Lock the doors and turn on the lights! These seven blood-chilling tales of the macabre are a showcase of the supernatural that is sure to haunt your dreams. Includes John Polidori's genre-defining "The Vampyre," Edward Bulwer-Lytton's "Monos and Daimonos," Clemence Housman's "The Werewolf," plus 4 anonymous tales, including "The Curse" and "The Victim."
First published in the year 1819, famous English suspense and thriller writer John William Polidori's book 'The Vampyre a Tale' is often viewed as the progenitor of the romantic vampire genre of fantasy fiction.
"The Vampyre" is a 1819 novel by John William Polidori. Considered to be the progenitor of vampire fiction, this chilling tale is not to be missed by lovers of the supernatural, and it would make for a worthy addition to any collection. John William Polidori (1795 - 1821) was an English writer and physician famous for his connection to the Romantic movement. He is commonly considered to be the creator of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction. Other notable works by this author include: "The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori" (1816), "On the Punishment of Death" (1816), and "Ximenes, The Wreath and Other Poems" (1819). Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.
`Upon her neck and breast was blood, and upon her throat were the marks of teeth having opened the vein: - to this the men pointed, crying, simultaneously struck with horror, "a Vampyre, a Vampyre!"' John Polidori's classic tale of the vampyre was a product of the same ghost-story competition that produced Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Set in Italy, Greece, and London, Polidori's tales is a reaction to the dominating presence of his employer Lord Byron, and transformed the figure of the vampire from the bestial ghoul of earlier mythologies into the glamorous aristocrat whose violence and sexual allure make him literally a 'lady-killer'. Polidori's tale introduced the vampire into English fiction, and launched a vampire craze that has never subsided. `The Vampyre' was first published in 1819 in the London New Monthly Magazine. The present volume selects thirteen other tales of the macabre first published in the leading London and Dublin magazines between 1819 and 1838, including Edward Bulwer's chilling account of the doppelganger, Letitia Landon's elegant reworking of the Gothic romance, William Carleton's terrifying description of an actual lynching, and James Hogg's ghoulish exploitation of the cholera epidemic of 1831-2. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Not dissimilar to modern day stories, ́The Vampyre ́ offers an interesting mix of fangs and romance, and Polidori's tale of Lord Ruthven is a spooky love story that will leave you hiding under your duvet. The young Aubrey is captivated by the mysterious Lord Ruthven, who takes her to Rome. A disagreement between the two, leads Ruthven to travel onward to Greece on his own where he falls in love with Ianthe. She tells him about the tales and myths of vampires but is found killed shortly after. Without connecting the two incidents, Aubrey reunites with Ruthven once more and she rejoins him on his travels, which leads to her eventual heartbreak. Fans of ́Twilight ́, ́Dracula ́, and ́Buffy the Vampire Slayer ́ will enjoy this short story, which is regarded as the first vampire novel to be published. Known by some as the creator of vampire fiction, John William Polidori was an English writer and physician. ́The Vampyre ́ is his most successful piece of writing and the first published modern vampire story. A friend to Lord Byron, Polidori also brainstormed with Percy Bysshe Shelley and a soon-to-be Mary Shelley. Mary later worked on a tale with her husband which would become 'Frankenstein'. Polidori died at his father's London house aged 25, weighed down by depression and gambling debts.
"The Vampyre" is a short work of prose fiction written in 1819 by John William Polidori. The work is often viewed as the progenitor of the romantic vampire genre of fantasy fiction. The work is described by Christopher Frayling as "the first story successfully to fuse the disparate elements of vampirism into a coherent literary genre." THE superstition upon which this tale is founded is very general in the East. Among the Arabians it appears to be common: it did not, however, extend itself to the Greeks until after the establishment of Christianity; and it has only assumed its present form since the division of the Latin and Greek churches; at which time, the idea becoming prevalent, that a Latin body could not corrupt if buried in their territory, it gradually increased, and formed the subject of many wonderful stories, still extant, of the dead rising from their graves, and feeding upon the blood of the young and beautiful. In the West it spread, with some slight variation, all over Hungary, Poland, Austria, and Lorraine, where the belief existed, that vampyres nightly imbibed a certain portion of the blood of their victims, who became emaciated, lost their strength, and speedily died of consumptions; whilst these human blood-suckers fattened-and their veins became distended to such a state of repletion, as to cause the blood to flow from all the passages of their bodies, and even from the very pores of their skins.
Night Of The Harvest Moon: Vampyre is a gothic horror narrative, one that delves deeply into the souls of its characters. The tale begins in the late 1800's in Central Europe, primarily Moldavia and Transylvania and expands to London and Sweden. Harvest Moon is a story of immense reprisals, hatred, and passion. Sorcery, demonology, and religion are essential elements that interweave within the physical and supernatural planes of existence of all those involved. The Vampyre learns of ancient knowledge that existed long before Egyptian civilization, the Ta Merians. The nosferatu also learns of other dimensions and secrets of man and god, another race of beings before the existence of humankind. With this knowledge the Vampyre's revenge is set in place with hatred that far surpasses that of, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed and Kremhild of the Die Nibelungen, and the avenger of Siegfried. The Command Demon, Karcist and Rulers of the North and South Airts, Azazel and Pazuzu with the aid of the Bloodstone Ematille, are summoned by the antagonist Dijon. They are to do his bidding in the Circle Of Magic for one sole purpose: the sacrifice of human life in order to gain his immortal existence.
A deathless creature with an insatiable appetite for blood, Varney is the antihero of this epic, which predates Dracula and establishes many of the conventions associated with vampirism.Volume 1 of 2.
