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The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre
John Polidori's classic tale The Vampyre (1819), was a product of the same ghost-story competition that produced Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The present volume selects thirteen other tales of mystery and the macabre, including the works of James Hogg, J.S. LeFanu, Letitia Landon, Edward Bulwer, and William Carelton. The introduction surveys the genesis and influence of The Vampyre and its central themes and techniques, while the Appendices contain material closely associated with its composition and publication, including Lord Byron's prose fragment Augustus Darvell.
JOHN POLIDORI - The Vampyre
HORACE SMITH - Sir Guy Eveling's Dream
WILLIAM CARLETON - Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman
EDWARD BULWER - Monos and Daimonos
ALLAN CUNNINGHAM - The Master of Logan
ANONYMOUS - The Victim
JAMES HOGG - Some Terrible Letters from Scotland
ANONYMOUS - The Curse
ANONYMOUS - Life in Death
N. P. WILLIS - My Hobby,--Rather
CATHERINE GORE - The Red Man
CHARLES LEVER - Post-Mortem Recollections of a Medical Lecturer
LETITIA E. LANDON - The Bride of Lindorf
JOSEPH SHERIDAN LE FANU - Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Contess
JOHN POLIDORI - The Vampyre
HORACE SMITH - Sir Guy Eveling's Dream
WILLIAM CARLETON - Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman
EDWARD BULWER - Monos and Daimonos
ALLAN CUNNINGHAM - The Master of Logan
ANONYMOUS - The Victim
JAMES HOGG - Some Terrible Letters from Scotland
ANONYMOUS - The Curse
ANONYMOUS - Life in Death
N. P. WILLIS - My Hobby,--Rather
CATHERINE GORE - The Red Man
CHARLES LEVER - Post-Mortem Recollections of a Medical Lecturer
LETITIA E. LANDON - The Bride of Lindorf
JOSEPH SHERIDAN LE FANU - Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Contess
278 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
About the author
Robert Morrison
21 books13 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Robert J.H. Morrison is a Canadian author, editor, academic, and professor of English at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Lethbridge in 1983, a Master of Philosophy at the University of Oxford in 1987 and his PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 1991.
He specializes in late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature.
Robert J.H. Morrison is a Canadian author, editor, academic, and professor of English at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Lethbridge in 1983, a Master of Philosophy at the University of Oxford in 1987 and his PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 1991.
He specializes in late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 103 reviews
December 26, 2019
This is a companion volume to Tales from Blackwood's Magazine, containing early 19th century stories of grisly happenings and extreme psychological states culled from British magazines other than Blackwood's. The most influential piece here, of course, is "The Vampyre," originally thought to be Byron's but actually written by Byron's personal physician and cast-off middle-class toady Dr. John Polidori, a tale that turned the vampire into a 19th craze by transforming the rather shabby peasant Eastern European folkloric figure into the libertine image of Lord B. himself. It was Polidori who added sex, class and elegance to the vampire, forever putting his mark upon the legend. (The anthology also includes Henry Colborn's original introduction from the "New Monthly Magazine," the anonymous letter accompanying the manuscript on its first publication, a note by Polidori on authorship, and Byron's original fragmentary tale).
Most of the other stories are worth at least one reading and will give you a very good idea of the dark sensational fiction characteristic of the Regency. Edward Bulwer's "Monos and Daimonos" (1830) is distinguished by a narrative voice that inevitably reminds one of Poe and surely must have influenced him. "The Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman" is an horrific account of Irish terrorism, Charlotte Gore's "The Red Man" features a good story and an even more interesting frame, and Le Fanu's "A Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess" is an interesting first draft of his "Uncle Silas" published twenty-six years before the celebrated novel. Even Letitia Landon's "The Bride of Lindorf" (1836), a poorly-written piece stuffed with adjectives and sentimental commonplaces, is instructive in demonstrating how the cliches of the degenerate gothic would soon fill the most sensational productions of Victorian woman's fiction.
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June 15, 2012This is a partial review. I read The Vampyre out of this collection, but I will read the other stories when I have the opportunity.
Review of The Vampyre by John Polidori
Read: 6/13/12
Rating: Three Stars
The history of this short story might be even more intriguing than the actual writing itself. Mr. Polidori was the personal physician of the infamous Lord Byron, and this work of fiction was conceived on that famous holiday event in which Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and Mary Godwin (who would later become Mary Shelley) issued a challenge to each other to write Gothic stories. This was Mr. Polidori's result.
My thoughts:
I have little doubt that Lord Ruthven was inspired by Lord Byron. Polidori's feelings towards his debauched past employer are quite clear. In this case, Lord Ruthven has a supernatural ability to ruin, damage, and destroy anything he lays his hands on, and enjoys doing so in the process. This does not speak well of Lord Byron, and based of what I have read of him, I can see some echoes of him in this character. Lord Caroline Lamb, the incredibly outrageous for her times, cast-off mistress of Byron is immortalized in a character who appears briefly in the beginning of the story, at least in my opinion.
As far as the writing, I didn't feel that it was particularly inspired or brilliant. This short story is all telling and little showing. This created a distance between the characters in this story and myself. It was hard to feel much sympathy for Aubrey, his sister Miss Aubrey, Ianthe, or anyone else because the narrative was too much like a bland newspaper article, with little connection to the intense emotions of the persons involved. I had a distant feeling of dislike and disgust for Lord Ruthven, which with more active, vivid writing could have been outright disgust. That is a sadly wasted opportunity for a writer, in my opinion.
It's hard to say much overall about this story. It wasn't bad. I can't say I was disappointed, because I didn't have high expectations. Regardless of the issues as far as the writing, Mr. Polidori has earned his place in the vampire fiction canon. Sadly, he lived a short, disappointing (to himself) life. Although he could not be aware of the famous status of this story, it is some comfort to me that he has created something that endured two hundred years later. For that I will respect and appreciate The Vampyre. And also for its commentary of Lord Byron, a man whose antics pretty much created its own character archetype in literature, the Byronic hero. Admittedly in this case, there is nothing at all to recommend Lord Ruthven. Lord Byron himself, I cannot say yay or nay to that question.
End verdict: Any vampire fiction aficionado should take the opportunity to read this story at least for its historical value.
Review of The Vampyre by John Polidori
Read: 6/13/12
Rating: Three Stars
The history of this short story might be even more intriguing than the actual writing itself. Mr. Polidori was the personal physician of the infamous Lord Byron, and this work of fiction was conceived on that famous holiday event in which Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and Mary Godwin (who would later become Mary Shelley) issued a challenge to each other to write Gothic stories. This was Mr. Polidori's result.
My thoughts:
I have little doubt that Lord Ruthven was inspired by Lord Byron. Polidori's feelings towards his debauched past employer are quite clear. In this case, Lord Ruthven has a supernatural ability to ruin, damage, and destroy anything he lays his hands on, and enjoys doing so in the process. This does not speak well of Lord Byron, and based of what I have read of him, I can see some echoes of him in this character. Lord Caroline Lamb, the incredibly outrageous for her times, cast-off mistress of Byron is immortalized in a character who appears briefly in the beginning of the story, at least in my opinion.
As far as the writing, I didn't feel that it was particularly inspired or brilliant. This short story is all telling and little showing. This created a distance between the characters in this story and myself. It was hard to feel much sympathy for Aubrey, his sister Miss Aubrey, Ianthe, or anyone else because the narrative was too much like a bland newspaper article, with little connection to the intense emotions of the persons involved. I had a distant feeling of dislike and disgust for Lord Ruthven, which with more active, vivid writing could have been outright disgust. That is a sadly wasted opportunity for a writer, in my opinion.
It's hard to say much overall about this story. It wasn't bad. I can't say I was disappointed, because I didn't have high expectations. Regardless of the issues as far as the writing, Mr. Polidori has earned his place in the vampire fiction canon. Sadly, he lived a short, disappointing (to himself) life. Although he could not be aware of the famous status of this story, it is some comfort to me that he has created something that endured two hundred years later. For that I will respect and appreciate The Vampyre. And also for its commentary of Lord Byron, a man whose antics pretty much created its own character archetype in literature, the Byronic hero. Admittedly in this case, there is nothing at all to recommend Lord Ruthven. Lord Byron himself, I cannot say yay or nay to that question.
End verdict: Any vampire fiction aficionado should take the opportunity to read this story at least for its historical value.
March 31, 2024
Being so real I only read Vampyre but 10/10 we all surely fancy Ruthven just a TINY BIT?
October 18, 2025
I am a fly rubbing it’s freaky little hands together
January 26, 2019
It’s the 200th anniversary of John Polidori’s The Vampyre this year (2019). This short story kicked off the vampire craze in 19th-century literature. Apparently vampires were known before but Polidori’s crucial innovation was to take them upmarket, add brains, cunning and wit, and set them loose on aristocratic drawing rooms for their prey. Top hatted & cloaked vampires have been thrilling readers ever since.
It helped Polidori’s story immensely that the original publisher (a magazine) mistakenly published the story as by Lord Byron, then at the absolute zenith of his bad-boy enfant terrible chic. And that the vampire in the story shared an alias with a previous fictional portrayal of Byron by Byron’s ex, Lady Caroline Lamb. In short, the Vampyre was Byron.
Sadly, all this context is far more exciting than the story itself. Polidori’s followers have long since surpassed his efforts. However, it’s probably true to say that most if not all subsequent vampires share some Byronic personality traits.
OUP have padded out this edition with some more early tales of the macabre, all originally published in magazines around 1820-1840. It’s interesting to see what excited readers then. There are stories of the Irish troubles, Cholera epidemics, grave robbers, etc. The outstanding story is the last by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu: in fact a dress rehearsal for his later novel ‘Uncle Silas’, which after this is going on my TBR. Interesting works also by writers I haven’t heard of before but who seem to have enjoyed successful literary careers in the early-19th century: Letitia E Landon and Catherine Gore. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, a Victorian best selling author and statesman, contributes a short but eerily evocative tale. Le Fanu is regarded highly in the annals of horror fiction these days, & it appears Bulwer-Lytton is the focus of some interest by virtue of his perceived occultic practices (he was claimed by a contemporary Illuminati group but strenuously denied membership. But we all know what that means.)
It helped Polidori’s story immensely that the original publisher (a magazine) mistakenly published the story as by Lord Byron, then at the absolute zenith of his bad-boy enfant terrible chic. And that the vampire in the story shared an alias with a previous fictional portrayal of Byron by Byron’s ex, Lady Caroline Lamb. In short, the Vampyre was Byron.
Sadly, all this context is far more exciting than the story itself. Polidori’s followers have long since surpassed his efforts. However, it’s probably true to say that most if not all subsequent vampires share some Byronic personality traits.
OUP have padded out this edition with some more early tales of the macabre, all originally published in magazines around 1820-1840. It’s interesting to see what excited readers then. There are stories of the Irish troubles, Cholera epidemics, grave robbers, etc. The outstanding story is the last by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu: in fact a dress rehearsal for his later novel ‘Uncle Silas’, which after this is going on my TBR. Interesting works also by writers I haven’t heard of before but who seem to have enjoyed successful literary careers in the early-19th century: Letitia E Landon and Catherine Gore. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, a Victorian best selling author and statesman, contributes a short but eerily evocative tale. Le Fanu is regarded highly in the annals of horror fiction these days, & it appears Bulwer-Lytton is the focus of some interest by virtue of his perceived occultic practices (he was claimed by a contemporary Illuminati group but strenuously denied membership. But we all know what that means.)
February 1, 2024
3.68⭐
Introduction (The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre) • (1997) • essay by Chris Baldick and Robert Morrison 4⭐
The Vampyre • [Lord Ruthven] • (1819) by Dr. John William Polidori 5⭐
Sir Guy Eveling's Dream • (1823) by Horace Smith 3⭐
Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman (1830) by William Carleton (variant of Wildgoose Lodge) 3⭐
Monos and Daimonos by Edward Bulwer-Lytton 5⭐
The Master of Logan • (1831) by Allan Cunningham 3.25⭐
The Victim • (1831) by Anonymous 3.5⭐
Some Terrible Letters from Scotland • (1832) by James Hogg 4⭐
The Curse • (1832) by Anonymous 5⭐
Life in Death • (1833) by Anonymous 2.5⭐
My Hobby,—Rather • (1834) by N. P. Willis 3⭐
The Red Man • (1835) by Catherine Gore 2.5⭐
Post-Mortem Recollections of a Medical Lecturer • (1836) by Charles Lever 4⭐
The Bride of Lindorf • (1836) by Letitia Elizabeth Landon 4⭐
Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess • (1838) by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 4.25⭐
Appendix A: Preliminaries for The Vampyre • (1819) • essay by Henry Colburn and Alaric Alexander Watts 3⭐
Appendix B: Note on The Vampyre • (1819) • essay by Dr. John William Polidori ✔
Appendix C: Augustus Darvell • (1819) • essay by Lord George Gordon Byron 3.5⭐
Introduction (The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre) • (1997) • essay by Chris Baldick and Robert Morrison 4⭐
The Vampyre • [Lord Ruthven] • (1819) by Dr. John William Polidori 5⭐
Sir Guy Eveling's Dream • (1823) by Horace Smith 3⭐
Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman (1830) by William Carleton (variant of Wildgoose Lodge) 3⭐
Monos and Daimonos by Edward Bulwer-Lytton 5⭐
The Master of Logan • (1831) by Allan Cunningham 3.25⭐
The Victim • (1831) by Anonymous 3.5⭐
Some Terrible Letters from Scotland • (1832) by James Hogg 4⭐
The Curse • (1832) by Anonymous 5⭐
Life in Death • (1833) by Anonymous 2.5⭐
My Hobby,—Rather • (1834) by N. P. Willis 3⭐
The Red Man • (1835) by Catherine Gore 2.5⭐
Post-Mortem Recollections of a Medical Lecturer • (1836) by Charles Lever 4⭐
The Bride of Lindorf • (1836) by Letitia Elizabeth Landon 4⭐
Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess • (1838) by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 4.25⭐
Appendix A: Preliminaries for The Vampyre • (1819) • essay by Henry Colburn and Alaric Alexander Watts 3⭐
Appendix B: Note on The Vampyre • (1819) • essay by Dr. John William Polidori ✔
Appendix C: Augustus Darvell • (1819) • essay by Lord George Gordon Byron 3.5⭐
October 11, 2024
3.25⭐️
I did not expect to actually like this book. But I did! Some times were confusing and the phrasing is very metaphorical most of the time, but I enjoyed it a lot. The ending was very dramatic and unexpected which really put emphasis on my rating. Moreover, this book is perfect to read in October since the Halloween vibes are very much present in the book. It’s also my first vampire book (if you don’t count OUABH) and it really convinced me to read more books similar to that. Overall, I do recommend this book since it’s short and eventful.
I did not expect to actually like this book. But I did! Some times were confusing and the phrasing is very metaphorical most of the time, but I enjoyed it a lot. The ending was very dramatic and unexpected which really put emphasis on my rating. Moreover, this book is perfect to read in October since the Halloween vibes are very much present in the book. It’s also my first vampire book (if you don’t count OUABH) and it really convinced me to read more books similar to that. Overall, I do recommend this book since it’s short and eventful.
October 17, 2023
no but polidori slayed with his byron fanfic
June 16, 2013
Many readers today might think that it was Bram Stoker's novel, 'Dracula' (1897) where the vampire story started, in English fiction at least. However, John Polidori's short story (at only 20 pages or so) is generally acknowledged to be the first prose fictionalization of the vampire as the aristocratic predator whose victims are both female and male.
Polidori was the poet Lord Byron's personal doctor, and accompanied him to Geneva with the poet Percy Shelley, and his wife, Mary Shelley. 'The Vampyre' (1819) and 'Frankenstein' (1818) by Mary Shelley, were two of the ghost stories that arose from a competition among this group of English radical poets and intellectuals to amuse themselves in the wet summer Europe experienced in 1816. The narrator Aubrey's increasing obsession with the liverish aloof Lord Ruthven is clearly modelled on Lord Byron. Aubrey's obsessive fear that Ruthven may bite and possess his sister, suggests possibly a circumvented incestuous attraction is at work in the tale, alongside a sublimated homoerotic desire to be 'touched' by the 'unspeakable' Ruthven:
'Aubrey became almost distracted. If before his mind had been absorbed by one subject, how much more completely was it engrossed, now that the certainty of the monster's living again pressed upon his thoughts. His sister's attentions were now unheeded, and it was in vain that she entreated him to explain to her what had caused his abrupt conduct. He only uttered a few words, and those terrified her.'
Along with the poems 'Christabel' (1798) and 'Lamia'(1820) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and John Keats respectively, Polidori's story is an important Romantic text in the development of how the vampire becomes a figure to explore and contain society's fears around sexuality, class and race.
Polidori was the poet Lord Byron's personal doctor, and accompanied him to Geneva with the poet Percy Shelley, and his wife, Mary Shelley. 'The Vampyre' (1819) and 'Frankenstein' (1818) by Mary Shelley, were two of the ghost stories that arose from a competition among this group of English radical poets and intellectuals to amuse themselves in the wet summer Europe experienced in 1816. The narrator Aubrey's increasing obsession with the liverish aloof Lord Ruthven is clearly modelled on Lord Byron. Aubrey's obsessive fear that Ruthven may bite and possess his sister, suggests possibly a circumvented incestuous attraction is at work in the tale, alongside a sublimated homoerotic desire to be 'touched' by the 'unspeakable' Ruthven:
'Aubrey became almost distracted. If before his mind had been absorbed by one subject, how much more completely was it engrossed, now that the certainty of the monster's living again pressed upon his thoughts. His sister's attentions were now unheeded, and it was in vain that she entreated him to explain to her what had caused his abrupt conduct. He only uttered a few words, and those terrified her.'
Along with the poems 'Christabel' (1798) and 'Lamia'(1820) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and John Keats respectively, Polidori's story is an important Romantic text in the development of how the vampire becomes a figure to explore and contain society's fears around sexuality, class and race.
March 18, 2019
Well, I can finally say that I've read Polidori's The Vampyre. So there's that.
The thing I particularly enjoy about classic Gothics is how they use the melodrama and horror and menace to subtly critique dominant social norms. Alas, this tale seemed to be more interested in reifying them.
I continued on to the next story in the volume and, again, the use of horror served the purpose of reinforcing dominant moral views without critiquing dominant power structures. Meh.
This anthology is not my cuppa. Onward to something else.
The thing I particularly enjoy about classic Gothics is how they use the melodrama and horror and menace to subtly critique dominant social norms. Alas, this tale seemed to be more interested in reifying them.
I continued on to the next story in the volume and, again, the use of horror served the purpose of reinforcing dominant moral views without critiquing dominant power structures. Meh.
This anthology is not my cuppa. Onward to something else.
February 1, 2026
A bit uneven. Some of the stories are great, some are kinda boring. Excepting the first incredible story and the reason for this collection to exist, The Vampyre, the best are all stacked towards the end. The last four stories are incredible, ending with a wonderful work by Sheridan Le Fanu, which I'd read before but which is always a delight to read. Probably going to buy a collection of shorts by him next month since I bought a work on vampires this month. I'm gonna try to find a really nice hardcover for Carmilla, one of my favorite books of all time.
May 12, 2016
The first reaction towards reading was that it was ok since it doesn't involve much action in the sense of depicting a blood-thirsty vampire. But in retrospection I realized that it is a more complex story questioning the moral standards and the extents of virtuousness of the protagonistic figures. Lord Ruthven seemingly is nobleman but things aren't always what they look like. Unreliable narrative since the whole story is seen through the eyes of only one character, Aubrey.
February 19, 2018
This is such a fascinating read, particularly after reading Dracula- Aubrey and Johnathan have quite a lot in common. It is more 18th century Gothic than the later vampire novels, which I like a lot. Small beginnings for a big genre.
July 23, 2018
"The Vampyre." Classic introduction of the blood-sucking night demon into the English short story tradition--as Coleridge's "Christabel," Byron's "The Giaour," and Southey's "Thalaba the Destroyer" had featured such creatures in verse. The tale that took an innocent supernatural superstition from the Balkans and transformed it into a metaphor for Victorian sexual repression and male fear of inadequacy--what's not to love? It seems to want to tell us that sex is great/sex is horrific/sex appeal is powerful/sex bleeds you like a leech all at once!
Still, this tale, with its origins in Byron's imagination, Polidori's outrage at Byron's womanizing, and perhaps Polidori's own bruised ego--along with the setting of its composition within the ghost-story-telling contest at Villa Diodati that also produced Mary Shelley's Frankenstein... Well, it's a must read and here are all the notes and apparatus one needs to get the full context. (I also recommend the introduction to Christopher Frayling's Vampyres: Lord Byron to Count Dracula for a fun, if highly personal and disputed take on those events. One of the more fun moments of literary gossip for scholars to voyeuristically peek upon.
"Sir Guy Eveling's Dream" A variation on the much better handled Bleeding Nun sequence from Matthew Lewis's The Monk. The Victorian author using archaic Elizabethan language is a bit hard to follow in this one.
"Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman." A chilling reminder that the greatest horrors are not metaphysical but real human evil--lack of pity, incapacity for empathy. I wonder why these traits are so often the product of fervent religious belief? How do so many zealots fall into what would seem the opposite of the major tenets of religion?
"Monos and Daimonos." A tale that inspired Poe--can see why! The fable approach straddles narrative and philosophy and ghosts stand for ideas. We're pack animals and mental illness began among us as soon as we started building single rooms in which we shut ourselves up. Yet I, too, consider myself a loner. Drugs also seem to me a retreat alone inward. Seems we identify nature as our own unnatural desire to be alone.
"The Master of Logan." Gothic version of the classic "rash oath" type folktale. I saw the ending coming quite a ways off. Still, nice Scottish setting.
"The Victim." I guess the inevitable over-melodramatic variation on Burke and Hare and Stevenson's much finer tale of the Resurrection Men. Done to death on anthology horror TV. Clumsily handled but, as I say, necessary, if overwrought.
"Some Terrible Letters..." Nice combination of real (medical) and supernatural horrors in Scotland from James Hogg, author of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, a terrific novel.
"The Curse." Nicely done Scottish-set medievalesque plotted and Poe-ish prose-styled Gothic tale. I approve of all of those things!
"Death in Life" Serviceable tale in the "Monkey's Paw" and Frankenstein forbidden knowledge vein. One lovely gory moment, completely gratuitous--a real shocker! This is shaping up to be the best collection of early Gothic short fiction I've read.
"My Hobby,--Rather" Pure sensationalism with no real literary substance. OK at three pages but not really worthy of inclusion here.
"The Red Man" Longish story within a story within a story. Nice Parisian/French setting. Luscious female Gothic tale pulls out all the stops. There are only two types of men: perfidious seducers and pitiless murdering fathers exacting vengeance upon the wives and daughters who fall prey to the former. Chilling!
"Post-Mortem Recollections" More sci fi than horror, in a certain sense. Also much more like a late Victorian than Romantic-era Gothic, both in subject matter and style. Interesting for that--philosophical and reflective as well. Considerably better than the ghost story fare of the first half of the 19th Century. Consequently, more affecting.
"The Bride of Lindorf" Super sentimental melodramatic Gothic, more fairy tale than macabre, more concerned with romance than evil deeds. Even so, there's a kind of built-in critique of the love at first sight aspect of romance--using the falling in love with a portrait motif lifted, I imagine, from Lewis's The Monk. at 25 pp this one's a bit longer than the others so if that's not your cup of tea, skip it.
"Secret History of an Irish Countess" A great mix of old school Radcliffian Gothic with the newer mystery sensibility of the mid- to late-Victorian period. Not as great as Le Fanu's much more famous "Carmilla" by any means, but a worthy conclusion to this collection. I do like the way Le Fanu was able to internalize what critics now call the "female Gothic." His Gothic is a bit of a hybrid, gender-less Gothic.
All-in-all a fine collection. I've read a few, but this, so far, has been the most enjoyable and well-tempered scholarly Gothic collection of short prose I've perused. (By "well-tempered" I mean that the footnotes are neither too many nor too few, as is so often the case, either belaboring obvious points or leaving one adrift in references to largely forgotten Victorian sayings, events, or texts.)
Still, this tale, with its origins in Byron's imagination, Polidori's outrage at Byron's womanizing, and perhaps Polidori's own bruised ego--along with the setting of its composition within the ghost-story-telling contest at Villa Diodati that also produced Mary Shelley's Frankenstein... Well, it's a must read and here are all the notes and apparatus one needs to get the full context. (I also recommend the introduction to Christopher Frayling's Vampyres: Lord Byron to Count Dracula for a fun, if highly personal and disputed take on those events. One of the more fun moments of literary gossip for scholars to voyeuristically peek upon.
"Sir Guy Eveling's Dream" A variation on the much better handled Bleeding Nun sequence from Matthew Lewis's The Monk. The Victorian author using archaic Elizabethan language is a bit hard to follow in this one.
"Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman." A chilling reminder that the greatest horrors are not metaphysical but real human evil--lack of pity, incapacity for empathy. I wonder why these traits are so often the product of fervent religious belief? How do so many zealots fall into what would seem the opposite of the major tenets of religion?
"Monos and Daimonos." A tale that inspired Poe--can see why! The fable approach straddles narrative and philosophy and ghosts stand for ideas. We're pack animals and mental illness began among us as soon as we started building single rooms in which we shut ourselves up. Yet I, too, consider myself a loner. Drugs also seem to me a retreat alone inward. Seems we identify nature as our own unnatural desire to be alone.
"The Master of Logan." Gothic version of the classic "rash oath" type folktale. I saw the ending coming quite a ways off. Still, nice Scottish setting.
"The Victim." I guess the inevitable over-melodramatic variation on Burke and Hare and Stevenson's much finer tale of the Resurrection Men. Done to death on anthology horror TV. Clumsily handled but, as I say, necessary, if overwrought.
"Some Terrible Letters..." Nice combination of real (medical) and supernatural horrors in Scotland from James Hogg, author of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, a terrific novel.
"The Curse." Nicely done Scottish-set medievalesque plotted and Poe-ish prose-styled Gothic tale. I approve of all of those things!
"Death in Life" Serviceable tale in the "Monkey's Paw" and Frankenstein forbidden knowledge vein. One lovely gory moment, completely gratuitous--a real shocker! This is shaping up to be the best collection of early Gothic short fiction I've read.
"My Hobby,--Rather" Pure sensationalism with no real literary substance. OK at three pages but not really worthy of inclusion here.
"The Red Man" Longish story within a story within a story. Nice Parisian/French setting. Luscious female Gothic tale pulls out all the stops. There are only two types of men: perfidious seducers and pitiless murdering fathers exacting vengeance upon the wives and daughters who fall prey to the former. Chilling!
"Post-Mortem Recollections" More sci fi than horror, in a certain sense. Also much more like a late Victorian than Romantic-era Gothic, both in subject matter and style. Interesting for that--philosophical and reflective as well. Considerably better than the ghost story fare of the first half of the 19th Century. Consequently, more affecting.
"The Bride of Lindorf" Super sentimental melodramatic Gothic, more fairy tale than macabre, more concerned with romance than evil deeds. Even so, there's a kind of built-in critique of the love at first sight aspect of romance--using the falling in love with a portrait motif lifted, I imagine, from Lewis's The Monk. at 25 pp this one's a bit longer than the others so if that's not your cup of tea, skip it.
"Secret History of an Irish Countess" A great mix of old school Radcliffian Gothic with the newer mystery sensibility of the mid- to late-Victorian period. Not as great as Le Fanu's much more famous "Carmilla" by any means, but a worthy conclusion to this collection. I do like the way Le Fanu was able to internalize what critics now call the "female Gothic." His Gothic is a bit of a hybrid, gender-less Gothic.
All-in-all a fine collection. I've read a few, but this, so far, has been the most enjoyable and well-tempered scholarly Gothic collection of short prose I've perused. (By "well-tempered" I mean that the footnotes are neither too many nor too few, as is so often the case, either belaboring obvious points or leaving one adrift in references to largely forgotten Victorian sayings, events, or texts.)
June 6, 2022
Bachelor <333
August 25, 2022
English major days are here again!!!!
November 14, 2023
thank you polidori without this contribution to society we would not have twilight or simon lewis
August 31, 2024
One of my favorite collections of horror short stories.
Includes the progenitor of the vampire genre. Revisiting this every year; it’s been a vampiric ritual at this point.
Includes the progenitor of the vampire genre. Revisiting this every year; it’s been a vampiric ritual at this point.
June 15, 2026
It was a fun read to get to know more classics
January 12, 2026
Only read The Vampyre by Polidori and Byron’s short story for uni
August 27, 2016
review of
John Polidori's The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - January 15, 2014
When am I ever going to start writing those superficial capsule reviews again?! This one's "too long", see the full thing here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...
The 1st time I remember running across mention of Polidori & his story "The Vampyre" was probably in Ken Russell's 1986 film Gothic. I had a brief phase of reading Gothic lit 40 yrs or so ago when I learned about it thru reading that the Surrealists liked it. As I recall, Polidori is depicted somewhat unsympathetically as an hysterical weak character who attempts suicide. He did, eventually, actually commit suicide.
Gothic luridly depicts the summer of 1816 when the poets Lord Byron & Percy Bysshe Shelley + Byron's physician Polodori + Jane 'Claire' Clairmont & her writer step-sister Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (better known after marriage to Shelley as Mary Shelley) "amused themselves rather strenuously by reading some German ghost stories and [..] then challeng[ing] each other to compose similar tales of supernatural terror." [..] "Polidori began his only novel, Ernestus Berchtold; or, The Modern Oedipus (1819), and Mary Godwin [..] embarked upon the composition of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus". (p ix of the Introduction to The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre)
"Gothic tales and fragments began appearing in the magazines shortly after the publication of Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto in 1764, and were common after 1790, when the craze for the Gothic in Britain reached its height." - p xv
This collection interests me for several reasons, not restricted to the reading of the Polidori story rounding out my knowledge of Gothic lit somewhat. For one thing, 3 of the tales presented were originally presented as having been written by "Anonymous" & still credited to such in this volume. For another thing: "These fictional possibilities of claustrophobia were exploited to the full in William Mudford's Blackwood's tale 'The Iron Shroud' (1830), in which a prisoner discovers his metallic cell is gradually shrinking and will thus certainly crush him to death. It was upon the basis of these works that Edgar Allan Poe soon developed the hysterical intensity of his most memorable stories, notably 'The Pit and the Pendulum' (1843), which is indebted directly to Mudford's tale." (pp xvi-xvii)
"The Iron Shroud" is not one of the stories herein collected but Charles Lever's "Post-Mortem Recollections of a Medical Lecturer" (1836) cd also be sd to've been a predecessor to Poe's "The Premature Burial" (1844). & in the introductory footnote to Edward Bulwer's "Mono and Daimonos" [1830] it's stated that: "In an 1835 letter to the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, Poe listed 'Monos and Daimonos' as one of those tales that was 'invariably' popular with readers because it displayed 'the ludicrous heightened into the grotesque: the fearful coloured into the horrible: the witty exaggerated into the burlesque: the singular wrought out into the strange and mystical'. A year later Poe cited 'Monos and Daimonos' to support his claim that, in Bulwer's writings, 'all is richly and glowingly intellectual—all is energetic, or astute, or brilliant, or profound'. Poe's 'Silence—A Fable' (1838) is heavily indebted to 'Monos and Daimonos', to the point where, as Mabbot points out, some sentences are taken 'almost verbatim'." (p 262)
I don't think that I share Poe's appreciation of the story. Here're a few samples:
"My father died when I was eighteen; I was transferred to my uncle's protection, and I repaired to London. I arrived there, gaunt and stern, a giant in limbs and strength, and to the tastes of those about me, a savage in bearing and in mood. They would have laughed, but I awed them; they would have altered me, but I changed them; I threw a damp over their enjoyment and a cloud over their meetings. Though I said little, though I sat with them, estranged and silent, and passive, they seemed to wither beneath my presence." - p 54
""I commenced my pilgrimage—I pierced the burning sands—I traversed the vast deserts—I came into the enormous woods of Africa, where human step never trod". - p 54
"Seasons glided on, and my youth ripened into manhood, and manhood grew grey with the first frost of age; and then a vague and restless spirit fell upon me, and I said in my foolish heart, 'I will look upon that countenances of my race once more!' I retraced my steps—I recrossed the wastes—I re-entered the cities—I took again the garb of man; for I had been hitherto naked in the wilderness, and hair had grown over me as a garment." - p 55
Given that I 'grew up on Poe' & have always thought of him as a pioneer (wch he certainly was - but more, perhaps, for things like "X-ing a Paragrab" (published post-mortem in 1850) & "The Gold-Bug" (1843). This latter was renowned for its central cryptoanalytic element. I remember reading in a bk that Poe's code-writing was so substantial that it was still used during the American Civil War 20 yrs after the publication of "The Gold-Bug". However, while there's plenty on Poe in David Kahn's substantial The Code-Breakers I deduce from it that Poe's Civil War encoding influence is not accurate b/c I didn't see it mentioned at all (I just skimmed - cd've missed it). The likelihood for the accuracy is small anyway since the story was so popular that it seems unlikely that the code in it wd've been useful for any truly secret purpose.), I was interested to see such strong precursors to his more macabre works in this bk.
Polidori's story in & of itself is 'worth the price of admission' for the scholarly tidbits surrounding it for anyone interested in this period of English lit. "Better still, this prose tale, entitled The Vampyre, seemed to follow the pattern of Byron's best-known poetical productions—Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-18) and Manfred (1817)—by incorporating a strong element of confessional self-portraiture, but this time treating the familiar figure of the accursed outlaw in even more lurid terms as a bloodsucking demon or 'vampyre' with the tell-tale name of Lord Ruthven—clearly an echo of another recent fictional portrayal of Byron as Clarence de Ruthven, Lord Glenarvon in the novel Glenarvon (1816) by Lady Caroline Lamb, Byron's cast-off mistress." (p vii)
Byron as the vampyre strikes me basically as Byron as the 'sexual predator' or Byron as the guy who gets laid b/c of his forceful & talented (& rich) persona while the envious envy. Byron must've been quite the celebrity in his day b/c he features in other stories collected here as well: EG: in Anonymous's "The Curse" Byron is slightly misquoted: "'For never having dream'd of falsehood, we / Had not one word to say of constancy.'" (p 114) from "Don Juan"; & in the "Preliminaries for The Vampyre": "It is said, indeed, that upon paying his [Byron's] first visit at Coppet, following the servant who had announced his name, he was surprised to meet a lady carried out fainting; but before he had been seated many minutes, the same lady, who had been so affected at the sound of his name, returned and conversed with him a considerable time—such is female curiosity and affection!" (p 238) Not to mention, presumably, lust.
"The story had made an indelible impression on the imagination of Europe, and Polidori had succeeded, however inadvertently, in founding the entire modern tradition of vampire fiction. Not only was his tale the first sustained fictional treatment of vampirism in English, it also completely recast the mythology upon which it drew." - p x
"French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, whose Relation d'un Voyage du Levant (1702) was the eighteenth century's first account of vampirism" & "Dom Augustin Calmet was one of the most famous biblical scholars of his day, as well as the leading eighteenth century authority on vampires". - p 278
"As the basis of imaginative literature rather than of sick jokes, however, the folklore of vampires as represented in Calmet's accounts had some serious deficiencies: it was obscure, confused, and above all comically disgusting. According to the villagers of Serbia and Hungary, their vampires were bloated, shaggy, foul-smelling corpses who preyed on their immediate neighbors and relatives, or on nearby cattle (so that vampirism could be acquired by eating contaminated meat). Popular remedies against vampires involved digging them up and smearing oneself with their blood, or pulling out their teeth and sucking their gums,as well as the more conclusive precautions of staking, decapitation, and incineration. Still more unappealing was the fact that the legions of the undead were composed entirely of peasants. Some readers of Calmet's anthology pointed out that there seemed, oddly, never to have been an urban vampire, nor an educated bourgeois vampire, let alone one of noble birth. The historical and mythological importance of Polidori's The Vampyre lies in its drastic correction of the folklore's shortcomings, and especially in his elevation of the nosferatu (undead) to the dignity of high social rank." - p xii
In other words, Lord Ruthven is herein credited as the 1st aristocratic vampire - his folklore predecessors having been, so the Introduction here claims, all hairier peasants. This interests me insofar as there's the implication of class predation - the rich prolonging their lives at the expense of everyone they can sink their fangs into, blood of the virgin n'at. &, of course, there's the 'sexiness' of submissively succumbing to such treatment: what an 'honor' to be sucked dry by the ruling class! Furthermore, as an aside, there's a tiny remote dead-end street in my neighborhood named Ruthven wch'll now be forever associated w/ aristocratic vampirism in my mind.
In Polidori's tale he describes his surrogate self thusly: "About at the same time, there came to London a young gentleman of the name of Aubrey; he was an orphan left with an only sister in the possession of great wealth, by parents who died while he was yet in childhood. Left also to himself by guardians, who thought it their duty merely to take care of his fortune, while they relinquished the more important charge of his mind to the care of mercenary subalterns, he cultivated more his imagination than his judgment. He had, hence, that high romantic feeling of honour and candour, which daily ruins so many milliners' apprentices." (p 4)
Aubrey is tricked into making an oath to not disclose the death of Ruthven who he later learns hasn't actually died (or has been 'reborn'). The stupidity of 'honoring' this oath is an indication of the aforementioned lack of judgment when he learns that his sister is about to marry the vampyre: "He began to speak with all his wonted warmth, and to congratulate her upon her marriage with a person so distinguished for rank and every accomplishment; when he suddenly perceived a locket upon her breast; opening it, what his surprise at beholding the features of the monster who had so long influenced his life. He seized the portrait in a paroxysm of rage, and trampled it under foot. Upon her asking him why he thus destroyed the semblance of her future husband, he looked as if he did not understand her—then seizing her hands, and gazing on her with a frantic expression of countenance, he bade her swear that she would never wed this monster, for he—But he could not advance—it seemed as if that voice again bade him to remember his oath". (p 21) & here we have the formal trick common to so many horror stories: the reader (or viewer in the case of movies) is maddeningly frustrated by the lack of communication that's a matter of life & death.
"The guardians hastened to protect Miss Aubrey; but when they arrived, it was too late. Lord Ruthven had disappeared, and Aubrey's sister had glutted the thirst of a VAMPYRE!" (p 23) Ok, that's a spoiler - but the reader can see this one comin' from a mile away. W/ this in mind, I note that the value of this collection for me wasn't so much the 'thrillingness' of the stories as it was the look into the lurid recontextualization of the history of the time & the language used for this purpose: from Horace Smith's "Sir Guy Eveling's Dream":
"'Now that we be upon this subject of dreams and apparitions, I may forbear to mention that full strange and terrible one of Sir Guy Eveling, and the consequences tragical issuing therefrom, which I do the more willingly pen, forasmuch as the dismal tale was hushed and smothered up at the time by the great families with which he was consanguined, people of worshipful regard and jeopardous power, whereby folks only whispered of the story in corners, and peradventure bruited about many things which were but fond imaginings.[']" - p 25
"[']he was of a haute and orgulus stomach that would not agnize the wisdom of beadsmen, nor even brook the tender counsellings of friends and kinsmen, whereby he waxed wild, and readily fell to mischief and riot, giving up his mornings to dicers, racqueters, and scatterlings, and casting away the night with ribalds, wasselers, and swinge-bucklers[']". - p 25
"[']This was that self tempest which there be many now living may remember, sith it followed hard upon the Proclamation of our late King Edward[']" - p 28
A footnote on p 259 informs the reader that "our late King Edward: presumably Edward VI, who acceded to the throne in 1547 and died six years later at the age of 15." That wd put the story told as having occurred 276 yrs before its publishing. I have no informed opinion about the accuracy of the language used but I assume it to be somewhat affected. Nonetheless, I love it: Take that, you orgulus swinge-bucklers!!
Some of the stories are based on news of the time demonstrating that the popular taste for True Crime stories is hardly an invention of the 20th century. Take, eg, William Carleton's "Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman": The name derives from the green ribbon worn as a badge by members. Events leading up to the atrocities described in Carleton's tale began on 10 April 1816, when Michale Tiernan, Patrick Stanley, and Philip Conlon broke into a huntsman's lodge occupied by Edward Lynch. The three men demanded guns and assaulted Lynch and members of his family before being driven off. At the trial Lynch and his son-in-law Thomas Rooney identified the invaders and, in the face of strong public sympathy, all three men were convicted and hanged, most probably on 21 August. In the early hours of 30 October, the Ribbonmen meted out their revenge. Led by Paddy Devaun, a weaver and parish clerk at Stonetown Chapel, they massacred Lynch and seven others, including his daughter and grandchild. In the aftermath, Devaun and seventeen other Ribbonmen were executed." (p 260)
Again, the language & the history are the best part for me. This story has Irish brogue in it: "'Well,' said I, 'I'll just trust to God, and the consequinces, for the could, Paddy, ma bouchal; but a blessed dhrop ov it wo'nt be crossin' my lips, avick; so no more gosther about it—dhrink it yerself, if you like; maybe you want it as much as I do—wherein I've the patthern of a good big-coat upon me, so thick, yer sowl, that if it was rainin' bullocks, a dhrop would'nt get unher the nap ov it.'" (p 37)
The organizer of the massacre tries to get everyone drunk so that they'll commit the atrocity they've sworn to even tho they don't know what it is: "'Well,' said he, smiling, 'I only wanted to thry yees an' by the oath yees tuck, there's not a Captain in the county has as good a right to be proud of his min as I have—well yees won't rue it, may be when the right time comes; and for that same rason every one of yees must have a glass from the jar; thim that won't dhrink it in the chapel can dhrink it widout[']" (p 40)
Now the author is writing from a 1st-person perspective as if he were actually there at the events leading up to the killings & at the murders themselves. Whether that's true or not I don't know but he depicts some of the men as having the guts to resist the peer pressure: "The proceedings, however, had by this time taken too alarming a shape, for even the captain to compel them to a blindfold oath; the first man he called flatly refused to swear, until he should hear the nature of the service that was required. This was echoed by the remainder, who taking courage from the firmness of this person, declared generally, that until they first knew the business they were to execute, none of them should take the oath." (p 42) Really? I wish I cd believe that such people exist but in my own experience most people are just cowards & can be manipulated into performing just about any heinous deed as long as they're not taking responsibility for it.
Paddy Devaun eventually coerces all to follow him where they find that the plan is to set a house full of people on fire & not let anyone escape: "'Its no use now, you know, if one's to hang, all will hang; so our safest way, you persave, is to lave none of them to tell the story: ye may go now if you wish; but it won't save a hair of your heads. You cowardly set! I know if I had told yees the sport, that none of ye except my own boys would come[']" (p 47) I've been the guy to say NO many a time but, thank goodness, never in such a horrific situation. Megalomaniacs need robopaths to enact their genocide - fewer of each wd make the world a safer place for the rest of us.
the full review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...
John Polidori's The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - January 15, 2014
When am I ever going to start writing those superficial capsule reviews again?! This one's "too long", see the full thing here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...
The 1st time I remember running across mention of Polidori & his story "The Vampyre" was probably in Ken Russell's 1986 film Gothic. I had a brief phase of reading Gothic lit 40 yrs or so ago when I learned about it thru reading that the Surrealists liked it. As I recall, Polidori is depicted somewhat unsympathetically as an hysterical weak character who attempts suicide. He did, eventually, actually commit suicide.
Gothic luridly depicts the summer of 1816 when the poets Lord Byron & Percy Bysshe Shelley + Byron's physician Polodori + Jane 'Claire' Clairmont & her writer step-sister Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (better known after marriage to Shelley as Mary Shelley) "amused themselves rather strenuously by reading some German ghost stories and [..] then challeng[ing] each other to compose similar tales of supernatural terror." [..] "Polidori began his only novel, Ernestus Berchtold; or, The Modern Oedipus (1819), and Mary Godwin [..] embarked upon the composition of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus". (p ix of the Introduction to The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre)
"Gothic tales and fragments began appearing in the magazines shortly after the publication of Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto in 1764, and were common after 1790, when the craze for the Gothic in Britain reached its height." - p xv
This collection interests me for several reasons, not restricted to the reading of the Polidori story rounding out my knowledge of Gothic lit somewhat. For one thing, 3 of the tales presented were originally presented as having been written by "Anonymous" & still credited to such in this volume. For another thing: "These fictional possibilities of claustrophobia were exploited to the full in William Mudford's Blackwood's tale 'The Iron Shroud' (1830), in which a prisoner discovers his metallic cell is gradually shrinking and will thus certainly crush him to death. It was upon the basis of these works that Edgar Allan Poe soon developed the hysterical intensity of his most memorable stories, notably 'The Pit and the Pendulum' (1843), which is indebted directly to Mudford's tale." (pp xvi-xvii)
"The Iron Shroud" is not one of the stories herein collected but Charles Lever's "Post-Mortem Recollections of a Medical Lecturer" (1836) cd also be sd to've been a predecessor to Poe's "The Premature Burial" (1844). & in the introductory footnote to Edward Bulwer's "Mono and Daimonos" [1830] it's stated that: "In an 1835 letter to the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, Poe listed 'Monos and Daimonos' as one of those tales that was 'invariably' popular with readers because it displayed 'the ludicrous heightened into the grotesque: the fearful coloured into the horrible: the witty exaggerated into the burlesque: the singular wrought out into the strange and mystical'. A year later Poe cited 'Monos and Daimonos' to support his claim that, in Bulwer's writings, 'all is richly and glowingly intellectual—all is energetic, or astute, or brilliant, or profound'. Poe's 'Silence—A Fable' (1838) is heavily indebted to 'Monos and Daimonos', to the point where, as Mabbot points out, some sentences are taken 'almost verbatim'." (p 262)
I don't think that I share Poe's appreciation of the story. Here're a few samples:
"My father died when I was eighteen; I was transferred to my uncle's protection, and I repaired to London. I arrived there, gaunt and stern, a giant in limbs and strength, and to the tastes of those about me, a savage in bearing and in mood. They would have laughed, but I awed them; they would have altered me, but I changed them; I threw a damp over their enjoyment and a cloud over their meetings. Though I said little, though I sat with them, estranged and silent, and passive, they seemed to wither beneath my presence." - p 54
""I commenced my pilgrimage—I pierced the burning sands—I traversed the vast deserts—I came into the enormous woods of Africa, where human step never trod". - p 54
"Seasons glided on, and my youth ripened into manhood, and manhood grew grey with the first frost of age; and then a vague and restless spirit fell upon me, and I said in my foolish heart, 'I will look upon that countenances of my race once more!' I retraced my steps—I recrossed the wastes—I re-entered the cities—I took again the garb of man; for I had been hitherto naked in the wilderness, and hair had grown over me as a garment." - p 55
Given that I 'grew up on Poe' & have always thought of him as a pioneer (wch he certainly was - but more, perhaps, for things like "X-ing a Paragrab" (published post-mortem in 1850) & "The Gold-Bug" (1843). This latter was renowned for its central cryptoanalytic element. I remember reading in a bk that Poe's code-writing was so substantial that it was still used during the American Civil War 20 yrs after the publication of "The Gold-Bug". However, while there's plenty on Poe in David Kahn's substantial The Code-Breakers I deduce from it that Poe's Civil War encoding influence is not accurate b/c I didn't see it mentioned at all (I just skimmed - cd've missed it). The likelihood for the accuracy is small anyway since the story was so popular that it seems unlikely that the code in it wd've been useful for any truly secret purpose.), I was interested to see such strong precursors to his more macabre works in this bk.
Polidori's story in & of itself is 'worth the price of admission' for the scholarly tidbits surrounding it for anyone interested in this period of English lit. "Better still, this prose tale, entitled The Vampyre, seemed to follow the pattern of Byron's best-known poetical productions—Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-18) and Manfred (1817)—by incorporating a strong element of confessional self-portraiture, but this time treating the familiar figure of the accursed outlaw in even more lurid terms as a bloodsucking demon or 'vampyre' with the tell-tale name of Lord Ruthven—clearly an echo of another recent fictional portrayal of Byron as Clarence de Ruthven, Lord Glenarvon in the novel Glenarvon (1816) by Lady Caroline Lamb, Byron's cast-off mistress." (p vii)
Byron as the vampyre strikes me basically as Byron as the 'sexual predator' or Byron as the guy who gets laid b/c of his forceful & talented (& rich) persona while the envious envy. Byron must've been quite the celebrity in his day b/c he features in other stories collected here as well: EG: in Anonymous's "The Curse" Byron is slightly misquoted: "'For never having dream'd of falsehood, we / Had not one word to say of constancy.'" (p 114) from "Don Juan"; & in the "Preliminaries for The Vampyre": "It is said, indeed, that upon paying his [Byron's] first visit at Coppet, following the servant who had announced his name, he was surprised to meet a lady carried out fainting; but before he had been seated many minutes, the same lady, who had been so affected at the sound of his name, returned and conversed with him a considerable time—such is female curiosity and affection!" (p 238) Not to mention, presumably, lust.
"The story had made an indelible impression on the imagination of Europe, and Polidori had succeeded, however inadvertently, in founding the entire modern tradition of vampire fiction. Not only was his tale the first sustained fictional treatment of vampirism in English, it also completely recast the mythology upon which it drew." - p x
"French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, whose Relation d'un Voyage du Levant (1702) was the eighteenth century's first account of vampirism" & "Dom Augustin Calmet was one of the most famous biblical scholars of his day, as well as the leading eighteenth century authority on vampires". - p 278
"As the basis of imaginative literature rather than of sick jokes, however, the folklore of vampires as represented in Calmet's accounts had some serious deficiencies: it was obscure, confused, and above all comically disgusting. According to the villagers of Serbia and Hungary, their vampires were bloated, shaggy, foul-smelling corpses who preyed on their immediate neighbors and relatives, or on nearby cattle (so that vampirism could be acquired by eating contaminated meat). Popular remedies against vampires involved digging them up and smearing oneself with their blood, or pulling out their teeth and sucking their gums,as well as the more conclusive precautions of staking, decapitation, and incineration. Still more unappealing was the fact that the legions of the undead were composed entirely of peasants. Some readers of Calmet's anthology pointed out that there seemed, oddly, never to have been an urban vampire, nor an educated bourgeois vampire, let alone one of noble birth. The historical and mythological importance of Polidori's The Vampyre lies in its drastic correction of the folklore's shortcomings, and especially in his elevation of the nosferatu (undead) to the dignity of high social rank." - p xii
In other words, Lord Ruthven is herein credited as the 1st aristocratic vampire - his folklore predecessors having been, so the Introduction here claims, all hairier peasants. This interests me insofar as there's the implication of class predation - the rich prolonging their lives at the expense of everyone they can sink their fangs into, blood of the virgin n'at. &, of course, there's the 'sexiness' of submissively succumbing to such treatment: what an 'honor' to be sucked dry by the ruling class! Furthermore, as an aside, there's a tiny remote dead-end street in my neighborhood named Ruthven wch'll now be forever associated w/ aristocratic vampirism in my mind.
In Polidori's tale he describes his surrogate self thusly: "About at the same time, there came to London a young gentleman of the name of Aubrey; he was an orphan left with an only sister in the possession of great wealth, by parents who died while he was yet in childhood. Left also to himself by guardians, who thought it their duty merely to take care of his fortune, while they relinquished the more important charge of his mind to the care of mercenary subalterns, he cultivated more his imagination than his judgment. He had, hence, that high romantic feeling of honour and candour, which daily ruins so many milliners' apprentices." (p 4)
Aubrey is tricked into making an oath to not disclose the death of Ruthven who he later learns hasn't actually died (or has been 'reborn'). The stupidity of 'honoring' this oath is an indication of the aforementioned lack of judgment when he learns that his sister is about to marry the vampyre: "He began to speak with all his wonted warmth, and to congratulate her upon her marriage with a person so distinguished for rank and every accomplishment; when he suddenly perceived a locket upon her breast; opening it, what his surprise at beholding the features of the monster who had so long influenced his life. He seized the portrait in a paroxysm of rage, and trampled it under foot. Upon her asking him why he thus destroyed the semblance of her future husband, he looked as if he did not understand her—then seizing her hands, and gazing on her with a frantic expression of countenance, he bade her swear that she would never wed this monster, for he—But he could not advance—it seemed as if that voice again bade him to remember his oath". (p 21) & here we have the formal trick common to so many horror stories: the reader (or viewer in the case of movies) is maddeningly frustrated by the lack of communication that's a matter of life & death.
"The guardians hastened to protect Miss Aubrey; but when they arrived, it was too late. Lord Ruthven had disappeared, and Aubrey's sister had glutted the thirst of a VAMPYRE!" (p 23) Ok, that's a spoiler - but the reader can see this one comin' from a mile away. W/ this in mind, I note that the value of this collection for me wasn't so much the 'thrillingness' of the stories as it was the look into the lurid recontextualization of the history of the time & the language used for this purpose: from Horace Smith's "Sir Guy Eveling's Dream":
"'Now that we be upon this subject of dreams and apparitions, I may forbear to mention that full strange and terrible one of Sir Guy Eveling, and the consequences tragical issuing therefrom, which I do the more willingly pen, forasmuch as the dismal tale was hushed and smothered up at the time by the great families with which he was consanguined, people of worshipful regard and jeopardous power, whereby folks only whispered of the story in corners, and peradventure bruited about many things which were but fond imaginings.[']" - p 25
"[']he was of a haute and orgulus stomach that would not agnize the wisdom of beadsmen, nor even brook the tender counsellings of friends and kinsmen, whereby he waxed wild, and readily fell to mischief and riot, giving up his mornings to dicers, racqueters, and scatterlings, and casting away the night with ribalds, wasselers, and swinge-bucklers[']". - p 25
"[']This was that self tempest which there be many now living may remember, sith it followed hard upon the Proclamation of our late King Edward[']" - p 28
A footnote on p 259 informs the reader that "our late King Edward: presumably Edward VI, who acceded to the throne in 1547 and died six years later at the age of 15." That wd put the story told as having occurred 276 yrs before its publishing. I have no informed opinion about the accuracy of the language used but I assume it to be somewhat affected. Nonetheless, I love it: Take that, you orgulus swinge-bucklers!!
Some of the stories are based on news of the time demonstrating that the popular taste for True Crime stories is hardly an invention of the 20th century. Take, eg, William Carleton's "Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman": The name derives from the green ribbon worn as a badge by members. Events leading up to the atrocities described in Carleton's tale began on 10 April 1816, when Michale Tiernan, Patrick Stanley, and Philip Conlon broke into a huntsman's lodge occupied by Edward Lynch. The three men demanded guns and assaulted Lynch and members of his family before being driven off. At the trial Lynch and his son-in-law Thomas Rooney identified the invaders and, in the face of strong public sympathy, all three men were convicted and hanged, most probably on 21 August. In the early hours of 30 October, the Ribbonmen meted out their revenge. Led by Paddy Devaun, a weaver and parish clerk at Stonetown Chapel, they massacred Lynch and seven others, including his daughter and grandchild. In the aftermath, Devaun and seventeen other Ribbonmen were executed." (p 260)
Again, the language & the history are the best part for me. This story has Irish brogue in it: "'Well,' said I, 'I'll just trust to God, and the consequinces, for the could, Paddy, ma bouchal; but a blessed dhrop ov it wo'nt be crossin' my lips, avick; so no more gosther about it—dhrink it yerself, if you like; maybe you want it as much as I do—wherein I've the patthern of a good big-coat upon me, so thick, yer sowl, that if it was rainin' bullocks, a dhrop would'nt get unher the nap ov it.'" (p 37)
The organizer of the massacre tries to get everyone drunk so that they'll commit the atrocity they've sworn to even tho they don't know what it is: "'Well,' said he, smiling, 'I only wanted to thry yees an' by the oath yees tuck, there's not a Captain in the county has as good a right to be proud of his min as I have—well yees won't rue it, may be when the right time comes; and for that same rason every one of yees must have a glass from the jar; thim that won't dhrink it in the chapel can dhrink it widout[']" (p 40)
Now the author is writing from a 1st-person perspective as if he were actually there at the events leading up to the killings & at the murders themselves. Whether that's true or not I don't know but he depicts some of the men as having the guts to resist the peer pressure: "The proceedings, however, had by this time taken too alarming a shape, for even the captain to compel them to a blindfold oath; the first man he called flatly refused to swear, until he should hear the nature of the service that was required. This was echoed by the remainder, who taking courage from the firmness of this person, declared generally, that until they first knew the business they were to execute, none of them should take the oath." (p 42) Really? I wish I cd believe that such people exist but in my own experience most people are just cowards & can be manipulated into performing just about any heinous deed as long as they're not taking responsibility for it.
Paddy Devaun eventually coerces all to follow him where they find that the plan is to set a house full of people on fire & not let anyone escape: "'Its no use now, you know, if one's to hang, all will hang; so our safest way, you persave, is to lave none of them to tell the story: ye may go now if you wish; but it won't save a hair of your heads. You cowardly set! I know if I had told yees the sport, that none of ye except my own boys would come[']" (p 47) I've been the guy to say NO many a time but, thank goodness, never in such a horrific situation. Megalomaniacs need robopaths to enact their genocide - fewer of each wd make the world a safer place for the rest of us.
the full review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...
October 3, 2021
A really good collection of short horrific and gothic tales. I enjoyed a lot of these stories, but I did skip over one or two. Worth checking out if you like horror and 19th century fiction .
May 14, 2024
Anthologies are always hard to rate. To help me, I'm gonna categorize the individual stories and see how they average out.
Great and Gothic: "The Vampyre," being the "main course" of our feast, probably deserves five stars. If anything, I wish that it were longer, but it works surprisingly well, given how much of the story is told or summarized. I like how Ruthven goes beyond mere vampirism and seems to, in a subtle way, simply want to hurt good people and support bad ones, even to his own apparent detriment.
"Life in Death" is similar, though perhaps more in need of an expansion; still, I can overlook that and give it a similar rating. Its premise is simple but delightfully twisted.
"The Red Man" (4 stars) and "Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess" (5 stars) lack any supernatural elements, but are still scary and Gothic, with excellent characterization as well. The latter is actually my favorite in the collection, somewhat unexpectedly; its plot is fairly generic (as far as I can tell, about 50% of all stories from the 1800s involve someone trying to steal a young heiress' inheritance through marriage and/or murder), but told exceptionally well. It's by Sheridan Le Fanu, and I'm encouraged, since I was already planning to read Carmilla this month.
Kinda Creepy: "Monos and Daimonos" and "The Bride of Lindorf" each get a somewhat generous 4 stars. The former needed a bit more explanation about what the creepy character's deal was, while the latter needed more foreshadowing. I expected a twist, but it still feels like it came out of nowhere, especially since the protagonist, being part of this family, should know at least some of this information already.
"Sir Guy Eveling's Dream" gets 3 stars, as do "Post-Mortem Recollections of a Medical Lecturer" (which feels a bit like two stories stitched together) and "The Victim." The latter would have been better if Which is creepy, Protagonist Dude, because that's a freaking corpse.
Wrong Kind of Scary: "Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman" is very disturbing in its own way, but it's basically about a terrorist attack, so it's not really what I was looking for in a Halloween read. "Some Terrible Letters from Scotland" does throw in some ghosts to one of its three stories, but is more about a plague. 4 and 3 stars, respectively.
Scottish Stories That Include a Supernatural Element But Are Mostly Sermons About How Presbyterianism is Better than Anglicanism: A weirdly specific category that includes "The Master of Logan" and "The Curse." And look, I'm sure that these theological issues and the persecution by Charles II are historically and culturally important, but aside from being 150+-year-old news when these stories were written, it felt like that South Park bit were the Goth Kids struggle to explain why they're different than those awful, awful Emos. The stories themselves don't really stand out, either. Both also have questionable morality. 2 stars each.
Was That a Story? I feel bad giving "My Hobby—Rather" one star, because it didn't even annoy me as much as some of the others. But it feels like the first three pages of a story and doesn't really have a point on its own. The explanatory notes say that it was part of a collection of interrelated stories, so maybe it works better with the others.
Anyway, they're all from the 1820-30s, so they tend toward being wordy and hard to read; even when the stories themselves are good, they feel like a chore to get through. They're also samey enough that you could make a bingo card out of the tropes—half of the characters are orphans, the other half were raised by their dads because their moms died when they were infants, everybody goes mad at the drop of a hat, and only a precious few women are developed beyond Beautiful Virtuous Maiden or Evil Vamp. But even the lesser stories are interesting from a historical perspective, and a few are really great. So the collection is about 3.5 stars overall.
Great and Gothic: "The Vampyre," being the "main course" of our feast, probably deserves five stars. If anything, I wish that it were longer, but it works surprisingly well, given how much of the story is told or summarized. I like how Ruthven goes beyond mere vampirism and seems to, in a subtle way, simply want to hurt good people and support bad ones, even to his own apparent detriment.
"Life in Death" is similar, though perhaps more in need of an expansion; still, I can overlook that and give it a similar rating. Its premise is simple but delightfully twisted.
"The Red Man" (4 stars) and "Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess" (5 stars) lack any supernatural elements, but are still scary and Gothic, with excellent characterization as well. The latter is actually my favorite in the collection, somewhat unexpectedly; its plot is fairly generic (as far as I can tell, about 50% of all stories from the 1800s involve someone trying to steal a young heiress' inheritance through marriage and/or murder), but told exceptionally well. It's by Sheridan Le Fanu, and I'm encouraged, since I was already planning to read Carmilla this month.
Kinda Creepy: "Monos and Daimonos" and "The Bride of Lindorf" each get a somewhat generous 4 stars. The former needed a bit more explanation about what the creepy character's deal was, while the latter needed more foreshadowing. I expected a twist, but it still feels like it came out of nowhere, especially since the protagonist, being part of this family, should know at least some of this information already.
"Sir Guy Eveling's Dream" gets 3 stars, as do "Post-Mortem Recollections of a Medical Lecturer" (which feels a bit like two stories stitched together) and "The Victim." The latter would have been better if Which is creepy, Protagonist Dude, because that's a freaking corpse.
Wrong Kind of Scary: "Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman" is very disturbing in its own way, but it's basically about a terrorist attack, so it's not really what I was looking for in a Halloween read. "Some Terrible Letters from Scotland" does throw in some ghosts to one of its three stories, but is more about a plague. 4 and 3 stars, respectively.
Scottish Stories That Include a Supernatural Element But Are Mostly Sermons About How Presbyterianism is Better than Anglicanism: A weirdly specific category that includes "The Master of Logan" and "The Curse." And look, I'm sure that these theological issues and the persecution by Charles II are historically and culturally important, but aside from being 150+-year-old news when these stories were written, it felt like that South Park bit were the Goth Kids struggle to explain why they're different than those awful, awful Emos. The stories themselves don't really stand out, either. Both also have questionable morality. 2 stars each.
Was That a Story? I feel bad giving "My Hobby—Rather" one star, because it didn't even annoy me as much as some of the others. But it feels like the first three pages of a story and doesn't really have a point on its own. The explanatory notes say that it was part of a collection of interrelated stories, so maybe it works better with the others.
Anyway, they're all from the 1820-30s, so they tend toward being wordy and hard to read; even when the stories themselves are good, they feel like a chore to get through. They're also samey enough that you could make a bingo card out of the tropes—half of the characters are orphans, the other half were raised by their dads because their moms died when they were infants, everybody goes mad at the drop of a hat, and only a precious few women are developed beyond Beautiful Virtuous Maiden or Evil Vamp. But even the lesser stories are interesting from a historical perspective, and a few are really great. So the collection is about 3.5 stars overall.
October 19, 2020
🎃🎃🎃
I have long wanted to read John Polidori's tale, The Vampyre, as it dates from very early in the literature of that creature and this year's Halloween Bingo was an excellent excuse. I am an enthusiastic consumer of vampire fiction and it was rather like wanting to visit the ancestral home. I hadn't realized that writers have been exploring this mythos since the 17th century and the trend shows little sign of giving up yet. Interestingly, the tale contains echoes of old fairy tales, with the main character, Aubrey, forbidden to speak what he knows for a year and a day. Of course disaster occurs on the last day before this restriction is finished.
The other tales were of less interest to me, although they had their moments. The horror in them derives from issues that all of us can recognize: illness, misfortune, getting mixed up with the wrong people, making an awful life changing mistake, or losing a cherished loved one. It was particularly interesting in these days of covid-19 to read Some Terrible Letters From Scotland by James Hogg about a cholera epidemic of the time. It seems there will always be those among us who refuse to believe that they can be laid low by disease. It seems to me they had more excuse then, without the knowledge of bacteria and viruses that we have now.
I also wonder if the Sheridan Le Fanu story, about an uncle oppressing his orphaned niece was a practice piece which eventually became the novel Uncle Silas.
If you have no patience for old-timey writing, I would advise you to give this short volume a miss. Especially The Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman, which was somewhat difficult to decipher in spots, but is apparently based on a true story. That fact upped the horror ante for me. If you are interested in the historical roots of the horror genre, this may be a book you are looking for. Sporting vampires, ghosts, curses, and gothic shenanigans, this is a perfect choice for Halloween Bingo.
Cross posted at my blog:
https://wanda-thenextfifty.blogspot.c...
I have long wanted to read John Polidori's tale, The Vampyre, as it dates from very early in the literature of that creature and this year's Halloween Bingo was an excellent excuse. I am an enthusiastic consumer of vampire fiction and it was rather like wanting to visit the ancestral home. I hadn't realized that writers have been exploring this mythos since the 17th century and the trend shows little sign of giving up yet. Interestingly, the tale contains echoes of old fairy tales, with the main character, Aubrey, forbidden to speak what he knows for a year and a day. Of course disaster occurs on the last day before this restriction is finished.
The other tales were of less interest to me, although they had their moments. The horror in them derives from issues that all of us can recognize: illness, misfortune, getting mixed up with the wrong people, making an awful life changing mistake, or losing a cherished loved one. It was particularly interesting in these days of covid-19 to read Some Terrible Letters From Scotland by James Hogg about a cholera epidemic of the time. It seems there will always be those among us who refuse to believe that they can be laid low by disease. It seems to me they had more excuse then, without the knowledge of bacteria and viruses that we have now.
I also wonder if the Sheridan Le Fanu story, about an uncle oppressing his orphaned niece was a practice piece which eventually became the novel Uncle Silas.
If you have no patience for old-timey writing, I would advise you to give this short volume a miss. Especially The Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman, which was somewhat difficult to decipher in spots, but is apparently based on a true story. That fact upped the horror ante for me. If you are interested in the historical roots of the horror genre, this may be a book you are looking for. Sporting vampires, ghosts, curses, and gothic shenanigans, this is a perfect choice for Halloween Bingo.
Cross posted at my blog:
https://wanda-thenextfifty.blogspot.c...
January 14, 2017
Alright, I successfully defended my diploma thesis yesterday (so long, university education, I’ll miss you) so I’m gonna start releasing reviews of the books I used in it. It’s not excerpts from my thesis because it wasn’t focused on that but hey, those books are still in my memory since I spent so many hours analyzing them, an therefore I can bring you my point of view.
Lord Ruthven is the first vampire to enter Anglo-American prose, and that’s why I’m going to talk rather fondly of it even though it has a ton of mistakes and unclear motifs in it.
This short story is a great example of incorporating the father figure theme into vampire fiction (doesn’t that make Herr Freud happy) and even though the vampire as we know it today is a weak creature who needs daggers to defend himself in the story, lets just appreciate the effort Polidori made to rewrite Byron’s story which had led nowhere and made it into even weirder story which led nowhere but which introduced a very convenient character to plague the book-reading part of humankind.
There is a beautiful motif of the power of the moon when it comes to the vampire rejuvenation so I’m going to look away from the stupid oath the main character must keep and just point in the direction of the Greek folktales mentioned in the story. Plus the ending, oh, the cunning demon escaping after achieving everything he wanted to maybe resurface in your own home! Oh, the chills down our spines! :-)=
And what legacy could possibly this piece bring? Well, why not use the vampire as a means of dealing with our anxieties and tabooish subjects we are afraid to address directly. Through the character of vampire the future writers could deal with such tasks quite elegantly while spooking the hell out of their readers.
So thank you, Mr Polidori, it was high time the English suppressed emotions could run free in the evil metaphor called vampire.
Lord Ruthven is the first vampire to enter Anglo-American prose, and that’s why I’m going to talk rather fondly of it even though it has a ton of mistakes and unclear motifs in it.
This short story is a great example of incorporating the father figure theme into vampire fiction (doesn’t that make Herr Freud happy) and even though the vampire as we know it today is a weak creature who needs daggers to defend himself in the story, lets just appreciate the effort Polidori made to rewrite Byron’s story which had led nowhere and made it into even weirder story which led nowhere but which introduced a very convenient character to plague the book-reading part of humankind.
There is a beautiful motif of the power of the moon when it comes to the vampire rejuvenation so I’m going to look away from the stupid oath the main character must keep and just point in the direction of the Greek folktales mentioned in the story. Plus the ending, oh, the cunning demon escaping after achieving everything he wanted to maybe resurface in your own home! Oh, the chills down our spines! :-)=
And what legacy could possibly this piece bring? Well, why not use the vampire as a means of dealing with our anxieties and tabooish subjects we are afraid to address directly. Through the character of vampire the future writers could deal with such tasks quite elegantly while spooking the hell out of their readers.
So thank you, Mr Polidori, it was high time the English suppressed emotions could run free in the evil metaphor called vampire.
May 14, 2025
4 Stars – The Original Hot Vampire with Emotional Issues (Before It Was Cool)
Before Dracula brooded in castles and Edward Cullen sparkled in biology class, there was Lord Ruthven—a walking red flag with a bloodlust and a fabulous wardrobe. The Vampyre is the gothic novella that started it all, penned by Polidori during that infamous ghost story contest with Byron and the Shelleys (which, frankly, should’ve had its own reality show).
This slim tale is deceptively simple: nobleman Aubrey becomes enchanted by the enigmatic Lord Ruthven, a man whose hobbies include seducing women, mysteriously surviving death, and showing up at exactly the wrong time in every situation. What follows is a whirlwind of ominous travel, gothic doom, and the moral that if your friend gives off undead energy… just leave.
Why 4 stars and not 5?
Because while the atmosphere is gorgeously macabre and the historical significance undeniable, the pacing occasionally feels like reading through a haunted fog machine—dramatic but slightly obscured. Also, everyone in the story has the decision-making skills of a Victorian soap opera character. But honestly, that’s half the fun.
Highlights:
Gothic gloom dialed to 11.
Ruthven as the prototype for every sexy, emotionally unavailable vampire to come.
The eerie pleasure of watching a 19th-century tale lay the groundwork for centuries of vampire fiction (and fanfiction).
That special brand of melodrama only the Romantics could deliver—like Hamlet, but with fangs.
Final Word: The Vampyre is not just required reading for vampire lovers—it’s the ancestral curse. It’s moody, bloody, mysterious, and just a touch petty. In other words: it’s a classic.
Would I trust Lord Ruthven with my life? Absolutely not. Would I invite him to a masquerade ball and secretly hope he bites someone dramatic? 100%.
Before Dracula brooded in castles and Edward Cullen sparkled in biology class, there was Lord Ruthven—a walking red flag with a bloodlust and a fabulous wardrobe. The Vampyre is the gothic novella that started it all, penned by Polidori during that infamous ghost story contest with Byron and the Shelleys (which, frankly, should’ve had its own reality show).
This slim tale is deceptively simple: nobleman Aubrey becomes enchanted by the enigmatic Lord Ruthven, a man whose hobbies include seducing women, mysteriously surviving death, and showing up at exactly the wrong time in every situation. What follows is a whirlwind of ominous travel, gothic doom, and the moral that if your friend gives off undead energy… just leave.
Why 4 stars and not 5?
Because while the atmosphere is gorgeously macabre and the historical significance undeniable, the pacing occasionally feels like reading through a haunted fog machine—dramatic but slightly obscured. Also, everyone in the story has the decision-making skills of a Victorian soap opera character. But honestly, that’s half the fun.
Highlights:
Gothic gloom dialed to 11.
Ruthven as the prototype for every sexy, emotionally unavailable vampire to come.
The eerie pleasure of watching a 19th-century tale lay the groundwork for centuries of vampire fiction (and fanfiction).
That special brand of melodrama only the Romantics could deliver—like Hamlet, but with fangs.
Final Word: The Vampyre is not just required reading for vampire lovers—it’s the ancestral curse. It’s moody, bloody, mysterious, and just a touch petty. In other words: it’s a classic.
Would I trust Lord Ruthven with my life? Absolutely not. Would I invite him to a masquerade ball and secretly hope he bites someone dramatic? 100%.
May 29, 2023
14 tales of the macabre, all of which were published in London and Dublin magazines between 1819 and 1838. The tales are different from those who appeared in The spectator, who tend to be more psychological. The tales in this volume combine the psychological aspect with proper gothic motifs and true crime elements. They also have a moral aspect: they often feature the figure of a 'rake', a 'libertine', a 'revenant'.
The title story, The vampyre, is an eerie illustration of this. The writer, Polidori, was with Lord Byron and the Shelleys when they held their famous ghost story competition in Villa Diodati. His story, which was first attributed to Lord Byron, launched a vampire craze which still hasn't abided. It features the depraved Lord Ruthren - a vampire who is supposedly modelled after Lord Byron himself. The vampyre instills fear, not due to its action, but due to its impact on the narrator, who finds himself deranged at the end of the story.
Other stories definitely worth mentioning:
- Monos and Daimonos by Edward Bulger, in which a man suffering a shipwreck is haunted by a terrible double, a demon, contradicting his desperate claim: 'I will be alone again'.
- The victim by anonymous, in which a man dies of cholera, but actually suffers a fake death.
- The bride of Landorf by Laetitia E. Landon, in which the son of a countess discovers a fair maid, hidden in a secret passageway in a castle. He marries her before realizing she is raging mad.
- Passage in the secret history of an Irish countess by Sheridan Le fanu, in which a rich, orphaned girl is delivered to the murder plot of her money-crazy uncle and nephew.
The title story, The vampyre, is an eerie illustration of this. The writer, Polidori, was with Lord Byron and the Shelleys when they held their famous ghost story competition in Villa Diodati. His story, which was first attributed to Lord Byron, launched a vampire craze which still hasn't abided. It features the depraved Lord Ruthren - a vampire who is supposedly modelled after Lord Byron himself. The vampyre instills fear, not due to its action, but due to its impact on the narrator, who finds himself deranged at the end of the story.
Other stories definitely worth mentioning:
- Monos and Daimonos by Edward Bulger, in which a man suffering a shipwreck is haunted by a terrible double, a demon, contradicting his desperate claim: 'I will be alone again'.
- The victim by anonymous, in which a man dies of cholera, but actually suffers a fake death.
- The bride of Landorf by Laetitia E. Landon, in which the son of a countess discovers a fair maid, hidden in a secret passageway in a castle. He marries her before realizing she is raging mad.
- Passage in the secret history of an Irish countess by Sheridan Le fanu, in which a rich, orphaned girl is delivered to the murder plot of her money-crazy uncle and nephew.
November 5, 2022
Poor Polidori, he took a cast-off piece of Byron’s writing and expanded it, then, when he tried to publish it found it published under Byron’s name. The Vampyre is a neat little story which took ideas of vampires but transplants them into the person of a suave, persuasive gentleman. Poor Polidori, all these refinements and progression to the vampire myth were completely overshadowed by Dracula.
Lord Ruthven is an interesting character, he’s not actually all that suave but a little socially awkward and he makes others feel awkward when he walks into the room. There’s something that seems stern about him, he never stoops to making silly jokes and he never blushes. Yet, his innocuous actions all seem to have bad ends; the people he gives charity to always spend it on self destruction, he always loses at gambling unless it’s a game that bankrupts a young heir and the sweet, innocent women he talks to all end badly. There’s some question (at first) whether he is malevolent or just an accidental giver of bad luck.
Aubrey is our hero for the short story. He’s young, a little foolish but ultimately good. He falls in love during his gap year with a warm-hearted Greek woman, who finds herself murdered. He also catches Lord Ruthvern in a compromising position and he forces Aubrey to keep silent, which makes him mad. A madness that comes extra handy when Lord Ruthven sets his eyes on Aubrey’s sister…
It’s a neat little story and extremely influential to the growth of the vampire, but it’s still pretty slight.
Lord Ruthven is an interesting character, he’s not actually all that suave but a little socially awkward and he makes others feel awkward when he walks into the room. There’s something that seems stern about him, he never stoops to making silly jokes and he never blushes. Yet, his innocuous actions all seem to have bad ends; the people he gives charity to always spend it on self destruction, he always loses at gambling unless it’s a game that bankrupts a young heir and the sweet, innocent women he talks to all end badly. There’s some question (at first) whether he is malevolent or just an accidental giver of bad luck.
Aubrey is our hero for the short story. He’s young, a little foolish but ultimately good. He falls in love during his gap year with a warm-hearted Greek woman, who finds herself murdered. He also catches Lord Ruthvern in a compromising position and he forces Aubrey to keep silent, which makes him mad. A madness that comes extra handy when Lord Ruthven sets his eyes on Aubrey’s sister…
It’s a neat little story and extremely influential to the growth of the vampire, but it’s still pretty slight.
May 12, 2026
could tell it was an old book
November 15, 2020
I first learned of The Vampyre in the film Mary Shelley. After reading Frankenstein, I decided to venture into the second work of literary fiction that originated from the same “writing competition” as Frankenstein. I was surprised to find out The Vampyre is considered to be one of the first stories that portrays vampires as how we recognize them to be today and went on to inspire Dracula by Bram Stoker.
It was interesting to read one of the first vampire stories known. With it being a short story of only about thirty-something pages the story developed quickly and at times was quite predictable. Originally the story was accidentally published under Lord Byron’s name who was already a known author. I can’t help but wonder if The Vampyre would have been as successful if originally published by the actual author.
If you are looking for a well-developed, dimensional vampire story this one is not for you. I would recommend this short read to those perhaps researching the history of vampires and the fictional development throughout the years.
It was interesting to read one of the first vampire stories known. With it being a short story of only about thirty-something pages the story developed quickly and at times was quite predictable. Originally the story was accidentally published under Lord Byron’s name who was already a known author. I can’t help but wonder if The Vampyre would have been as successful if originally published by the actual author.
If you are looking for a well-developed, dimensional vampire story this one is not for you. I would recommend this short read to those perhaps researching the history of vampires and the fictional development throughout the years.
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