The Vampyre: A Tale

By John William Polidori

This classic vampire story has inspired generations of authors, from Bram Stoker to Charlaine Harris.

A young English gentleman of means, Aubrey is immediately intrigued by Lord Ruthven, the mysterious newcomer among society’s elite. His unknown origin and curious behavior tantalizes Aubrey’s imagination. But the young man soon discovers a sinister character hidden behind his new friend’s glamorous facade.
 
When the two are set upon by bandits while traveling together in Europe, Ruthven is fatally injured. Before drawing his last breath, he makes the odd request that Aubrey keep his death and crimes secret for a year and a day. But when Ruthven resurfaces in London—making overtures toward Aubrey’s sister—Aubrey realizes this immortal fiend is a vampyre.
 
John William Polidori’s The Vampyre is both a classic tale of gothic horror and the progenitor of the modern romantic vampire myth that has been fodder for artists ranging from Anne Rice to Alan Ball to Francis Ford Coppola. Originally published in 1819, many decades before Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and misattributed to Polidori’s friend Lord Byron, The Vampyre has kept readers up at night for nearly two hundred years.
 
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• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Release date: Feb 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781504043632

John William Polidori

John William Polidori (1795-1821) was an English writer and physician, known for his involvement in the Romantic movement. After Polidori received his doctorate in medicine, he was employed by Lord Byron, acting as his personal physician who traveled through Europe with him. Paid to journal the experience, Polidori began his writing career at this time as well. He wrote plays, poems, novellas, and non-fiction, but is best known for innovating the vampire genre in fantasy fiction with his famous novel The Vampyre.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

THE SUPERSTITION UPON which this tale is founded is very general in the East. Among the Arabians it appears to be common: it did not, however, extend itself to the Greeks until after the establishment of Christianity; and it has only assumed its present form since the division of the Latin and Greek churches; at which time, the idea becoming prevalent, that a Latin body could not corrupt if buried in their territory, it gradually increased, and formed the subject of many wonderful stories, still extant, of the dead rising from their graves, and feeding upon the blood of the young and beautiful. In the West it spread, with some slight variation, all over Hungary, Poland, Austria, and Lorraine, where the belief existed, that vampyres nightly imbibed a certain portion of the blood of their victims, who became emaciated, lost their strength, and speedily died of consumptions; whilst these human blood-suckers fattened—and their veins became distended to such a state of repletion, as to cause the blood to flow from all the passages of their bodies, and even from the very pores of their skins.

In the London Journal, of March, 1732, is a curious, and, of course, credible account of a particular case of vampyrism, which is stated to have occurred at Madreyga, in Hungary. It appears, that upon an examination of the commander-in-chief and magistrates of the place, they positively and unanimously affirmed, that, about five years before, a certain Heyduke, named Arnold Paul, had been heard to say, that, at Cassovia, on the frontiers of the Turkish Servia, he had been tormented by a vampyre, but had found a way to rid himself of the evil, by eating some of the earth out of the vampyre’s grave, and rubbing himself with his blood. This precaution, however, did not prevent him from becoming a vampyre himself; for, about twenty or thirty days after his death and burial, many persons complained of having been tormented by him, and a deposition was made, that four persons had been deprived of life by his attacks. To prevent further mischief, the inhabitants having consulted their Hadagni, took up the body, and found it (as is supposed to be usual in cases of vampyrism) fresh, and entirely free from corruption, and emitting at the mouth, nose, and ears, pure and florid blood. Proof having been thus obtained, they resorted to the accustomed remedy. A stake was driven entirely through the heart and body of Arnold Paul, at which he is reported to have cried out as dreadfully as if he had been alive. This done, they cut off his head, burned his body, and threw the ashes into his grave. The same measures were adopted with the corpses of those persons who had previously died from vampyrism, lest they should, in their turn, become agents upon others who survived them.

This monstrous rodomontade is here related, because it seems better adapted to illustrate the subject of the present observations than any other instance which could be adduced. In many parts of Greece it is considered as a sort of punishment after death, for some heinous crime committed whilst in existence, that the deceased is not only doomed to vampyrise, but compelled to confine his infernal visitations solely to those beings

Reviews for The Vampyre

[jarandel · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Lawful Stupid protagonist (let's keep a 'deathbed promise' to a fiend even when he turns out not to have died at all) and later plot shaping up to "woman at risk of becoming damaged goods (nevermind dying, that's apparently not so important even to her purported loved ones)" that had me hit the delete button in a convulsive twitch.

[lgandt · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good Vampire tale. Love the setting.I can see clearly again how and where Stoker got most of his ideas. More backstory would have been nice, but just for a short read this is a great way to spend some time.

[arkrayder · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Vampyre surprised me. It started off a little dull and I believed it was a typical classic story, stuck in its era and not really able to communicate to modern day readers. I was wrong. This short story had more depth to it than say, the Twilight series or most modern vampire tales. This little story doesn't dwell on the protagonist, he is left in the shadows, left for the readers imagination to conjure up a suitably hideous inhuman creature. Instead the victim is focused on. His befriending of a person he doesn't really know or understand and his slow descent into madness is carefully described and the reader gets to witness the affect on the victims themselves. A great story and an appropriate genesis for the vampire genre.

[pretear_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It always feels wrong to rate and review classics, especially classics, such as this short story, that are said to be transformative or revolutionary in their genre. With that said, I just didn't enjoy this. It's not scary. The story and the characters seem muddled. It just wasn't what I was expecting. I'm glad I read it for the experience of reading it, but that's the only positive thing I can say about it.

[h_d_3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Dark, creepy, over the top and a rather fun read. I wasn't really expecting this to be any good, but it turned out be very enjoyable. Even if the last paragraph was so hilariously over the top that it made the tension that came before deflate like a badly made flan :D

[jrissman_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Vampyre (1819) by John Polidori is a short, tightly-written short story about Lord Ruthven, a charming vampyre, and the wealthy but young and inexperienced aristocrat Aubrey. Aubrey meets Ruthven in England and is struck by the older man's unusual style and magnetism. Aubrey resolves to travel the continent of Europe with Lord Ruthven, aware of neither the dark powers nor darker intentions of his companion."The Vampyre" reminded me of Frankenstein, in that both stories feature a villain whose greatest capability is not supernatural strength, magic, or the like, but the ability to cause psychological distress and the determination to ruin the lives of others. Lord Ruthven doesn't have the same depth of character as Frankenstein's monster, but he does have a certain diabolical charm that comes through, despite the sparse dialogue. Polidori's plot is predictable but sufficiently engaging nonetheless. I wonder if Polidori's story might be the first literary example of the handsome, charming, seductive vampire that has been popularized in recent works like "Twilight." At least, it surely is an early example.I think Polidori's story would be improved by a little more length and specific detail about the means and methods used by Lord Ruthven. The reader is made aware of the vampyre's apparent objectives and the ultimate results of his handiwork, but (apart from one confused and interrupted scene), we never see him take action. While it's easy to imagine that Ruthven might bite and drink the blood of some victims, it's unclear how he manages to effect some of his other atrocities, such as bringing families to financial ruin.The version of the story I read (an eBook from Project Gutenberg) included substantial material before and after the story describing the author's (real or fictional) travel in Europe, seeking out the former abodes and artifacts owned by famous writers and poets, especially Lord Byron. This detracted from the work, so if these sections are included in your copy, I'd suggest skipping them and spending your time on the actual story, "The Vampyre."

[baswood · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

That infamous night, sometime in 1816 at Byron's Villa Diodati, when the assembled guests were challenged to tell a ghost story resulted in Mary Shelley's [Frankenstein] It also led to the publication of The Vampyre , the first vampire tale to feature an aristocrat as a blood sucking fiend. The story's inception and it later publication history is probably more intriguing than the short story itself. John Polidori was a working guest at the villa; apparently Byron's physician and it is probably Byron's story that ended up being published by Polidori although it did originally appear under Byron's name. Byron later claimed not to have written it. A clever deception then by Polidori is enhanced by an extract from a so-called anonymous letter, that appears before the introduction to the book. The letter tells a little about that night at the villa Diodati and then intriguingly paints a portrait of Lord Byron himself: I have gathered fromtheir accounts some excellent traits of his lordship's character,which I will relate to you at some future opportunity. I must,however, free him from one imputation attached to him--of having inhis house two sisters as the partakers of his revels. This is, likemany other charges which have been brought against his lordship,entirely destitute of truth. His only companion was the physician Ihave already mentioned...... I found a servant there who had lived with him;she, however, gave me but little information. She pointed out hisbed-chamber upon the same level as the saloon and dining-room, andinformed me that he retired to rest at three, got up at two, andemployed himself a long time over his toilette; that he never went tosleep without a pair of pistols and a dagger by his side, and that henever eat animal food. The above makes Byron sound like a candidate for being a vampire and Polidori followed this up with a quote from Byron's poem [Giaour]:But first on earth, as Vampyre sent, Thy corse shall from its tomb be rent; Then ghastly haunt the native place, And suck the blood of all thy race; There from thy daughter, sister, wife, At midnight drain the stream of life; Yet loathe the banquet which perforce Must feed thy livid living corse, Thy victims, ere they yet expire, Shall know the demon for their sire;............The anonymous letter is steeped in irony and adds greatly to the mystery of the tale. If Polidori thought he could shift copies of his little book by continual references to Byron then he was not wrong. The Vampyre sold well and the central character Lord Ruthven was a dead ringer for Lord Byron. An aristocrat who feeds off the charms of young virginal women and who succeeds in tormenting the young Aubrey into despair and madness; when he kills Aubrey's innocent Greek girlfriend and then schemes to marry his innocent sister. The story has some of the elements that you would expect in a vampire tale and it is well told, it is mysterious and dark and inexorably moves to its conclusion. It is worth reading and I would rate it at 3.5 stars mainly because of the mystery in which it is surrounded.

[devenish_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The writing of this story came about with the meeting at Lake Geneva of five people who decided to each write a Ghost Story. These were Mary Shelley who wrote her masterpiece,'Frankenstein',Percy Shelley and a Claire Clairmont,neither as far as I can find out,wrote anything on this occasion,Lord Byron wrote a fragment of a novel before getting bored with the task. (as he tells in his "Letters & Journals) Polidori was the fifth person and he produced "The Vampyre.Ok.it is short and rather slight,but for all that it has a certain importance in vampire fiction,not least because of the story behind the conception of it.It has been said that the idea was in fact Byron's and that there was something of Byron in the character Lord Ruthven.If you are at all interested in Vampire or indeed Supernatural Fiction of any kind,then you really ought to read it.

[cynical_ames · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Written before Bram Stoker's Dracula, this is a short story centred on one of the first vampires in literature.