and horror stories and a handful of novels of the su-
pernatural, none of the latter of which have re-
mained in print. His short stories are much better
known, however, and one of the best is this vampire
adventure, which in general form is strikingly simi-
lar to DRACULA(1898) by Bram STOKER, although
the depiction of the vampire is slightly different.
Mrs. Amworth is the widow of a British civil
servant who died in India, recently returned to a
small English village where she becomes the prime
mover in the local society. She is fondly welcomed
by everyone except Francis Urcombe, a retired aca-
demic who is pursuing private studies of the para-
normal. Urcombe finds her mildly distasteful but
fascinating, and the antipathy quickly becomes
mutual. He raises the subject of vampirism, which
he compares to a disease, just before one of the
local boys is struck down by an extreme form of
anemia. There are bites on the boy’s neck, but the
local doctors dismiss this as the marks left by a
swarm of gnats that have lately been troubling the
area. Urcombe and the narrator eventually keep
watch over the boy, frustrating Mrs. Amworth,
who is, of course, a vampire.
The parallels with Stoker’s novel are obvious.
Urcombe is Van Helsing, the young boy is Lucy
Westenra, and Mrs. Amworth is the new arrival
from foreign lands. Benson strays from Stoker’s
plot line only late in the story. Like Dracula, Ben-
son’s vampire can walk about in the daylight, can
assume the form of a bat, and is repelled by reli-
gious signs. Mrs. Amworth is killed after being
struck by an automobile, but her spirit is astrally
projected and continues to seek blood. She is fi-
nally destroyed when Urcombe opens her grave
and drives a shaft through her heart. The story
very efficiently accomplishes most of what Stoker
achieved with an entire novel, although the tone is
oddly matter of fact, and there is very little sus-
pense in the story.
Mundy, Talbot (1879–1940)
Talbot Mundy was the pseudonym of the British
writer William Gribbon, who spent his early adult
years in India and who later emigrated to the United
States, where he eventually became a full-time
writer. One of his earliest novels is still his most fa-
mous, King—of the Khyber Rifles(1916), which hints
at fantasy themes without using them overtly.
Mundy wrote two major series of novels, both of
which used occasional elements of the fantastic. The
first of these involves several British agents in India,
including King from the early novel, although they
focus on two others, Jeff Ramsden and James Grim.
The first of these to employ a fantastic element was
Caves of Terror(1924), a fairly minor effort, although
it introduced the Nine Unknown, a secret group of
powerful mystics who we are led to believe are
united in the furtherance of mysterious ambitions.
The Nine Unknown(1924) continued their
story and identified James Grim, known locally as
Jimgrim, as an agent of the group of the title, who
turn out to be fighting for good against a cult of
Kali worshippers, who represent evil. The Devil’s
Guard(1926, also published as Ramsden) moves
the battle to Tibet, with rival monasteries as the
homes of good and evil, each aided by supernatural
forces. The series came to an end with Jimgrim
(1930, also published as King of the World), with
Grim traveling to Egypt to defeat an enemy who
has created a new type of weapon with which to
conquer the world. The series is slightly dated
today but still reads remarkably well.
Mundy’s second major series was a historical
trilogy about Tros, a sea captain who gets involved
with Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, among other his-
torical figures. Three novels appeared, although
Mundy had planned to write others. These were
Tros of Samothrace(1925), Queen Cleopatra(1929),
and The Purple Pirate(1930). The first of these was
so long that it was broken up into smaller volumes
twice for issue in paperback under various titles.
Tros is the son of Perseus, and both Greek and
druid magic are involved, although for the most
part the series is a straightforward historical adven-
ture with Caesar as the primary villain.
Mundy’s best single fantasy novel was Om:
The Secret of Ahbor Valley(1924), a lost world
novel. Other nonseries fantasy novels of note in-
clude Full Moon(1935, also published as There Is a
Door), also involving a hidden civilization, and Old
Ugly Face(1939), a marginal thriller involving psy-
chic phenomena in Tibet. Mundy is probably the
best known and most successful writer of 20th-
century Oriental fantasy adventures.250 Mundy, Talbot