''The Delicate Dependency: A Novel of the Vampire Life'' is a 1982

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...

novel by Michael Talbot.

Plot

In Victorian London, widowed Dr. John Gladstone runs over a beautiful young man named Niccolo Cavalanti with his carriage. When others at the hospital begin to notice the injured man's unnatural healing ability, Gladstone shelters a recovering Niccolo in his home, and soon learns that the kind man is a vampire. Niccolo befriends both of Gladstone's daughters, the coming of age Ursula and the blind toddler Camille, and then disappears with Camille. Accompanied by Lady Hespeth Dunaway, a woman whose son was also abducted by Niccolo, Gladstone sets off to find his daughter.

Publication

''The Delicate Dependency'' was published by

Avon Books Avon Publications is a leading publisher of romance fiction. At Avon's initial stages, it was an American paperback book and comic book publisher. The shift in content occurred in the early 1970s with multiple Avon romance titles reaching and ma ...

on March 28, 1982, and eventually went out of print. It was republished by Valancourt Books in 2014.

Reception

In ''Encyclopedia of the Vampire'', Darrell Schweitzer called the novel "one of the most impressive explorations of a vampire mind ever written". ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' called ''The Delicate Dependency'' "ambitious, "impressive", and "unflaggingly interesting.” Whitley Strieber noted of the novel, "The tension builds page by page to a stunning climax ... I doubt that I will ever forget it.” ''

Fangoria ''Fangoria'' is an internationally distributed American horror film fan magazine, in publication since 1979. It is published four times a year by Fangoria Publishing, LLC and is edited by Phil Nobile Jr. The magazine was originally released i ...

'' named ''The Delicate Dependency'' as one of its "Top 10 Vampire Novels" in 1992.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Delicate Dependency, The 1982 American novels American horror novels American vampire novels Avon (publisher) books