![]() ![]() The story begins as the narrator, Anthony Seymour, receives a surprise visit from a London police officer, Inspector Tyrrel, asking for information about Richard Fountain, a slightly younger former school friend of Anthony's. "Doctors wear scarlet" simply means holders of doctoral degrees are expected to attend in their academic regalia. The ominous-sounding title refers to a line on an invitation to the Michaelmas Feast at a college in Cambridge University where the climactic catastrophe occurs. ![]() To the very end, I remain not quite sure whether the vampire seductress is meant to be understood as more than human or not. A tale of slowly mounting suspense and creeping horror, DOCTORS WEAR SCARLET combines psychic and physical vampirism with, perhaps, ambiguous hints of the supernatural. ![]() The other three, by the way, are Richard Matheson's I AM LEGEND (1954), Theodore Sturgeon's SOME OF YOUR BLOOD (1961), and PROGENY OF THE ADDER (1965), by Leslie H. I consider DOCTORS WEAR SCARLET (1960), by Simon Raven, one of the four best pre-1970 vampire novels of the twentieth century. ![]()
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