Product Description

Book Description:

"The Vampyre - is a short story written by John William Polidori and is a progenitor of the romantic vampire genre of fantasy fiction.

"The Vampyre" was first published on April 1, 1819, by Colburn in the New Monthly Magazine with the false attribution "A Tale by Lord Byron." The name of the work's protagonist, "Lord Ruthven", added to this assumption, for that name was originally used in Lady Caroline Lamb's novel Glenarvon, in which a thinly-disguised Byron figure was also named Lord Ruthven. Despite repeated denials by Byron and Polidori, the authorship often went unclarified.

The story was an immediate popular success, partly because of the Byron attribution and partly because it exploited the gothic horror predilections of the public. Polidori transformed the vampire from a character in folklore into the form we recognize today - an aristocratic fiend who preys among high society.

The story has its genesis in the summer of 1816, the Year Without a Summer, when Europe and parts of North America underwent a severe climate abnormality. Lord Byron and his young physician John Polidori were staying at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva and were visited by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and Claire Clairmont. Kept indoors by the "incessant rain" of that "wet, ungenial summer," over three days in June the five turned to telling fantastical stories, and then writing their own. Fueled by ghost stories such as the Fantasmagoriana, William Beckford's Vathek and quantities of laudanum, Mary Shelley produced what would become Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. Polidori was inspired by a fragmentary story of Byron's and in "two or three idle mornings" produced "The Vampyre".

Polidori's work had an immense impact on contemporary sensibilities and ran through numerous editions and translations. An adaptation appeared in 1820 with Cyprien Berard's novel, Lord Ruthwen ou les Vampires, falsely attributed to Charles Nodier, who himself then wrote his own version, Le Vampire, a play which had enormous success and sparked a "vampire craze" across Europe. Edgar Allan Poe, Nikolai Gogol, Alexandre Dumas, and Leo Tolstoy all produced vampire tales, and themes in Polidori's tale would continue to influence Bram Stoker's Dracula and eventually the whole vampire genre." (Quote from wikipedia.org)

Table of Contents:

Publisher's Preface; The Vampyre

About the Publisher:

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, Esoteric and Mythology. www.forgottenbooks.org

Forgotten Books is about sharing information, not about making money. All books are priced at wholesale prices. We are also the only publisher we know of to print in large sans-serif font, which is proven to make the text easier to read and put less strain on your eyes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #123173 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 40 pages

About the Author
About the Author:

"John William Polidori (7 September 1795 - 24 August 1821) was an Italian English physician and writer, known for his associations with the Romantic movement and credited by some as the creator of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction.

Polidori was the oldest son of Gaetano Polidori, an Italian political emigre scholar, and Anna Maria Pierce, a governess. He had three brothers and four sisters.

He was one of the earliest pupils at recently established Ampleforth College from 1804, and in 1810 went up to the University of Edinburgh, where he wrote a thesis on sleepwalking and received his degree as a doctor of medicine on 1 August 1815 at the age of 19.

In 1816 Dr. Polidori entered Lord Byron's service as his personal physician, and accompanied Byron on a trip through Europe. At the Villa Diadoti, a house Byron rented by Lake Geneva in Switzerland, the pair met with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, and her husband-to-be, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and their companion (Mary's step-sister) Claire Clairmont.

One night in June, after the company had read aloud from the Tales of the Dead, a collection of horror tales, Byron suggested that they each write a ghost story. Mary Shelley worked on a tale that would later evolve into Frankenstein. Byron wrote (and quickly abandoned) a fragment of a story, which Polidori used later as the basis for his own tale, The Vampyre, the first vampire story published in English.

Rather than use the crude, bestial vampire of folklore as a basis for his story, Polidori based his character on Byron. Polidori named the character "Lord Ruthven" as a joke. The name was originally used in Lady Caroline Lamb's novel Glenarvon, in which a thinly-disguised Byron figure was also named Lord Ruthven.

Polidori's Lord Ruthven was not only the first vampire in English fiction, but was also the first fictional vampire in the form we recognize today - an aristocratic fiend who preys among high society.

Dismissed by Byron, Polidori travelled in Italy and then returned to England. His story, "The Vampyre", was published in the April 1819 issue of New Monthly Magazine without his permission, whilst in London he lived and died in Great Pulteney Street (Soho). Much to both his and Byron's chagrin, "The Vampyre"..." (Quote from wikipedia.org)

Customer Reviews

The grand-daddy of all modern vampire stories.
This short story, written by one-time physician to the poet Byron, John Polidori, was published a full 78 years before Bram Stoker's Dracula. It is also the first vampire story to associate the blood-suckers with the upper-classes, as is so often done nowadays. Whilst this story lacks the historical backing of Dracula, the emotional art of Interview With The Vampire and the sheer action of Buffy, it is nonetheless an engaging tale. The story follows a man named Aubrey, who soon comes to understand that his mentor Lord Ruthven is no ordinary man. Aubrey's struggle against the vampire and those who think him mad is brilliantly but succinctly layed out by Polidori. This particular publication of the tale comes in the form of a map-like sheet which can be opened fully, or partially, in the latter of which it becomes a 20 page short book. I cannot recommend this strongly enough to anyone interested in either Gothic horror or vampires specifically.

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Not impressed at all
I was very disappointed with this book - it was not good value for money at almost £4 for just a few pages - in the inside cover it said that it could have mistakes and not be entirely true to the original text, printed by amazon it is not a good copy of this book - i returned the book and found the same short story in a collection which had 'other tales of the macabre' and am much happier. i wouldn't advise purchasing this copy.