Customer Reviews

The Vampyre: A Tale

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"The Vampyre" has a pretty impressive pedigree -- it was first dreamed up on the same legendary night as Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and the title character is based on Lord Byron (who actually got credited for the story). In fact, the history of Dr. John Polidori's short story is more fascinating than the story itself, a brief purple-prosed tale of innocence destroyed and a sinister aristocratic vampire.

A very naive, romantic young man named Aubrey becomes acquainted with a mysterious aristocrat named Lord Ruthven, and decides to go on a tour of Europe with him. But he soon discovers that Ruthven isn't the idealized romantic figure he thought -- he's cruel, depraved and has a corrupting influence on everyone he gets involved with.

Aubrey soon abandons Ruthven and flees to Greece, where he falls in love with a beautiful peasant girl -- only to have her die from a vampiric attack, followed by Ruthven being killed by bandits. Even more shocking, Ruthven reappears in London -- alive and well -- when Aubrey returns, and he has some spectacularly sinister plans in mind for Aubrey's sister.

The main character may be a vampire, but Polidori's story is less of a horror story and more of a study of innocence's destruction. Not only does Ruthven apparently wreck the morals of everyone he becomes close to (although we're never told how), but even the pure-hearted Aubrey turns into a glassy-eyed crazy wreck because of Ruthven.

Writingwise, I hope Polidori was a better doctor than he was a writer. His writing isn't BAD, but he tends to ramble in a purple, prim, distant style -- it feels like the entire story is a summary of someone else's novel, and he skims over the most interesting stuff like Ruthven's actual cruelty or his wooing of Aubrey's sister. But he does give the story an atmosphere of taut suspense especially when Aubrey is trying to escape Ruthven.

Ruthven (based on Byron) is a fairly fascinating character since he was the first aristocratic, elegant, attractive vampire that anybody knows of -- he's not just a monster, but a smart one who manipulates others to get the prize. We don't know whether he corrupts and murders because he's a vampire or whether he's just an evil manipulator, but strangely it makes him all the more fascinating.

"The Vampyre" has the distinction of being the first story involving an aristocratic, attractive vampire, and Lord Ruthven is a fascinating villain despite Polidori's clunky writing. Worth a read, if nothing else for the insights.

As another reviewer mentioned, the background of the tale is more interesting than the story itself. But this does not deny the story's power, specifically since it lies as a direct link in the shift from mythic to romantacized vampires (though Dracula is often--erroneously--attributed as such).

This is the tale of Aubrey, an innocent young nobleman who has become intrigued by the presence of Lord Ruthven (pronounced Riven), a mysterious aristocrat that has recently appeared on the London scene. Despite Ruthven's cold and detached nature, Aubrey manages to make his way into his esteem and travels across Europe with him. During their time together Aubrey comes to realize his companion's cruel and selfish nature while also noting the strange way in which everyone Ruthven comes near immediately falls into ruin.

Though the writing certainly isn't the best, it still provides an interesting enough vehicle through which the story is told. The writing lacks because Polidori was merely Lord Byron's ill-fated physician, one who had dreams of becoming a writer though he was forced into medicine by his father. He wrote "The Vampyre" based off an unfinished story of Lord Byron's and only at the request of a friend. Having read the original Byron fragment, it is interesting to see how Polidori ran with it and the made the story into something else entirely. However, he never had any intention of its publication--hence its unpolished and often meandering style.

Unfortunately, through a series of events outside of his control the story was eventually published under Lord Byron's name. This is why, for those who are curious, this text is sandwiched in-between two letters that focus almost obsessively on Lord Byron and make no mention of the story's actual author. Of course, Lord Byron didn't appreciate the use of his name, and the whole affair caused the already ridiculed physician-yearning-to-be-writer to fall even further into disrepute.

For those--like myself--who are deeply interested in the history of the vampire myth, this is a good read. I would even recommend it to those who are looking for a mildly entertaining tale (even if the ending is a sloppy let down). But if you want excellent writing quality and a frightening story to curl up to on a stormy night, I suggest you look elsewhere.

Know what you're getting! This is not great literature. John Polidori was Lord Byron's personal physician and was present for the "ghost stories" session at Lake Geneva. However as this is the first vampire tale in English ever written and set the prototype of the stylish, cultivated, and urbane vampire, I appreciate it being made available in a Kindle edition. Polidori's story is mostly free of the mythical/religious accretions attached to later vampires. It is a short story and is packaged here among other related short writings by Polidori. I was 22% into the work when I finally got to "The Vampyre." It is not brilliant prose but has its own curious appeal as a benchmark of a genre. The Kindle edition comes via an electronic edition available on the Internet and some transliteration has not gone entirely smoothly. French words with their accent marks are mangled. More discouragingly the text seems to have been scanned with OCR software and then inadequately proof read. How else does one account for reading "clown" instead of "down." "He" is often rendered "ho," and "the" by "tho." There are numerous other flaws, but at the price, I'm not complaining!

Before Bram Stoker's Dracula and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla there was The Vampyre. I feel it's an important read for any lover of vampire tales. This may be the first written account describing how to kill the creature. "A stake was driven entirely through the heart and body...they cut off his head, burned his body, and threw the ashes into his grave."

So much has come after this story. I feel it is important to go back to the very early writings and see how it all started.

Is this THE first vampire tale - no. Folklore existed and religious groups had been talking about blood sucking demons for ages. This is one of the first written and published accounts of vampires.

Unfortunately this free Kindle version has flaws. There are many conversion issues, odd letters and symbols, incorrect words, etc. I encourage you to read this, but perhaps find a clean version through another source.

The background information on this story and Old English made it hard to follow. I did however find this story interesting.

Ok, maybe if someone were to EDIT this, I could read it, but the author uses WAY too many commas, many in the wrong places. He also uses "he/his" multiple times in a sentence without making sure you know who is being spoken of . It reads more as a synopsis of a book than an actual novel.

Sorry, but it sucked too much for me to get even 1/2 through it.

I wasn't expecting much from a free e-book, but I was still disappointed. I can read just about anything, as long as it is well written. I could only stay with it for a couple of chapters and then couldn't make myself pick it back up. Good idea, poorly executed.