The Vampire (annotated)

By John William Polidori, John Mitford, John Stagg

Book Overview

The Vampire is a short work of vampire fiction written in 1819 by John William Polidori. The work is often viewed as the progenitor of the romantic vampire genre of fantasy fiction. The work is described by Christopher Frayling as "the first story successfully to fuse the disparate elements of vampirism into a coherent literary genre. Aubrey, a young Englishman, meets Lord Ruthven, a man of mysterious origins who has entered London society. Aubrey accompanies Ruthven to Rome, but leaves him after Ruthven seduces the daughter of a mutual acquaintance. Aubrey travels to Greece, where he becomes attracted to Ianthe, an innkeeper's daughter. Ianthe tells Aubrey about the legends of the vampire. Ruthven arrives at the scene and shortly thereafter Ianthe is killed by a vampire. Aubrey does not connect Ruthven with the murder and rejoins him in his travels. The pair is attacked by bandits and Ruthven is mortally wounded. Before he dies, Ruthven makes Aubrey swear an oath that he will not mention his death or anything else he knows about Ruthven for a year and a day. Looking back, Aubrey realizes that everyone whom Ruthven met ended up suffering. Aubrey returns to London and is amazed when Ruthven appears shortly thereafter, alive and well. Ruthven reminds Aubrey of his oath to keep his death a secret. Ruthven then begins to seduce Aubrey's sister while Aubrey, helpless to protect his sister, has a nervous breakdown. Ruthven and Aubrey's sister are engaged to marry on the day the oath ends. Just before he dies, Aubrey writes a letter to his sister revealing Ruthven's history, but it does not arrive in time. Ruthven marries Aubrey's sister. On the wedding night, she is discovered dead, drained of her blood-and Ruthven has vanished. Polidori's work had an immense impact on contemporary sensibilities and ran through numerous editions and translations. That influence has extended into the current era as the text is "often even cited as an] almost folkloric sources on vampirism". 1] An adaptation appeared in 1820 with Cyprien B rard's novel Lord Ruthwen ou les Vampires, falsely attributed to Charles Nodier, who himself then wrote his own version, Le Vampire, a play which had enormous success and sparked a "vampire craze" in the vampire genre across Europe. This includes operatic adaptations by Heinrich Marschner (see Der Vampyr) and Peter Josef von Lindpaintner (see Der Vampyr), both published in the same year and called "The Vampire". Nikolai Gogol, Alexandre Dumas and Aleksey Tolstoy all produced vampire tales, and themes in Polidori's tale would continue to influence Bram Stoker's Dracula and eventually the whole vampire genre. Dumas makes explicit reference to Lord Ruthven in The Count of Monte Cristo, going so far as to state that his character "The Comtesse G..." had been personally acquainted with Lord Ruthven. In Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series, the character of Lord Ruthven is a prominent character. In the Anno Dracula universe he becomes a prominent figure in British politics following the ascent of Dracula to power. He is Conservative Prime Minister in the period of the first novel and continues to hold power throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries. Described as the "Great Political Survivor" as of 1991 he succeeds Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister (opposed to John Major).

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1517506840
• ISBN13: 9781517506841
• Release Date: September 2015
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 42 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

From a great mind not truly appreciated

Probably more legend surrounds the writing of this novella than the actual story itself. Polidori never received more than a few pounds, but the Vampire was translated into over seven languages and adapted for a play on the continent. Goethe cheekily says that it was the best thing Byron ever wrote! However much this might be based on Byron's fragment, Polidori wrote it at the behest of a patroness after leaving Byron's service. Polidori had been teased and ostracised by Byron and the Shelleys. He himself was volatile and had probably had enough of being called Pollydolly. The Vampire was published without poor Polly's permission, and under Byron's name. It sold like hotcakes. The mixture of melodrama and intrigue delighted the public and began our modern obsession with vampires which just won't die. Yes, there's the cliche of the innocent woman, Ianthe, getting seduced by the mysterious stranger, and her relation's slow unravelling of the danger. But it was Polidori's modelling of the Vampire on his ex-employer that has given this book longevity and made it a genre setter. The Vampire is written quite well - the prose may be over-flowery but Mary Shelley's Frankenstein suffers from the same. The unravelling of the story as Lord Ruthven (pronounced Riven) takes the protganists further into his confidences, and the amusing ending, make it worth a read.

A Horror Classic Reworked for a Younger Audience

Many years ago a group of friends got together and tried to scare each other with scary stories. Among the group were Lord Byron, The poet Shelly and his wife Mary, and Byron's physician John Polidori. Mary Shelly's tale, Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus, has lived on as has The Vampyre by John Polidori. The Vampyre was the first major English vampire story. Fleshcreepers attempts to bring this classic tale to a younger audience. The story opens as a young man of means encounters a dead woman one night. The scene haunts him as he seems to get drawn into other dark scenes. He becomes fascinated by a the Lord Ruthven, an aristocrat of mysterious nature. He even goes so far as to go on a tour of Europe with him. But soon the young man begins to suspect that not is all as it seems with the Lord. His suspicions and their resolution make up the rest of the story. This is an entertaining tale, and while intended for younger readers, is far from genteel. The adaptation does a good job of building the terror and horror and inevitable conclusion. A pretty spooky little book.

First vampire book I ever read...

Well i must say that this book was given to me when i was like 8 yrs old, i read the book and have been hooked ever since on horror books especially vampire books and it's more than 10 yrs later and i still read this book! I give it 5 stars because this is a great book for young readers that want to start reading horror or vampire books..

It was a good book.

The book was good