"The Vampyre" was the first vampire story in English prose, and as such had a wide-ranging influence, almost singlehandedly creating the now-popular image of the vampire as an aristocratic seducer. The story follows a young Englishman, Aubrey, traveling companion to the older Lord Ruthven. They travel to Rome together, but Aubrey is advised that his companion might have some evil lurking beneath his surface. He warns off a woman who might have become a victim of Ruthven's seduction and heads off on his own to Greece. There he falls in love with Ianthe, a Greek peasant from whom he learns the superstitions about vampires; but before their relationship can develop, Ianthe is killed by a vampire and Aubrey is attacked while trying to save her.

Product Description: The Vampyre A Tale John Polidori Top 100 Gothic Horror "The Vampyre" was first published on 1 April 1819 by Henry Colburn in the New Monthly Magazine with the false attribution "A Tale by Lord Byron". The name of the work's protagonist, "Lord Ruthven", added to this assumption, for that name was originally used in Lady Caroline Lamb's novel Glenarvon (from the same publisher), in which a thinly-disguised Byron figure was also named Lord Ruthven...read more