theme or plot,

but the unusual viewpoint was striking, the story

told from the point of view of the victim, and an

unprotesting one at that. We never see the vam-

pire at first-hand because the story is not about

him but about the changes that take place in the

protagonist’s life and her perceptions of those

around her. AICKMANreceived the World Fantasy

Award for the story.

Paine, Michael(unknown)

Occasionally a writer publishes with one or more

outstanding works, then disappears from public view

suddenly and completely. That was the case with

Michael Paine, a byline that first appeared with a

very original horror novel, Cities of the Dead,in 1988.

The protagonist is an Englishman who loses his job

in Egypt in 1903 and finds fresh employment acting

as a guide for visiting Europeans. Disillusioned and

effectively suspended between two worlds, he be-

comes increasingly involved with the darker side of

Egyptian religion, including sorcery, and eventually

discovers a plot to raise the dead. Although the bare