[For the October 11th highlight, click here.]

October 12th

Consisting of just four short paragraphs, the October 12th segment of Zelazny’s novel is even briefer than the previous night’s. In the first paragraph, Snuff returns to the running gag (“The Thing in the Circle tried being a greyhound. I was never attracted to skinny ladies, though.”). In the second, Snuff recounts a falling out between Nightwind and Quicklime, which led the owl to seize the snake and drop him into to Thames. The third paragraph simply makes note of “several cases of sudden severe anemia among the neighbors” (as the Count works to up the book’s body count). But it’s the concluding chapter that provides the true highlight: “I took Jack his slippers this evening and lay at his feet before a roaring fire while he smoked his pipe, sipped sherry, and read the newspaper. He read aloud everything involving the killings, arsons, mutilations, grave robberies, church desecrations, and unusual thefts. It is very pleasant just being domestic sometimes.” This quickly depicted scene of cozy leisure time (Jack the Ripper and His Familiar at Home…) perfectly captures the quirky sensibility of the narrative, which combines a quaint Victorian setting with a slew of bizarre and macabre activity.