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The 1819 title page of Polidori's horror story, including the false attribution to Lord Byron. |
When it
comes to the very first vampire in literature it's natural to think of the 1897 horror novel Dracula by Irish author Bram Stoker. But Stoker
was influenced by a Regency story that may have started the romantic vampire
fiction genre. That story is “The Vampyre,” written by John William Polidori and
published in London in 1819.
When it
first appeared in print, this horror story was falsely attributed to Lord
Byron. The mix-up is understandable, since the story may have been inspired by some fragments of a story written by Byron in 1816.
Contributing to the confusion is the fact that the
story’s vampire hero is named Lord Ruthven, which is the same name Lady
Caroline Lamb used to thinly disguise a character based on Byron in her 1816 novel
Glenarvon. (Her portrait of Byron wasn't flattering – when she wrote it she was still upset with him for dumping her.)
In any
event, the mistake in authorship was corrected in later editions of the story,
and the story itself was a huge hit. It’s a real doozy of a tale, too, filled
with seduction, murder, untimely death (and in the vampire’s case, undeath) and
a doomed marriage.
I confess I don’t really get vampire romance – to me it’s not
especially romantic when a beautiful young bride dies on her wedding night, her life's blood drained from her body. I don’t care how handsome the vampire
is.
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The Vampire, by Sir Philip Burne-Jones, Baronet |
But I’m
clearly in the minority, as vampires have become a staple of romance
fiction. In addition to Dracula, we have Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles and Charlaine
Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse novels. Many of these stories have been adapted into movies (Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Interview with a Vampire) or television
programs (True Blood).
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Edward and Bella, the well-known vampires of the Twilight film series |
The tale of
Dracula in particular has been filmed dozens of times, and fans of the story will be thrilled to know that there’s
a new TV series featuring their undead hero premiering next week (Oct. 25) on
NBC. Dracula is set in Victorian London
and stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers (star of The
Tudors). Produced by the folks behind Downton Abbey, Dracula promises to be both romantic and gory in the best tradition of
the genre.
Here’s a preview:
Rhys Meyers
appears poised to join some of Hollywood’s sexiest leading men who've been
eager to portray vampires, actors such as Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp
and Robert Pattinson.
I don’t know how Lord Ruthven would stack up against
these Hollywood stars. But I do know that without him, these vampires that we've known and loved may have never materialized on page or screen.
***
Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Interesting! Who knew? Thanks for another enlightening post! xo Jennifer
ReplyDeleteDang it Maureen, Now I'm gonna have to watch this show too!!! Pretty soon I'm going to be watching TV all the time, just to keep up with Downton Abbey, Grimm, The Paradise, Selfridges, Sleepy Hollow, and now Dracula! I'll have to quit my job!
ReplyDelete- Momma Cat