The Vampyre (Forgotten Books)
Product DescriptionBook Description: The Vampyre - is a short story written by John William Polidori and is a progenitor of the romantic vampire genre of fantasy fiction.
The Vampyre was first published on April 1, 1819, by Colburn in the New Monthly Magazine with the false attribution A Tale by Lord Byron. The name of the works protagonist, Lord Ruthven, added to this assumption, for that name was originally used in Lady Caroline Lambs novel Glenarvon, in which a thinly-disguised Byron figure was also named Lord Ruthven. Despite repeated denials by Byron and Polidori, the authorship often went unclarified.
The story was an immediate popular success, partly because of the Byron attribution and partly because it exploited the gothic horror predilections of the public. Polidori transformed the vampire from a character in folklore into the form we recognize today - an aristocratic fiend who preys among high society.
The story has its genesis in the summer of 1816, the Year Without a Summer, when Europe and parts of North America underwent a severe climate abnormality. Lord Byron and his young physician John Polidori were staying at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva and were visited by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and Claire Clairmont. Kept indoors by the incessant rain of that wet, ungenial summer, over three days in June the five turned to telling fantastical stories, and then writing their own. Fueled by ghost stories such as the Fantasmagoriana, William Beckfords Vathek and quantities of laudanum, Mary Shelley produced what would become Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. Polidori was inspired by a fragmentary story of Byrons and in two or three idle mornings produced The Vampyre.
Polidoris work had an immense impact on contemporary sensibilities and ran through numerous editions and translations. An adaptation appeared in 1820 with Cyprien Berards 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 across Europe. Edgar Allan Poe, Nikolai Gogol, Alexandre Dumas, and Leo Tolstoy all produced vampire tales, and themes in Polidoris tale would continue to influence Bram Stokers Dracula and eventually the whole vampire genre.
(Quote from wikipedia.org)Table of Contents: Publishers Preface; The Vampyre
About the Publisher: Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, Esoteric and Mythology. www.forgottenbooks.org
Forgotten Books is about sharing information, not about making money. All books are priced at wholesale prices. We are also the only publisher we know of to print in large sans-serif font, which is proven to make the text easier to read and put less strain on your eyes.
About the AuthorAbout the Author: John William Polidori (7 September 1795 - 24 August 1821) was an Italian English physician and writer, known for his associations with the Romantic movement and credited by some as the creator of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction.
Polidori was the oldest son of Gaetano Polidori, an Italian political emigre scholar, and Anna Maria Pierce, a governess. He had three brothers and four sisters.
He was one of the earliest pupils at recently established Ampleforth College from 1804, and in 1810 went up to the University of Edinburgh, where he wrote a thesis on sleepwalking and received his degree as a doctor of medicine on 1 August 1815 at the age of 19.
In 1816 Dr. Polidori entered Lord Byrons service as his personal physician, and accompanied Byron on a trip through Europe. At the Villa Diadoti, a house Byron rented by Lake Geneva in Switzerland, the pair met with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, and her husband-to-be, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and their companion (Marys step-sister) Claire Clairmont.
One night in June, after the company had read aloud from the Tales of the Dead, a collection of horror tales, Byron suggested that they each write a ghost story. Mary Shelley worked on a tale that would later evolve into Frankenstein. Byron wrote (and quickly abandoned) a fragment of a story, which Polidori used later as the basis for his own tale, The Vampyre, the first vampire story published in English.
Rather than use the crude, bestial vampire of folklore as a basis for his story, Polidori based his character on Byron. Polidori named the character Lord Ruthven as a joke. The name was originally used in Lady Caroline Lambs novel Glenarvon, in which a thinly-disguised Byron figure was also named Lord Ruthven.
Polidoris Lord Ruthven was not only the first vampire in English fiction, but was also the first fictional vampire in the form we recognize today - an aristocratic fiend who preys among high society.
Dismissed by Byron, Polidori travelled in Italy and then returned to England. His story, The Vampyre, was published in the April 1819 issue of New Monthly Magazine without his permission, whilst in London he lived and died in Great Pulteney Street (Soho). Much to both his and Byrons chagrin, The Vampyre…
(Quote from wikipedia.org)
Why Buy A The Vampyre (Forgotten Books)?
Book Description:
The Vampyre - is a short story written by John William Polidori and is a progenitor of the romantic vampire genre of fantasy fiction.
The Vampyre was first published on April 1, 1819, by Colburn in the New Monthly Magazine with the false attribution A Tale by Lord Byron. The name of the works protagonist, Lord Ruthven, added to this assumption, for that name was originally used in Lady Caroline Lambs novel Glenarvon, in which a thinly-disguised Byron figure was also named Lord Ruthven. Despite repeated denials by Byron and Polidori, the authorship often went unclarified.
The story was an immediate popular success, partly because of the Byron attribution and partly because it exploited the gothic horror predilections of the public. Polidori transformed the vampire from a character in folklore into the form we recognize today - an aristocratic fiend who preys among high society.
The story has its genesis in the summer of 1816, the Year Without a Summer, when Europe and parts of North America underwent a severe climate abnormality. Lord Byron and his young physician John Polidori were staying at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva and were visited by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and Claire Clairmont. Kept indoors by the incessant rain of that wet, ungenial summer, over three days in June the five turned to telling fantastical stories, and then writing their own. Fueled by ghost stories such as the Fantasmagoriana, William Beckfords Vathek and quantities of laudanum, Mary Shelley produced what would become Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. Polidori was inspired by a fragmentary story of Byrons and in two or three idle mornings produced The Vampyre.
Polidoris work had an immense impact on contemporary sensibilities and ran through numerous editions and translations. An adaptation appeared in 1820 with Cyprien Berards 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 across Europe. Edgar Allan Poe, Nikolai Gogol, Alexandre Dumas, and Leo Tolstoy all produced vampire tales, and themes in Polidoris tale would continue to influence Bram Stokers Dracula and eventually the whole vampire genre. (Quote from wikipedia.org)
Table of Contents:
Publishers Preface; The Vampyre
About the Publisher:
Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, Esoteric and Mythology. www.forgottenbooks.org
Forgotten Books is about sharing information, not about making money. All books are priced at wholesale prices. We are also the only publisher we know of to print in large sans-serif font, which is proven to make the text easier to read and put less strain on your eyes.
Customer Reviews & Opinions
It was a good book.
The book was good
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..
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