He was one of the earliest pupils at recently established Ampleforth College from 1804, and in 1810 went up to the University of Edinburgh, where he wrote a thesis on sleepwalking and received his degree as a doctor of medicine on 1 August 1815 at the age of 19. Polidori was the oldest son of Gaetano Polidori, an Italian political émigré scholar, and Anna Maria Pierce, a governess. John William Polidori was an Italian English physician and writer, known for his associations with the Romantic movement and credited by some as the creator of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction. Originally published in 1819, many decades before Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and misattributed to Polidori’s friend Lord Byron, The Vampyre has kept readers up at night for nearly two hundred years. John William Polidori’s The Vampyre is both a classic tale of gothic horror and the progenitor of the modern romantic vampire myth that has been fodder for artists ranging from Anne Rice to Alan Ball to Francis Ford Coppola.

But when Ruthven resurfaces in London-making overtures toward Aubrey’s sister-Aubrey realizes this immortal fiend is a vampyre. Before drawing his last breath, he makes the odd request that Aubrey keep his death and crimes secret for a year and a day. When the two are set upon by bandits while traveling together in Europe, Ruthven is fatally injured.

But the young man soon discovers a sinister character hidden behind his new friend’s glamorous facade. His unknown origin and curious behavior tantalizes Aubrey’s imagination. This classic vampire story has inspired generations of authors, from Bram Stoker to Charlaine Harris.Ī young English gentleman of means, Aubrey is immediately intrigued by Lord Ruthven, the mysterious newcomer among society’s elite.

The vampyre 1819