Gaining a medical degree at the almost unprecedented young age of 19, Polidori was appointed to the highly prestigious position of private physician and travelling companion to Lord Byron who was about to go into voluntary exile in Europe. Polidori was by nature dashing, reckless, impetuous, quixotic, headstrong and impatient but also a man of honour, highly intelligent, ambitious, sensitive and a talented aspiring author. Both stories were composed after Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and Mary, Claire Claremont and Polidori had all agreed to write a tale of terror after an evening of reading ancient ghost stories. The Vampyre was written in the summer of 1816 by the lake of Geneva, the same summer Mary Shelley created her Frankenstein tale. Polidori’s novella set in motion a whole new vampyre mythology that continues unabated today and the original story remains one of the most popular and still widely read and republished of the early 19th century gothic romance horror tales. Further spice was added to the tale because it was believed that Polidori’s vampyre was a realistic portrait of Lord Byron the famous poet.
The Vampyre attracted international acclaim and established the iconic image of the vampire as an aristocratic, handsome, amoral seducer as opposed to the previous literature of a foul, ugly ghoul. Polidori wrote The Vampyre, a novella which when published in 1819 was a success de scandale throughout Europe. This entry has kindly been written for us by Franklin Bishop, expert on Polidori, and editor of "John William Polidori ‘The Vampyre’ and other writings", 2005.
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