The Vampyre [Hardcover]

John William Polidori (Author), Russell Ash (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1974

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Gubblecote Press (April 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0852632444
• ISBN-13: 978-0852632444
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,448,734 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Destruction of innocence, June 24, 2010

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Vampyre - A Tale (Paperback)

"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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Origin of the Romantic Vampire, February 28, 2011

By 

S. Petteway - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Vampyre; a Tale (Kindle Edition)

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.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Important but flawed text., February 7, 2011

By 

Tom Seddon - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Vampyre; a Tale (Kindle Edition)

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!