The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre

by Robert Morrison (Editor), Chris Baldick (Editor), John William Polidori (Contributor)

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

Genres: Classics, Gothic, Horror, Vampires, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy

278 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Librarian 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.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé · Rating 3 out of 5]

"He could not believe it possible--the dead rise again!--He thought his imagination had conjured up the image his mind was resting upon. It was impossible that it could be real." This story was conceived during the same Swiss writing retreat that Mary Shelley wrote "Frankenstein" and I just think that this is my sign to go off into the Swiss alps with a group of friends and write something legendary.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first encounter with Vampire stories was Bram Stroker's Dracula and then a year later Joseph Sheridan Is Fanu's Carmilla, and this year John Polidori's The Vampyre. I enjoyed all three but my favorite is Polidori's short story. There is a sadness to all but to me, The Vampyre is the most devastating of the three. This short story was one of many written in the famous ghost story competition at Villa Diodati, the famous Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was included. Polidori was Lord Byron's personal physician and had Byron in mind for his main character. Byron wrote Augustus Darvell but it was not completed, it was thought that The Vampyre was Bryon's but that was proved to be Polidori's story. In this collection the unfinished Augustus Darnell is included which has many similarities which is eery. If you are looking for gothic, vampire, horrifying and grave robbing stories then the stories listed her will fit the bill. There are three anonymous stories which all are wonderfully written. (The Victim, The Curse and Life in Death)
The other stories-
*Sir Guy Eveling's Dream by Horace Smith - a ghost like story
*Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman by William Carleton - a very, very dark version that has an Ox Bow incident feeling.
*Monos and Daimonos by Edward Bulwer -ghost like story
*The Master of Logan by Allan Cunningham - like Sir Guy's story but different spin.
*Some Terrible Letters From Scotland by James Hogg- cholera victims and burying the living thought dead.
*N. P. Willis My Hobby -Rather - strange story regarding a corpse.
*The Red Man by Catherine Gore (more of a review under that title)
*Post- Mortem Recollections of a Medical Lecturer -another burying a live man
* The Bride of Lindorf by Letitia E. Landon- (more review under that title)
*Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - (more review under that title)

Footnotes and explanatory notes included and helpful.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the exception of The Vampyre and Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman, which were both incredibly gripping and sinister, these stories unfortunately just weren’t all that memorable. J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess would’ve doubtless proved another such exception, but as I’ve already read his Uncle Silas, which was basically the full-length novel version of said story, it didn’t do as much for me as it might’ve done if I wasn’t already so familiar with it. But, while I didn’t find the plots of most of these stories terribly interesting, nearly all of them did have great atmospheres going for them (you know, that awesome old school, dark and mysterious, languidly creepy Gothic-type shit), so overall the reading experience was definitely an enjoyable one.

List of stories:

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 Countess

* = personal favorite

[Danielle The Book Huntress]

This 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.

[Troy Tradup · Rating 2 out of 5]

This review covers only the title story of this collection, which grew out of the same “ghost story” contest that produced Frankenstein. Polidori is certainly the least known of that infamous gathering (the others being Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron), and quite probably the least talented, but hey, he still produced a tale that’s read and discussed more than two hundred years later, right?

Many consider this the first significant vampiric tale in the western canon, although it’s not all that vampiric in the modern sense. Or maybe it’s particularly vampiric in the modern sense because the title character is a bit of a soul- and energy-sucker, at least in his relationship with Aubrey, the ostensible hero of the piece. The relationship between Aubrey and Lord Ruthven may or may not reflect Polidori’s own feelings toward Byron, but it certainly makes the story more fun if you read it as if it does.

Ruthven’s actions are definitely more along the lines of a traditional vampire (tearing open throats, that sort of thing) when it comes to the bland and poorly drawn women of the story. But Polidori’s florid style often conveys more a sense of the syphilitic than the supernatural.

The story is fine, if a bit bloodless (ha, see what I did there?), and it’s certainly foundational. There’s even one passage that provides an almost direct line to Dracula some eighty years later:

“When they heard the name of the place, they all at once begged of him not to return at night, as he must necessarily pass through a wood, where no Greek would ever remain after the day had closed, upon any consideration.”

And Polidori even wades into Jane Austen territory for a moment:

“He was handsome, frank, and rich: for these reasons ... many mothers surrounded him, striving which should describe with least truth their languishing or romping favorites: the daughters at the same time ... soon led him into false notions of his talents and his merit.”

And one other line stands out, downright Dickensian a number of years before Dickens:

“He had, hence, that romantic feeling of honour and candour, which daily ruins so many milliners’ apprentices.”

[Catherine Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being so real I only read Vampyre but 10/10 we all surely fancy Ruthven just a TINY BIT?

[Tanya · Rating 2.75 out of 5]

In my quest to read some vampire fiction that predates (and influenced) Bram Stoker’s Dracula, I went back to the very beginning: Literary vampires had appeared in poetry by this point, but Polidori’s The Vampyre, published in 1819, was foundational. It was the true progenitor of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction, the first to transform the vampire from a folkloric character into that of an aristocratic fiend with sex appeal who preys among high society, launching a vampire craze that still continues two hundred years on.

John Polidori was Lord Byron’s personal physician, and The Vampyre was inspired by a fragmentary tale by Lord Byron, which had been his contribution to the famous ghost story contest among himself, Polidori, and Percy and Mary Shelley at Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva—the same contest which also produced Frankenstein, the novel which marked the birth of science fiction. Who could’ve guessed just how influential three rainy days could turn out to be!

”There was no colour upon her cheek, not even upon her lip; yet there was a stillness about her face that seemed almost as attaching as the life that once dwelt there:—upon her neck and breast was blood, and upon her throat were the marks of teeth having opened the vein:—to this the men pointed, crying, simultaneously struck with horror, ‘A Vampyre! a Vampyre!’"

The short story follows the fraught friendship between two men and the mysterious murders that occur in their wake: Lord Ruthven, a suave and sinister nobleman who is secretly a vampire, and Aubrey, a wealthy young man orphaned in childhood. Polidori modeled his undead protagonist after Byron’s own wild life, to the point that the story was initially falsely attributed to Lord Byron upon publication. In many ways, the history and inception of this short story is more intriguing than the story itself!

This edition contains thirteen other tales of the macabre first published in magazines between 1819 and 1838, but Polidori’s title story is the only one I was interested in for its historical value, so I can’t comment on the rest. The appendices include the original introduction from the magazine it was published in, the anonymous letter that accompanied it, commentary on the authorship controversy by Polidori, as well as Bryon’s original fragmentary tale.

[Pamela Svatos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun as a time capsule but not a page-turner.

These pieces were wildly original in their day, and you can feel them seeding the Gothic and horror genres—that’s where the real pleasure is. Most read thin and a little creaky by today’s standards, so treat it like a museum visit: soak up the atmosphere, then trace the line forward to Carmilla, Dracula, and beyond. I might still buy a copy for the shelf; it’s a historical artifact that helped shape the stories we love now.

[Genevieve Guimond · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a fly rubbing it’s freaky little hands together

[BlueRoses · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this is a good book! The main reason why I liked it is because instead of getting beat over the head with the usual same-old, same-old, frequently anthologized horror stories ("Dracula's Guest", "The Jolly Corner", "Good Lady Ducayne" and so on), this book brings out some rarities that definitely deserve more attention.

Admittedly, a couple of the stories are rather boring - N.P. Willis' "My Hobby - Rather" (what the hell does that mean?!?) and Lever's "Post-Mortem Recollections of a Medical Lecturer". However, it is a small price to pay for how many good stories are in this book.

Catherine Gore's "The Red Man" is terrifying and heartbreaking. "Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess" is probably one of the best stories Le Fanu ever wrote. I also like that the appendices of this book include Byron's original cut of "The Vampyre", as well as the verses from his "Giaour" that involve vampirism:

Thy corse (corpse) shall from its tomb be rent;
Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race;

Above all, I feel the real prize of this book is Letitia E. Landon's "The Bride of Lindorf". Yes, it is obvious this tale is from the age of sentimentality. But the prose is stunning, the imagery is gorgeous, and it makes for a nice romantic escape. Hey, Elizabeth Barrett Browning worshiped the ground Letitia E. Landon (L.E.L) walked - even though no one knows about her now - so I'd say there must have been something there!

[Maja Pestka · Rating 4 out of 5]

[I will gradually add more information regarding other short stories from different authors in this collection, as I get through them]


"The Vampyre" by John Polidori
4/5

Everyone knows the anecdote about the ghost-story competition inside Lord Byron's villa on Lake Geneva, and how 'Frankenstein' by Merry Shelley originated from that event. Not many people think of John Polidori's 'The Vampyre' which also had a similar origin. To some degree it's due to the fact that for some time it was not even attributed to the original author (as it was released under Lord Byron's name initially due to a 'misunderstanding', although the better way to put it would be to say that the magazine that found the manuscript and falsely attributed it to Byron simply wanted to garner attention with a name of a grand and popular author of the era, and deemed this text to be 'byronish enough').

'The Vampyre' is an interesting case of early vampire fiction, mostly founded in classical moralistic approach to literary fiction of its time, it 'nobilitated' Eastern European vision of vampiric entities--usually equaled to mindless beasts by countrymen of the time. On its surface it's a very basic story of a man that encountered something beyond his comprehension that pries upon moral dignity of women, and so Aubrey (our protagonist) decided to write down his encounter to warn others against immorality of Lord Ruthven, and the underlying reason for that moral decay, which quickly becomes abundantly clear, is due to his supernatural existence. Nevertheless, upon further inspection it's an interesting parallel to his own experience with Lord Byron; his somewhat hidden animosity towards his employer. This short story, if anything, is an interesting case study of Polidori's detestation of 'Don Giovanni-esque' nobilities, which he attributed to Byron's social circles.

To be blunt, without Doylist interpretation of this work, there is not much to have within the story itself. Yes, it's an interesting and short vampire story of early XIX century, that created a 'vampire craze' of sorts in the literary circles, and surely we wouldn't have 'Carmilla' by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, or 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker, if not for this little story, but at the same time it's rather difficult to look for much substance in here, outside of obvious moralizing messaging/warnings. Nevertheless that additional piece of autofiction allows the reader to draw the parallels to Polidori's life, and allows for a much more interesting read and interpretation of a tormented soul of the author, destroyed by the ardent force of Byron's influence. Because of that alone, I am rating this story quite highly; as mentioned on its surface it might seem trivial, but there is so much humanity, perseverance, and lamentable tragedy of circumstances hidden in the underlying text that it elevates the overall experience, at least in my opinion.


"Sir Guy Eveling's Dream" by Horace Smith
3/5

Really short and straightforward story about ghost encounter, filled with passion and mystery. The entire tale is written in 'Shakespearean English' (although I might be mistaken here, it does feel like that tho), which although adds to the mystic nature of the narrative, it does feel overwritten at times. Story depicts the events that happened to Sir Guy Eveling, presenting them as a nightmare that he went through when he's fallen in love with a spectre that manifested in his chamber. It's an interesting little tale, but as much as I found it mysterious and enigmatic, it also feels both overwritten and incomplete, which is an unusual combination to say the least. Ending seems to be lacking of a cohesive conclusion, nonetheless I still recommend you to read it, as it's certainly a great read for Halloween.

[Eddie Clarke · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.)

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

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⭐

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was only planning to read Polidori's "The Vampyre" and save the rest for some other time, but after I read it I decided to also read the Introduction, which intrigued me about all the details around the short story's publication and controversy around authorship. That led me to reading the appendices with comments on the controversy from Polidori and Byron and even the publisher.

And the publisher's comments - along with the Intro - got me really interested in the whole industry of horror short stories in early Nineteenth Century British magazines and newspapers. There was little to no regulation and stories include true - or supposedly true - accounts of horrible acts of terrorism and near-death experiences. I read the whole thing.

It's all fascinating and great storytelling, but after "The Vampyre" itself, my other favorite is Sheridan Le Fanu taking an early run at his Uncle Silas plot in "A Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess." Letitia E Landon's "The Bride of Lindorf" is also very gothic. And "The Master of Logan" by Allan Cunningham is an excellent (possibly? no spoilers) ghost story.

[Jessie Pietens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, I really loved the title story 'The Vampyre' and would probably give that one 4 stars. It was really beautifully written, gripping and page-turning. didn't know what the story would really be about and it surprised me in a very positive way. I also enjoyed the introduction to the story - and that is something which the Oxford editions always do really well. Unfortunately, the title story was about 30 pages long and the other stories couldn't really grab my interest. I am starting to feel that this is more due to a problem I have with short story anthologies. There are just always more stories that I dislike than like in an anthology and that makes it hard to be positive about the whole thing.

[Aya · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic, Romantic tales of horror, this is a fine combination of Nineteenth Century short stories, headlined by Polidori's 'The Vampyre'.

Considerately edited and with some interesting contextual footnotes, this edition would be useful for scholarly work.

[vanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

no but polidori slayed with his byron fanfic

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

thank you polidori without this contribution to society we would not have twilight or simon lewis

[Martin Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really good stories here. But overall I found it a real grind. The language in particular was difficult.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

a delicious compilation of classic gothic stories. Some were okay, and some were great. Some were so beautiful I wanted to cry.

[Jen · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

3.5

[Ricardo Lourenço · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este artigo revela uma parte considerável do enredo da obra.

John William Polidori nasceu em Londres a 7 de Setembro de 1795, filho do escritor e tradutor Gaetano Polidori (responsável pela tradução de Paradise Lost e The Castle of Otranto para italiano) e de Anna Maria Pierce. Em 1804 inicia a sua educação no Ampleforth College em Yorkshire, e em 1811 ingressa na Universidade de Edinburgo, conseguindo o seu doutoramento em medicina com apenas 19 anos.
Em 1816, através de uma recomendação de Sir William Knighton, Lord Byron contrata Polidori para o acompanhar nas suas viagens pela Europa como seu médico pessoal. Durante o Verão do mesmo ano instalam-se na Suiça, onde Byron é frequentemente visitado por Jane Clairmont, Percy Bysshe Shelley e Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, todos eles presentes na famosa competição realizada numa noite de Junho em que, após uma sessão de leitura de histórias de fantasmas, Byron desafiou cada um a escrever uma história dentro do género. A competição inspirou Mary Godwin, que começou a escrever uma das mais influentes obras da literatura gótica: Frankenstein; Byron cedo perdeu o interesse, limitando-se a escrever parcialmente um conto intitulado Augustus Darvell; Polidori dedicou-se a Ernestus Berchtold; or, The Modern Oedipus - o único romance que viria a publicar - e, posteriormente, desenvolveu o conceito presente no fragmento de Byron, dando origem a The Vampyre.
Em 1819, Henry Colburn, procurando tirar partido da fama do poeta Inglês, publica The Vampyre na New Monthly Magazine com o subtítulo "A Tale by Lord Byron". Pouco tempo após a publicação, Polidori reclama a autoria da obra, muito embora reconheça a importância que Byron teve na sua constituição. A forma como o manuscrito chegou aos escritórios da New Monthly permanece um mistério, mas é facto que The Vampyre se tornou rapidamente num grande sucesso.

"It happened that in the midst of the dissipations attendant upon London winter, there appeared at the various parties of the leaders of the ton a nobleman more remarkable for his singularities, than his rank. He gazed upon the mirth around him, as if he could not participate therein. Apparently, the light laughter of the fair only attracted his attention, that he might by a look quell it and throw fear into those breasts where thoughtlessness reigned. Those who felt this sensation of awe, could not explain whence it arose: some attributed it to the dead grey eye, which, fixing upon the object's face, did not seem to penetrate, and at one glance to pierce through to the inward workings of the heart; but fell upon the cheek with a leaden ray that weighed upon the skin it could not pass."

The Vampyre destaca-se, essencialmente, por transportar o vampiro para o ambiente urbano. Até à data, tanto no folclore como na literatura, o vampiro era uma figura repugnante, subsistindo à base do instinto de modo a satisfazer a sua necessidade por sangue. Em contraste, a criação de Polidori – Lord Ruthven –, é uma personagem sofisticada e atraente, que se desloca pela alta sociedade inglesa sem levantar quaisquer suspeitas enquanto escolhe as suas vítimas. É esta ameaça latente, esta diluição da fronteira entre o natural e o sobrenatural, que torna Ruthven numa figura aterrorizadora de uma forma que os seus antecessores nunca conseguiram atingir.
O conto inicia-se apresentando o jovem e inexperiente Aubrey, que acredita que "os sonhos dos poetas são as realidades da vida," mas que cedo percebe, apesar da sua ingenuidade, que a vida social se distancia bastante do que se pode ler nos romances. Quebrada a ilusão, Aubrey fica intrigado com o misterioso mas fascinante Ruthven, e decide aproximar-se deste com a intenção de estudar a sua estranha personalidade. Eventualmente organizam uma viagem em conjunto, e é durante essa viagem que Aubrey detecta alguns sinais alarmantes no que toca à conduta do seu companheiro.

"His companion was profuse in his liberality; -- the idle, the vagabond, and the beggar, received from his hand more than enough to relieve their immediate wants. But Aubrey could not avoid remarking, that it was not upon the virtuous, reduced to indigence by the misfortunes attendant even upon virtue, that he bestowed his alms; -- these were sent from the door with hardly suppressed sneers; but when the profligate came to ask something, not to relieve his wants, but to allow him to wallow in his lust, to sink him still deeper in his iniquity, he was sent away with rich charity. This was, however, attributed by him to the greater importunity of the vicious, which generally prevails over the retiring bashfulness of the virtuous indigent. There was one circumstance about the charity of his Lordship, which was still more impressed upon his mind: all those upon whom it was bestowed, inevitably found that there was a curse upon it, for they were all either led to the scaffold, or sunk to the lowest and the most abject misery."

Estas situações inquietam Aubrey, mas só quando recebe uma carta dos seus pais a alertar para a comportamento imoral e para a capacidade de sedução de Ruthven, é que decide abrir mão da sua amizade, decidido a não viajar com alguém “cujo carácter não tinha mostrado um único ponto brilhante.”
Após esta quebra de relações, prossegue sozinho para a Grécia, onde durante algum tempo explora as ruínas de Atenas e se apega à bela Ianthe, filha dos donos da casa onde tomou residência. Ironicamente, Ianthe tenta convencer o céptico Aubrey da existência de vampiros, acabando por perecer nas mãos de um. Perturbado pelo sucedido, Aubrey adoece e, para sua surpresa, ao acordar do seu sono febril encontra Ruthven a cuidar de si.

"His lordship seemed quite changed; he no longer appeared that apathetic being who had so astonished Aubrey; but as soon as his convalescence began to be rapid, he again gradually retired into the same state of mind, and Aubrey perceived no difference from the former man, except that at times he was surprised to meet his gaze fixed intently upon him, with a smile of malicious exultation playing upon his lips: he knew not why, but this smile haunted him."

O inesperado acto leva a uma reconciliação, e os dois companheiros retomam a sua viagem durante a qual se tornam vítimas de uma emboscada. Durante o ataque Ruthven é ferido e acaba, aparentemente, por morrer, embora não sem antes obrigar Aubrey a jurar que ocultaria qualquer pormenor acerca dos seus crimes durante um ano e um dia. Decidido a não permanecer num país que só lhe trouxe infortúnios, e após descobrir que o amigo fora o responsável pela morte da encantadora Ianthe, Aubrey regressa a Inglaterra.
Gradualmente consegue abtrair-se do seu passado recente até uma noite em que, para seu choque, reencontra Ruthven. Tal acontecimento coloca-o num estado de histeria tal que a família se vê obrigada a confiná-lo ao seu quarto, com supervisão de um médico. O seu estado acaba por piorar ao se aperceber que a sua irmã está noiva de Ruthven, estando o casamento previsto exactamente para último dia do seu juramento. Incapaz de evitar que a sua irmã se torne em mais uma das vítimas do dissimulado vampiro, o seu desespero resulta no rompimento de um vaso sanguíneo, dando-lhe apenas tempo para relatar a sua história, revelando, finalmente, a verdadeira natureza de Lord Ruthven.

"He shut his eyes, hoping that it was but a vision arising from his disturbed imagination; but he again saw the same form, when he unclosed them, stretched by his side. There was no colour upon her cheek, not even upon her lip; yet there was a stillness about her face that seemed almost as attaching as the life that once dwelt there: -- upon her neck and breast was blood, and upon her throat were the marks of teeth having opened the vein: -- to this the men pointed, crying, simultaneously struck with horror, «A Vampyre! a Vampyre!»"

The Vampyre é importante não só por trazer o vampiro para a esfera aristocrática, mas também por ilustrar um período de transição na literatura gótica, em que os medos, que antes ganhavam forma nos oprimentes castelos ou mosteiros, passaram a ser incorporados por monstros. De facto, o persuasivo Ruthven encarna o receio que a nobreza tinha por homens elegantes e sem escrúpulos, capazes de atrair e desonrar as suas filhas, arruinando-as a nível moral e social. É também aterrorizador no sentido em que consegue subverter as normas sexuais, usando isso a seu favor para exercer um forte domínio tanto sobre as mulheres como sobre os homens.
Por outro lado, Polidori não adopta a típica estrutura utilizada na grande maioria dos romances góticos produzidos até à data, algo especialmente evidente no casamento que se realiza no final do conto, casamento esse que, ao invés de representar uma fase de libertação do mal que assombrou a história, representa, isso sim, a libertação e o triunfo desse próprio mal.
Independentemente da influência de Byron, que levou muitos a acusar Polidori de plágio, a verdade é que este último transformou um fragmento inacabado numa história coesa, estabelecendo um modelo que viria desenvolvido por James Rymer em Varney the Vampire, por Sheridan Le Fanu em Carmilla e, acima de tudo, por Bram Stoker em Dracula. É, pois, imerecidamente que este autor permanece na sombra, quando a sua contribuição, embora curta, se ramificou até aos nossos dias.

Referências:

Birkhead, Edith. The Tale of Terror . Project Gutenberg, 2004. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14154

Bomarito, Jessica. Gothic Literature: A Gale Critical Companion. Detroit: Thomson/Gale, 2006.

Botting, Fred. Gothic. Londres: Routledge, 1996.

Heiland, Donna. Gothic and Gender: An Introduction, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.

Polidori, John William. The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre. Nova Iorque: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Nigel Leask, Polidori, John William (1795–1821), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article...

Punter, David; Byron, Glennis. The Gothic. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

**CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS!!**

I have always enjoyed tales of the macabre, ghost stories and frightening tales and so I just had to read this book when it had a collection of varied stories that are more original than what we see today, all written at some time in the C19th:

1. The Vampyre / John Polidori (1819) ☆☆☆☆
'The Vampyre' predates Le Fanu's novella Carmilla and Stoker's novel Dracula, both of which are excellent tales of the vampire myth. The Vampyre focuses on Aubrey and his association with a Lord Ruthven whom he discovers to be a 'vampyre', a creature responsible for the ruin of many that have enjoyed his company. The tale develops into Aubrey's descent to madness at being unable to reveal Lord Ruthven's evil secret nor prevent him from pursuing the heart (and blood!) of his beloved sister. Overall, a worthy tale that deserves at least 4 stars out of 5.

2. Sir Guy Eveling's Dream / Horace Smith (1823) ☆☆☆☆
As soon as I began to read it I realised that I had actually read something like it before. This story bears great resemblance to Irving Washington's The Adventure of the German Student which was published in 1824 in Tales of a Traveller, by Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
Sir Guy Eveling is man who enjoys the likes of socialising and gambling, with no plans on settling down and securing a bride until he finds a woman that takes his breath away. One night he dreams of the most beautiful woman but, sure it is not such a dream, he sets out to find her and find her he does – with most unexpected results! As much as I love Horace Smith's version, I prefer Irving Washington's and that is why I offer it only 4 stars!

3. Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman / William Carleton (1830) ☆☆☆
This tale is based on the Wildgoose Lodge Murders that occurred on the night of 29–30 October 1816 in which eight people were murdered by burning to death, one only a five-month old infant. The Wildgoose Lodge was a farm building in the parish of Tallanstown-Reaghstown in Co. Louth, Ireland.
I found this one a little hard to get into, mostly because it takes some time to get to the crux of the story. It focuses mostly on the events leading up to and after the murder of a Protestant family by a Catholic Nationalist secret society of the 19th Century in Ireland, where members were known as the Ribbonmen. Also there is the the guilt of the narrator for his passive participation.

4. Monos and Daimonos / Edward Bulwer(1830) ☆☆☆
This was another of the tales that I didn't quite take to. It focuses on a young man who, having grown up away from society until his father's death when he was aged eighteen, returns to the city and finds life there to be quite unsatisfactory and so indulges in himself to travel.
The story then incorporates a shipwreck and a murder, both of which causes the author to feel a sense of haunted guilt over what he has done and how it won't be forgotten as he is tormented by the relentless spirit.

5. The Master of Logan / Alan Cunningham (1831)☆☆☆☆
An enjoyable Scottish story of temptation opposed by a preacher. There are elements of a cautionary folk-tale about it which makes it a very interesting read. A young man who shows some disrespect to old bones is told the tale of The Master of Logan, in which a young nobleman by the name of Logan is bears little heed to the warnings not to disrespect the spirits for they will punish him. Logan does not heed this advice at first but begins to feel uneasy soon and decides to send for the preacher to repent, only to be visited by a beautiful noblewoman who is not quite what she seems.

6. The Victim / Anonymous(1831)☆☆☆☆
Mentions of Burke reveals rather unsurprisingly that this is a tale of the body-snatchers, and a very good one at that! A young surgeon, preparing to pass examinations, pays for a body to be delivered so he and his good friend, St. Clare, can practice beforehand. However, things take a rather dark and unexpected turn when St.Clare's when his intended goes missing and a beautiful young female is delivered for the to-be surgeon's to practice their skills...

7. Some Terrible Letters from Scotland / James Hogg (1832)☆☆☆
Not much to really say about this one other than it does what it says it does. It contains three fictional letters relating to a genuine cholera epidemic in Scotland which killed almost 10,000 people from 1831-2. The final letter has more of a ghostly tale that is quite enjoyable to read.

8. The Curse / Anonymous (1832)☆☆☆☆
This story wasn't so bad actually! The narrator retells his story with a combination of sorrow and repentance for a horrible act he committed in his youth. Returning home from abroad he dreams of nothing more than to be wed to the beautiful Helen but fears she could have been struck ill or dead so he visits the cemetery first. An old man begins to tell him the tale of two lovers that died many years before and how a curse had been placed on three generations of the family that murdered the husband. Realising that he is part of said family, the third generation, he quickly goes off to find his family where he makes a fatal mistake in a fit of madness which costs him everything.

9. Life in Death / Anonymous (1833)☆☆☆
This one was rather disappointing. Life in Death focused on a dying man who gave a phial of liquid to his son in that belief that it would grant him new life and youth. The son gives a drop to his father three days after death and he begins to re-animate to a degree before the son puts a stop to it.
Years later, when he has had his own family and raised them in a strictly religious household, he asks his own son to do the same as his father asked him. He attributes the liquid to be of God's work and that his son should not fear it. When he dies the son uses the liquid and his father reanimates, causing his face to grow youthful and beautiful again. Alas, the rest of the tale is not a happy one as it does not go to plan! Doesn't quite have the same effect as Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.

10. My Hobby, - Rather / N. P. Willis (1834)☆☆☆
Very short but rather effective! I can't say much about this tale without giving it away!

11. The Red Man / Catherine Gore (1835)☆☆☆
I didn't like this one as much as I thought I would. I found it confusing in a way, though maybe I just wasn't following it so well. I didn't quite understand how the title did fit in with the tale until I then realised the 'red' symbolised the rust of the iron. The main theme is that of crime and punishment of that time and pre-revolution (as the story itself was set in Paris).
The narrator meets an old scrap iron merchant by the name of Balthazar and is told a horrible tale of how the bones of a woman's hand came to be encased in an iron manacle. Balthazar's story is filled with adultery, lies, pain and murder all of which leads to a shocking end for the poor woman that it is about.

12. Post-mortem Recollections of a Medical Lecturer / Charles Lever (1836)☆☆☆
In essence, this is a very detailed and gripping account of being near death due to an illness which is based on a severe real life illness that Lever had suffered from. The fictional element incorporated into this tale is the threat that the narrator felt of being buried alive and being unable to show himself to be awake.

13. The Bride of Lindorf / Letitia E. Landon (1836)☆☆☆☆☆
I absolutely loved this one! With themes of insanity, incest and unrequited love, it made for quite an interesting read. Although his mother is making plans for him to marry his cousin Pauline, Ernest, an eccentric young nobleman, discovers a secret staircase to a beautiful woman, Minna. Minna claims she is being kept from her birthright by her uncle, the Baron. As Ernest falls for her he soon finds that all is not what it seems. There then follows a tragic end for one of the characters.

14. Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess / Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1838)☆☆☆☆☆
This tale, doubled with The Bride of Lindorf, are my favourite two in this entire book. The female narrator, Margaret, the heiress to her father's fortune, finds herself in the guardianship of her Uncle - an uncle who is being investigated for murder. Believing him to be innocent, she lives quite comfortably until she begins to realise that he has a darker side. Furthermore she is uncomfortable by the attentions of his son, Edward, and soon finds there is a plot against her for her money when she refuses Edward's hand. The story has a most unhappy ending for Margaret's young cousin Emily, her beloved friend.

Overall The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre is worth a read with some gems of stories in there!

[Struan Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Vampyre by John Polidori ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

“There was no colour upon her cheek, not even upon her lip…. - upon her neck and breast was blood, and upon her throat were the marks of the teeth having opened the vein:- to this the men pointed, crying, simultaneously struck with horror, ‘A Vampye, A Vampyre!’”

A really thickly gothic and lusciously written vampyre tale. Short and snappy. Yes the writing is excessively flowery, and the plot could have been shifted about to make it flow more evenly, but it’s a solid short story. Although, seeing as this was written on the same night as Frankenstein, it’s hard to not compare the two, and it is the lesser of them both. It’s more rudimentary and less rich than Frankenstein. Definitely one for the vampiric story fans but not an essential gothic text.

Sir Guy Eveling’s Dream by Horace Smith ⭐️.5

“Whom when she saw approaching as if to untie the ruff, a sudden great terror and change of countenance fell upon her, so that she clasped both her hands round her throat as if to hold it fast, and, uttering a piteous soul-piercing shriek, the spectre or apparition, for such in good sooth might it seem, straight away vanished!”

In the style of an old fashioned document, utterly littered with complex and frankly unbeknownst language to me, it leans heavily into the archaic language of old England. So thus makes it a more of a difficult read, based purely on comprehension alone. It’s probably to its benefit that it is mere 8 pages long. It’s an interesting read that forces concentration. Thank god for the explanatory notes at the back. It felt almost raucous in places with its descriptions, strict moral compasses mustn’t have fully developed as of yet. Probably looses half a star, just for my own thickness and not fully grasping the storyline and intricacies fully. It’s not the books fault that I’m not clever enough, but I can’t say that it’s worked in its favour.

Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman by William Carleton ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“I felt a sense of approaching evil hang heavily upon me; the beats of my pulse were languid, and an undefinable feeling of anxiety pervaded my whole spirit; even my face was pale, and my eye so heavy, that my father and brothers concluded me to be ill; an opinion which I thought at the time to be correct; for I felt exactly that kind of depression which precedes a severe fever”

“We are bound upon a project of vengeance, and if you do not join us, remember that we can revenge”

Probably my favourite of the collection so far. The macabre and the horror here comes not from monsters or supernatural, but by the hand of man. This is really quite nasty. Evokes the typical gothic settings and certainly by the end gets quite really quite nasty. It’s actually quite chilling to read about knowing that it is based on truth. I’m so very interested to read more William Carlton now. Suitably dark for this month.

Monos and Daimonos by Edward Bulwer ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

“And then the sense of loneliness, the vague, vast, comfortless, objectless sense of desolation passed into me”

This grew on me with each page, finally ending on the cacophony of repercussions. I ended up really enjoying this. I wasn’t sure when I first started it but as I progressed and it’s morphed and molded into what it was to become I really enjoyed it. An unsettling dichotomy of whether something is real or fabricated; ending in pure psychological warfare. Really solid little short.

The Master of Logan by Allan Cunningham ⭐️⭐️.5

“The clouds lowered, the thunder plump fell, and the fire flew, and heaven and earth seemed ready to come together. It’s no’ for nought that Nature express her wrath - the very gaping ground shouldered as if unwilling to take such sinful dust into its bosom”

Hmmm…. I’m torn. The set up here is far too long and laboured, it could really be shortened. Yes there was gothic atmosphere which was good but it felt like the true horror came far too late. There were whispers of ghostly spectres and all of that, but something only really happened at the end. Don’t get me wrong, the ending was great and the pay off was good but the first 2/3rd just felt like a slog to get through. The ending saved this for me.

The Victim by Anonymous ⭐️⭐️

“I watched his countenance till it became so pale, there was only a shade of difference between the two”

I’m a bit disappointed by this. This story is based on (or perhaps inspired by) the Burke and Hare murders. So please tell me why that there was barely a whiff of either of them, just vague allusion. It could have settled into it far more, but alas it shan’t be. It’s a shame because I was looking forward to this one. Not enough of a delve into the gothic for my tastes. Get creepier and nastier. I know it can be done. Just look at others in this collection.

Some Terrible Letters from Scotland by James Hogg ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

“I thought I sometimes felt a saur as if the air had thickened around my face. It is all over with me now, thought I, for I have breathed the Cholera!”

“At the still hour of midnight, as Mary and her mother were sitting reading a chapter of the New Testament, my beloved all at once uttered a piercing shriek - her mother had fallen down motionless, and apparently lifeless. That heart-rendering shriek awakened me from the sleep of death! - I sat up in the coffin, and the lid rattled on the floor.”

This was a bit of tasty literature. Comprised of three letters from three different people all explaining their experiences with Cholera. Super interesting, whilst also being naturally gothic, also serves as a slice of history of probably not so fictionalised account of the cholera epidemic.

The Curse by Anonymous ⭐️⭐️⭐️

“I am again free-free, save from the torture of my own thoughts, which, like the furies of old, are ever present to lash me.”

This has some really exquisite writing. Utterly beautiful and terror soaked images this author has conjured up. It feels a bit typical as a story in today’s society whereas I bet when this was first released this was astounding and super exciting, the ending being really unique. This is a good choice if you want super atmospheric and luscious writing.

Life in Death by Anonymous ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed this short take. Has echos of a Frankenstein style but with its own unique take. Really awesome story progression, and with a horror tinged ending. Really great, defo for fans of Frankenstein.

My Hobby, - Rather by N. P. Willis ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“There was no atmosphere - nothing between the eye and the pearly moon,- and she rode through the heavens without a veil, like a queen as she is, giving a glimpse of her nearer beauty for a festal favour to the worshiping stars.”

An incredibly short story, reaching the lofty heights of 3 pages, has more punch and enjoyment that some of the longer stories in this collection. The luscious writing really enhances the extremely simple story, and it creates something interesting and enjoyable. Lovely little surprise here.

The Red Man by Catherine Gore ⭐️

I have no quotes and I couldn’t even finish this. It was just dull and pages and pages and pages and pages of just dialogue but it was dull uninteresting dialogue at all. Really didn’t enjoy this one at all.

Post Mortem Recollections of a Medical Lecturer by Charles Lever ⭐️⭐️.5

“I watched him closely, and saw that his countenance changed as he looked on me; I felt his hand tremble slightly as he placed it on my wrist, and heard him mutter to himself , in a low tone, My God! how altered!”

Nothing horrendously bad with this one but also nothing blow my mind fantastic. A semi interesting premise that has just enough substance to keep it running for the duration. I like the idea but it could have been so much more and could have been so much gnarlier.

The Bride of Lindorf by Letitia E. Landon ⭐️⭐️⭐️

“But she-she loved him with all that poetry which is only to be found in a woman’s first affection; it is the early colour that the rose-bud opens to the south wind,-the warmth that morning breathes upon a cloud whose blush reddens, but returns not. Pure, shy, sensitive, tender and unreal, it’s the most ethereal, yet most lasting feeling a life can know.”

Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess by Sheridan le Fanu ⭐️⭐️⭐️

“It was not sleep, it was torpor, lethargy, death. I knelt down and prayed with an agony of earnestness; and then seating myself upon the bed, I awaited my fate with a kind of terrible tranquility.”

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bodysnatchers, cholera, curses and ghosts...

This is a collection of fourteen stories that were first published in magazines between 1819 and 1838. The majority are from London’s New Monthly but there are a few from other London and Dublin magazines. This was a time when magazines were flourishing, providing information and sensation to a readership hungry for entertainment. The foreword tells me that this book deliberately omits the famous Edinburgh-based Blackwood magazine, because Oxford World’s Classics had already published a separate collection of them. The title story, The Vampyre by John Polidori, arose out of the same evening of ghost story-telling that inspired Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and was the first literary portrayal of what would become the modern vampire, hence its star billing.

I found this an intriguing collection, different in tone to the usual horror anthology. Although some of the stories have a ghostly or otherwise supernatural element, many of them are strictly about human horrors and they’re often related in some way to events of the time. For example, James Hogg’s contribution, Some Terrible Letters from Scotland, arises from the cholera epidemic which killed thousands of Scots in 1831-2, while William Carleton’s Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman is based on a real-life lynching – the Ribbonmen were a secret organisation of Irish nationalists. More than one of the stories has been influenced by the true-life story of Burke and Hare, who robbed graves and murdered people to supply bodies for anatomy students. And there’s a good sprinkling of Scottish and Irish stories, which pleased my Celtic heart.

Macabre is undoubtedly the right word for the collection – some of the stories are fairly gruesome, with a proliferation of corpses and anatomists popping up more than once, and the ones based on real events have an added grimness for knowing that. Madness, when it appears, is not always of the Poe-esque high Gothic variety, but more of the realistic murderer type, and is therefore more chilling than scary, perhaps. A couple of them were too macabre for my squeamish taste, but they were more than compensated for by touches of humour or genuine spookiness in other stories. Here are a few of the ones I enjoyed most:-

Monos and Daimonos by Edward Bulwer – a story of a man’s desperate search for solitude and what happens when he can’t find it. Very well written and enjoyable, especially for the more misanthropic among us!

Sir Guy Eveling’s Dream by Horace Smith – this is written in the form of an old historical document, so the author has a lot of fun with old-fashioned language. Basically a warning to wastrels everywhere, this tells of a man who spends his life drinking and womanising, till one day he comes across a beautiful but mysterious lady, who is not quite what she appears. Quite naughty, this one, I thought, in a mild way – Victorian morality must not have kicked in yet. I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be funny, but it did make me laugh!

Some Terrible Letters from Scotland by James Hogg – this is presented as three letters supposedly written by people caught up, as I mentioned above, in the cholera epidemic. The first tells of a man who is pronounced dead and prepared for burial, but his mind is still conscious. Apparently this was a real fear during the epidemic, at a time when medicine was still a pretty primitive profession. The next letter gives a picture of how easily the disease could be spread, and how that led to fear of strangers. The last one takes us more into supernatural territory as a woman insists on nursing the sick over the protests of her fearful children. Together, they’re a great mix of history and horror with touches of black humour.

The Curse by Anonymous – a man is returning from India, having made his fortune there, to claim the hand of the girl he loves. But on the way home, he meets an old man who tells him that God has placed a curse on his family in revenge for murders committed by an ancestor. Needless to say, when he gets home, the curse is waiting for him! This is a more traditional story which touches on that never-ending Scottish obsession with sectarianism and hellfire religion, and it’s very well told.

Life in Death by Anonymous – a man invents an elixir which, when rubbed on a newly deceased body, will bring the dead back to life. But it all goes horribly wrong! Some deliciously shivery moments of pure horror in this one – sometimes death isn’t the worst thing that can happen...

There’s an interesting introduction by Robert Morrison, Professor of English Literature at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, and Chris Baldick, professor of English at Goldsmith’s College, University of London, in which they tell the story behind The Vampyre and discuss the history of the magazines and the part they played in the literature of the day. The notes are great, with each story put into its historical context. Needless to say, most of the information I’ve included above has been taken from the introduction or notes.

In total I gave nine of the tales either four or five stars individually, so despite there being a few I wasn’t so keen on, overall I enjoyed the collection very much, and recommend it as a good mix of stories that are a little different from the norm. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Oxford World’s Classics.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com

[Louise]

I read from numerous short story collections rather erratically so it could be a while before I finish this one - so instead of waiting until I've read all of these and then posting a review for the collection after I've forgotten a lot of the details (which I'll probably do as well) I am going to use his space to post mini-reviews of particularly noteworthy stories as and when I read them.


2/14 stories read

The Vampyre, John Polidori (14/06/12)

The title book of this collection, and a few words have to be said about the author, the conception of the story, and its literary influence before I can start to asses it on its own merits. For the benefit of anyone who doesn't read much gothic fiction this is the story that brought the modern idea of the 'aristocratic and sexy' vampire to England - predating both Le Fanu's Carmilla and Stoker's Dracula. The author, Polidori, was a physician to Lord Byron and the story was conceived in the same evening of competitive ghost stories that inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein. As such, the titular vampire, Lord Ruthven is widely believed to be based on Lord Byron and the relationship between Lord Ruthven and his victim reflecting an exaggerated version of that between Byron and Polidori. Considering that the name 'Lord Ruthven' had already been used for a character clearly meant to reflect Byron in another work of fiction written by a spurned lover, the Byron as the inspiration for The Vampyre is a theory I can accept - to an extent. Not being a Byron scholar though that's not really my interest, so onto the merits of the story!

While I really enjoyed it, I wasn't blown away. The narrative voice is incredibly passive and it reads more like an oral story than it does a written work; very bare-bones with little dialogue, a detached third-person narration, and scant description. It fits with the type of story - especially when you remember that the origin was essentially a group of writers making up campfire stories - but it really doesn't make for the most involved reading. I actually quite liked it - it enabled me to imagine the details more vividly - but it's a bit like reading an urban legend rather than a piece of literature - it doesn't suck you into caring about the characters, it just narrates the 'facts' of the story and leaves it at that.

The ending was also rushed, the last line unintentionally full of cheesy Hammer Horror movie DUN DUN DUN! It even has the last word capitalised with an exclamation mark at the end. After all the build-up I expected more - not for it to follow a different path, it was predictably signposted from the start, but for it to execute the final crime with a bit more style and finesse. Ending aside though I liked the plot - the danger of Lord Ruthven isn't just a physical thirst for blood but that he is 'mad, bad, and dangerous to know' (I'm sorry, it's cliché but it was fun!). Sure he kills beautiful young virgins and drains their blood but his real evil is more insidious and far more terrifying - a delight in finding and corrupting innocence and virtue, and joy in ruining lives. Lord Ruthven is a man who rewards vice with the ability to indulge in it even further, takes glee in misery, and goes out of his way to destroy the life of his idealistic young companion. His evil comes from his force of personality as much as it comes from his biological necessity to drink blood - and he's a stronger character for it than the rather simplistic Dracula. Or he would be, if this short and sketchy story had been fleshed out into the atmospheric novella it should clearly have been.

In short, I can see how it was as influential as it is and how the ideas sparked the whole vampire trend in England - transforming a rather base peasant myth of living corpses into a dark, charismatic, and deeply seductive danger - particularly for the upper classes. Unfortunately the execution never quite lived up to the ideas or potential and I never truly managed to bring myself to care about any of the victims or their sufferings, so detached was the narration. It's a good read, a fun read, a must for any vampire fan, but it left me wishing there was just a little bit more to it.

Sir Guy Eveling's Dream, Horace Smith (29/06/12)

[Kürbispampe · Rating 1.5 out of 5]

[1.5⭐️]

The Vampyre is often regarded as the first modern vampire story in English literature. It originated during the famous summer of 1816, when John Polidori, Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron stayed at a villa near Lake Geneva and challenged one another to write ghost stories. Polidori developed his tale from this literary gathering, and it was published in 1819.

Now, putting the historical significance aside, I sadly have to say that this was a miss for me.

Maybe Gothic short stories just aren't for me. I didn't enjoy The Castle of Otranto, and now The Vampyre hasn't won me over either. That said, I have to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of short stories in general, so perhaps that played a part in my experience, too.

One thing worth mentioning, though: don't go into this expecting vampire lore as we know it today. If you're expecting something along the lines of Dracula and the vampire mythology that developed later, you might be disappointed. This is a much earlier interpretation of the vampire, and its historical significance is arguably more interesting than the reading experience itself.

Unfortunately, the story simply didn't intrigue me. I can appreciate its place in literary history, but I didn't particularly enjoy reading it.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review available at: warmdayswillnevercease.wordpress.com

The Vampyre is a fantastic story and it features Aubery, a young man from England who meets Lord Ruthven, a mysterious English nobleman. They travel together to Rome but Aubery leaves for Greece alone when Ruthven seduces the daughter of Aubery’s friend. In Greece Aubery becomes infatuated with Ianthe, a very young girl, who tells him a tale about vampires. Later, Ruthven seduces Aubery’s sister who has a nervous breakdown. I’m not going to reveal much more of the plot because you should read it to find out what happens. It’s a fantastic plot though and I really enjoyed it.

Another aspect that I loved about this story is that the the vampire is obviously Lord Byron. Ruthven is a name that a few of Byron’s lovers have used to represent him in novels, most notably in Glenarvon by Lady Caroline Lamb which is a very unflattering depiction of Lord Byron. I just love that Byron offended so many of his lovers that they had a thinly veiled code name for him so that everyone knew when a story was about Byron.

I think that this short story is excellently written and I really love this line from the opening on the story:

In spite of the deadly hue of his face, which never gained a warmer tint, either from the blush of modesty, or from the strong emotion of passion, though its form and outline were beautiful, many of the female hunters after notoriety attempted to win his attentions, and gain, at least, some marks of what they might term affection.

Polidori does not hide that Ruthven is a vampire. He makes it obvious from the first page. However, his protagonist doesn’t know so there’s a lovely bit of dramatic irony at play in this novella. I also really love the term ‘female hunters’ because women are usually seen as weak and submissive in vampire novels and novellas but Polidori considers women to be predators.

The other stories are great too. I loved My Hobby – Rather by N. P. Willis. It’s so short. It’s only three pages long and yet I still really enjoyed it. The story is so strange and yet compelling and that’s just how tales of the macabre should be. I also really enjoyed Post-Mortem Recollections of a Medical Lecturer because it was so different as well as The Bride of Lindorf.

I really wish that there had been more stories in this collection. It’s just a really good collection of tales if you’re into horror stories or the macabre.