Penguin Speculative Fiction Special

The Vampyre and Carmilla

The first vampire short story in English, The Vampyre by John Polidori, and the first vampire novella, Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, are published together in one hardback volume. The Vampyre (1819) features Lord Ruthven, a deathly pale yet fatally charismatic nobleman who preys on women of high society. It is generally considered as the first fully developed vampire narrative in English literature. Carmilla (1871–2) by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu is a nineteenth-century Gothic novella featuring a protagonist who typifies the long line of female and lesbian vampires in literature, movies, television series and artwork. In a castle deep in the Austrian forest, Laura, a young woman, leads an isolated life with her father. A horse-drawn carriage crashes and an unexpected guest, the mysterious and seductive Carmilla, enters their lives.

John Polidori (Author) 
John Polidori (1975-1821) was a British writer and physician. Polidori accompanied Byron on his travels and attended the notorious holiday to Lake Geneva in the summer of 1816. It was during this scandalous getaway that he met the Shelleys and began work on The Vampyre, a story which later influenced Bram Stoker's Dracula. Polidori died when he was only twenty-five, but to this day he is considered to be the father of the modern vampire story. 
 
Sheridan Le Fanu (Author) 
Sheridan Le Fanu was born and died in Dublin. He was one of the greatest exponents of the ghost story and the author of Uncle Silas and In a Glass Darkly.

John Polidori

‘Twilight, in these southern climates, is almost unknown; immediately the sun sets, night begins’ 
 
Danger lurks in the dead of night. Written during the infamous gathering that also produced Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, John Polidori’s short story ‘The Vampyre’ travels across countries, twists and turns through treacherous forests, and reveals the perils of staying out after dark. It is accompanied here by two other classic tales of the vampire genre, by Karl Adolf von Waschmann and Bram Stroker.

The Vampyre

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