How Varney the Vampire Helped Me to Understand Roman Numerals

13 November 2025

Thanks to Varney the Vampire, I now have a better understanding of how Roman Numerals work. Don’t worry. I’m not trying to have anyone believe I’ve been on the receiving end of tuition from an undead or ghoulish teacher. Varney the Vampire is a book that’s made up of numerous penny dreadful pamphlets that were published in the early 20th century.

I read a lot of old stories, of varying lengths, and the longer ones are often split into chapters that are numbered in Roman Numerals. I’ve never struggled with this before, but neither have I previously read anything with so many chapters utilizing this old-style numeral system. Varney the Vampire has XCVI chapters! (96 chapters!) I’ve been reading at least one chapter a day and adding them to the public domain texts section of this site. Everything was okay until I reached chapter 40. That’s when I started to get confused.

The problem was, somehow or other, I’d had enough exposure to the system to pick up a limited idea of how to count in Roman numerals, without ever leaning how Roman numerals work.

I knew that 1, 2, and 3 are I, II, II.

I also understood that V is 5 and X is 10, but I never had any idea why 4 is IV instead of IIII or why 9 is IX not VIIII; and that didn’t matter because I knew the numerals on sight. Let’s face it, you don’t need to know how an internal combustion engine works to drive a car. A lot of drivers probably never give it a second thought, and that’s how I was with Roman numerals. Then as I worked my way through the chapters of Varney the Vampire, I realized something sucked, and I’m not just talking about the character in the story.

Although I tried my best to work out what happens with no. 40 and all the numbers that follow, I was out of my depth. I could see a similar pattern to the construction, but was unable to go it alone. That meant I had to do some research. Now I’m keen to share my new-found knowledge. After all, surely I can’t be the only person in the world who has struggled to understand how Roman numerals work.

 

How Roman Numerals Work

The Basic Symbols

Roman numerals use letters from the Latin alphabet to represent values:

Symbol	Value
I	1
V	5
X	10
L	50
C	100
D	500
M	1000

Learning the value of the symbols is simple. It’s much harder to get your head around how they combine.

 

XL = 50 − 10 = 40: Eureka! That’s where I was struggling. I understand it now, and because I do, how the larger symbols combine makes sense as well.

The other thing to know is, in Roman numerals, you never repeat the same symbol more than three times in a row—that’s why 4 is IV, not IIII, and 40 is XL instead of XXXX.

Once you know this, hopefully how Roman numerals work should make more sense.

Let’s take a look at a few examples:

Roman Numeral Calculation Examples

Numeral	Calculation	Value
XII	10 + 1 + 1	12
XXIV	10 + 10 + (5 – 1)	24
XLII	(50 – 10) + 1 + 1	42
XCIV	(100 – 10) + (5 – 1)	94
DCCLXXXIX	500 + 100 + 100 + 10 + 10 + 10 + (10 – 1)	789
MCMXCIV	1000 + (1000 – 100) + (100 – 10) + (5 – 1)	1994

Now let’s take a closer look at the last example: MCMXCIV

It begins with M—the symbol with the greatest value in Roman numerals. This is followed by C (500) and another M (1,000). So we initially have a large number followed by a smaller one, followed by a greater one. The rules regarding Roman numerals state that when a smaller number directly follows a larger one, you add it. The rules also state that when a smaller number directly precedes a larger one, you have to subtract it.

So MCM is M + (M – C ). The result of M – C is 900, so MCM is 1,900.

Looking at it another way: M{CM}{XC}{IV}, M is the only symbol in the sequence that allowed to retain it’s true value. The other six symbols combine in the form of three little sums: (1000 – 100) + (100 – 10) + (5 – 1).

Hopefully, I have succeeded in breaking things down and explaining the Roman numeral system in a way that makes sense. Although it’s not a system that’s in common use, most of us are likely to encounter Roman numerals from time to time, especially while reading old stories like Varney the Vampire and other classic tales, such as the ones I have available to read on this site.

 

Thinking Big: How to Handle Larger Numbers in Roman Numerals

The classical Roman number system didn’t originally have good way to handle larger numbers. It could only go as far as 3,999 (MMMCMXCIX). However, refinements that were added to the system at a later date make it possible to do so.

There are two main options:

• The Overline System (Vinculum)
• Parentheses System (Alternate Modern Notation)

However, in reality, most people are unlikely to need to understand how to read Roman numerals at so high a level.

 

The Overline System (Vinculum)

The Vinculum system was developed during medieval times. It’s pretty simple, and involves the addition of a small bar over a numeral, signifying it has to be multiplyed by 1,000.

For example

V̅I̅I̅I̅ = 8,000

X̅X̅I̅I̅I̅ = 23,000

M̅C̅M̅X̅L̅IV = 1,940,004

Needless to say, if you are only hoping to gain a better understanding of Roman numeral chapter numbers, you will never need to go this high.

 

Parentheses System

The parenthis system, is very similar to the overline system. When you use it, instead of placing a line over a numeral, you place it in parentheses (round brackets). So, (I) = 1,000, (V) is 5,000, etc.

 

Once I looked into it, it didn’t take long for me to learn how Roman numerals work. I probably should have swatted up on the subject years ago, but better late than never. Getting through Varney the Vampire is different matter. It’s taken me over a month to reach chapter XL. However, in my defense, I have been reading a lot of other stories as well.

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