In the spring of 1856 when he is seven years old John Gladstone sees an "angel" in the garden of their home in Mayfair on Bond Street "in the very heart of fashionable London." Gladstone is "entranced" by the young boy's "unearthly beauty" with an "unsettling quality," a quality he states "I later came to know as androgynous." Looking seventeen or eighteen, the boy has a "dreamy and almost sad intensity" and his is "the countenance of an angel, none other than the angel in Leonardo's da Vinci's Madonna of the Rocks." More startling is the fact that forty years later after he has seen the birth of two children, the death of his wife, and has begun to devote his life to studying and finding a cure for the Haemophilus infuenzae that claims his wife's life, Gladstone meets the "angel" once again. Having fallen under the wheels of Gladstone's carriage, the young man who has not aged a day is taken to Redgewood, the hospital at which Gladstone works, to undergo surgery for a severely fractured leg. It is there that Gladstone learns the angel's name is Niccolo Cavalanti. He is not an angel, but a "seraphim of a darker realm."
The Delicate Dependency: A Novel of the Vampire Life by Michael Talbot (1982 with a Foreword by Jillian Venter in Valancourt Books' 2014 re-issue of the novel) is one of only three novels written by the talented Talbot before his unfortunate, early death at the age of thirty-eight.
Talbot's The Delicate Dependency is an extremely unusual and original vampire novel. Although Niccolo Cavalanti and his brethren "subsist primarily upon blood," and the fangs and hypersensitiveness of the vampire and their ability to rapidly heal is ever present, the author does away with most traditions linked with vampire lore. There are no wooden stakes, fear of crosses and holy water and garlic and running water, no turning into other creatures or mist, no sleeping in coffins lined with native soil, etc., etc., etc. This is not Bram Stoker's Count Dracula. It is also not the deranged, soaked in blood fiend and, refreshingly, not the morose creature bemoaning his immortal fate or spending generations trying to find a reincarnated lost mortal love. Talbot's vampires are not the result of some sudden plague or virus let loose upon the world. They are not detectives, crime fighters, vigilantes, or tween heart throbs.
More importantly, Talbot's The Delicate Dependency is one of the most literate and intelligent vampire novels one could ever hope to encounter. Talbot's writing style runs counter to any stereotype one might have of horror writers being unsophisticated hacks. Talbot's writing is on par with the most excellent of novelists with an outstanding command of both language and dialogue. References to history, art, and literature abound (especially of the medieval period). Descriptions are vivid without being overbearing. Scenes set in Paris recall the epitome of the Gothic novel with the iconic Notre Dame associated with the vampire cult and towering above a vampire stronghold in The Delicate Dependency. Throughout the novel Talbot engages in no cheating with the production of a false thrill or gross out (ala Stephen King and so many others) to keep the reader's attention.
Given the fact that Talbot's creatures of the night do have immortality and centuries of life working in their favor, once one casts aside most other supernatural elements of the vampire Talbot's view of the vampire makes a world of sense. As Niccolo confides in Gladstone, for him and his kind "knowledge" is their "Holy Grail, knowledge and all the learning you could glean about this phenomenon we call humanity, about a universe awesome enough to create a vampire." Once the reader accepts the fact that Talbot isn't going to reduce his story into a blood-soaked horror novel, readers are likely to conclude that the author's approach is not only original, but quite astute.
None of the above should give readers the impression that The Delicate Dependency is an unengaging novel. It is, instead, enthralling from beginning to end. During his research, Gladstone develops a virus immune to any antibodies with appalling possibilities. After his encounter with Niccolo on the streets of London, Gladstone sneaks Niccolo out of the hospital, taking him to the doctor's home in a carriage (in a delightful twist from Count Dracula driving Johnathan Harker from the Borgo Pass to Castle Dracula to be his guest) and the mental chess game between vampire(s) who are to be neither believed nor trusted and mortals which stretches across the novel begins. With the abduction of Gladstone's youngest daughter, Camille, an "idiot savant" who is mute but can reproduce on the piano any piece of music she hears but once, tensions heighten. When Gladstone is approached by Lady Hespeth Constantina Dunaway who also declares she has seen an "angel" fitting Niccolo's description and she appeals to the doctor for help because her son, also an "idiot savant" with incongruous abilities and needs, has been kidnapped, "the game was afoot" (one of the Sherlock Holmes references Talbot utilizes in the novel). The two are off on a perilous journey to the continent, following a clue dropped by Niccolo to try to recover their children as well as uncover whatever scheme the vampires might be up to by snatching two such unique children: "Their abduction was a puzzle, perhaps even a challenge... a challenge we had no choice but to pursue."
Talbot's characters, both human and inhuman, are fascinating. The beautiful and ageless Niccolo is but an acolyte compared to the more commanding Monsieur des Esseintes and Lodovico. Des Esseintes, with his "voracious intellect" and "cultivated" mind is "born the month Charlemagne was defeated by the Basques." Des Esseintes proves himself to be a cunning nemesis with "fantastical things swirling about [his] skull." Lodovico, "the oldest and the wisest" of the vampires is "a whispered legend, an enigma, a mystery." He is variously described as "mysterious...overwhelming...clever and conniving...[and] wealthy and dashing as well." Lesser vampires are given unique depictions and roles to play in The Delicate Dependency. Madame Villehardouin, "a concubine of the Kublai Khan," although a vampire, has been denied certain traits of the vampire because she is seen as "a rogue" who wanders "free from the herd" and suffers from being a lesser creature than her cohorts. Hatim is a "mischievous" and/or "malevolent" as well as "handsome and swarthy" vampire, once "the most renowned falconer in all of Persia." His pet falcon even takes on a deadly character of its own much to Gladstone's horror. Among the other human characters, Dr. Cletus Hardwicke who early on assists Gladstone in his career proves himself to be "a piteous fellow" and "a hellish professor" with ambitions bordering upon the insane who plays a potentially pivotal role in the novel and the history of mankind.
Establishing the fact that "nothing is as it seems... everything is an illusion," Talbot gives readers an awe-inspiring conclusion that is set in Massa Marittima between Gladstone and the extraordinary Lodovico filled with unforgettable images of the vampire's personal realm. Talbot's conclusion is laden with irony revolving around the nature of both humans and the vampire. It is a peculiar state of affairs that, once they close the pages of the novel, readers will realize has become even more a reality than when Michael Talbot penned his remarkable vampire novel over thirty years ago. For those who have tired of the over-worked vampire genre, The Delicate Dependency is a unique treat not to be missed.
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Melissa
After getting past the initial chapter build up, I ...
Reviewed in Canada on January 8, 2018