The Vampyre - A Tale

By John William Polidori

John William Polidori’s classic gothic horror tale, The Vampyre, recounts one of the first vampire stories in English literature.

Lord Ruthven is a mysterious newcomer among England’s social elite. A young gentleman named Aubrey is fascinated by the suave stranger and is intrigued by his often curious behaviour. While travelling in Europe amid rumours of vampire killings, the pair are attacked, leaving Ruthven on his deathbed. As he draws his last breaths, he pleads with Aubrey to keep his death a secret for just over a year. When Ruthven reappears in London alive and well, Aubrey realises that his friend might be hiding dark and horrifying truths behind his seductive fabrication.

The Vampyre was written during the ‘Lost Summer of 1816’, when John William Polidori was among the group of friends who accompanied Lord Byron to the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva. This short, stormy stay in the mansion led to a horror story writing competition in which famous tales such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein were first produced.

Decadent, sinister, and macabre, The Vampyre started the enduring fascination with bloodsucking monsters that produced stories such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula. This chilling tale is not to be missed by lovers of fantasy and horror fiction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nielsen Press
• Release date: Jul 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781473349582

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.

Reviews for The Vampyre - A Tale

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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."

[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.

[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.

[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.

[la2bkk · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Having read Brom Stoker’s Dracula, I came to this earlier work as I was interested in learning more about the first English novel based upon a vampire. This Gothic short story is interesting both for its history, and as a source of comparison between the original version of a vampire and the more commonly known Dracula. As can be expected, the verbiage is a bit dated yet the story itself flows well enough and comes to a quite interesting conclusion.Well worth a read.