John William Polidori; The Vampyre: A Tale; Romanticism; Gothic fiction; George Gordon, Lord Byron; Byronism; Byromania;

In 1816, George Gordon Byron left England for the European continent. Initially – at least for the first couple of months – he was accompanied by a young physician named John William Polidori. Although Polidori’s sojourn with Byron was a relatively brief one, it profoundly influenced the development of nineteenth-century Gothic fiction, producing Polidori’s greatest claim to fame in the first prose fiction figuring the vampire – the short story titled “The Vampyre: A Tale” (1819). This chapter explores several contexts surrounding Polidori’s highly influential story, starting from the broadest sociocultural context of eighteenth-century fascination with the figure of the vampire, briefly mentioning the broader context of contemporary attitudes toward aristocracy, and then moving on to discussing the more personal context of Polidori’s relationship with George Gordon, Lord Byron, who has been widely argued as the model for Polidori’s figuration of the vampire.

In 1816, George Gordon Byron left England for the European continent. Initially – at least for the first couple of months – he was accompanied by a young physician named John William Polidori. Although Polidori’s sojourn with Byron was a relatively brief one, it profoundly influenced the development of nineteenth-century Gothic fiction, producing Polidori’s greatest claim to fame in the first prose fiction figuring the vampire – the short story titled “The Vampyre: A Tale” (1819). This chapter explores several contexts surrounding Polidori’s highly influential story, starting from the broadest sociocultural context of eighteenth-century fascination with the figure of the vampire, briefly mentioning the broader context of contemporary attitudes toward aristocracy, and then moving on to discussing the more personal context of Polidori’s relationship with George Gordon, Lord Byron, who has been widely argued as the model for Polidori’s figuration of the vampire.