This “preface” was used as a way to attribute the writing to Lord Byron when in fact there is no mention of Byron or the story itself. Many reviewers took the extract of the letter from Geneva, included as a preface to 'The Vampyre', as a way to humiliate and degrade Lord Byron for writing, as the reviewer states it, “a filthy tale”. Many reviews at the time, such as the Edinburgh Monthly Review, did not take kindly to such a mistake. It was eventually mistakenly published under Byron’s name.Īlthough many critics in the time would disagree 'The Vampyre' was actually a huge success. Polidori, having a terrible relationship with his employer, took Byron’s original idea and changed it around making it more of a caricature of Byron. When Byron became bored of his own work Polidori borrowed his idea and came up with this tale. At the Geneva convention, while everyone was writing their ghost stories, John Polidori was also at work on his own.

Lord Byron initially had hired John William Polidori as a personal physician that travelled alongside him in his travels. 'The Vampyre', written by John Polidori, was actually first attributed to Lord Byron after having his conference at Geneva with Percy Shelley and Mary Godwin (Shelley’s future wife) along with several other notable figures. The Fall of the Angels: A Sacred Poem (1821) Xinemenes, The Wreath and Other Poems (1819) Despite his family’s acceptance of the cause of death, it was widely reported in the newspapers that Polidori “died by the visitation of God.”Įrnestus Berchtold or The Modern Oedipus: A Tale (1819) He, like his former employer Byron, had accumulated an insurmountable amount of gambling debt. In August 1821, Polidori committed suicide by cyanide, or prussic acid. Polidori later corrected the error through a newspaper editorial. After returning from the journey, “The Vampyre” was accidentally published in April 1819 without Polidori's knowledge, under Byron’s name. In April of 1816 at age 21, he began traveling with Lord Byron as his physician and recorder of the journey. At age 19, he was one of the youngest graduates of medicine from the University of Edinburgh. His father was an Italian scholar and his mother, an English governess. John William Polidori was born September 7th, 1795 in London.

Polidori the vampyre