Most people are very much acquainted with Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula but are unaware of other important literary vampires that preceded him.\u00a0 These literary vampires include Lord Ruthven, Varney, and Carmilla.\u00a0 In this series, these vampires and their respective authors will be introduced and show how these lesser known characters greatly impacted both Bram Stoker and other authors such as Anne Rice.<\/p>\n
Dr. John Polidori was originally hired as a medical advisor to the infamous Lord Byron.\u00a0 Polidori was to be his travelling companion as well.\u00a0 However, his greater mission was to chronicle Byron\u2019s journeys because he was commissioned to do so from Byron\u2019s publisher.\u00a0 One would figure such an arrangement would be perfect, but the two quarreled from the very beginning (Masters 199).\u00a0 It was during one of these argumentative travels that Polidori gathered inspiration for his upcoming work.\u00a0 Byron and Polidori happened to be in the company of Claire Clairmont, Mary Godwin, and Percy Shelley, and they all decided to fabricate ghost stories one evening.\u00a0 Polidori\u2019s attempt failed of course, while Mary Godwin achieved success with her story becoming the legendary Frankenstein.\u00a0 During this story-telling session, Polidori managed to take notes as instructed by Byron\u2019s publisher (Melton 480).\u00a0 It was from these notes that the first vampire story came to be published in English (Guiley 229).<\/p>\n
Polidori examined his notes from the evening of storytelling and using pieces from the story that Lord Byron told about a Greek and his travelling companion, created \u201dThe Vampyre\u201d.\u00a0 In addition to using Byron\u2019s initial ideas, Polidori decide to mock him as well with his choice of name for the main character.\u00a0 The vampire\u2019s name was Lord Ruthven which was the name chosen by Byron\u2019s former lover to ridicule Byron in a novel titled, Glenarvon.\u00a0 The character himself could be described as cold and aristocratic individual whose deadly hue attracted the ladies much like Lord Byron (Gregory 26).\u00a0 The story remained unpublished for quite some time until 1819 when Polidori sold it, and it appeared in the New Monthly Magazine.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Polidori initially did not receive credit for the work.\u00a0 The magazine implied that Byron was the author, and it was due to this mistake that the novella achieved instant success.\u00a0 Although Polidori eventually laid claim to the work, the recognition did not do him much good.\u00a0 His troubled life and gambling losses caused him to commit suicide in 1821 (Guiley 230).\u00a0 He would never realize how much of an impact his work would be to the aristocratic and sexy vampire cult that continued throughout the rest of the nineteenth century and beyond (Mascetti 189).<\/p>\n
To better grasp how \u201cThe Vampyre\u201d impacted future vampiric writings and how it mirrored the relationship between Polidori and Byron, one must better understand the character Lord Ruthven.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lord Ruthven is an English vampire living in London.\u00a0 He frequents the many various parties held by the upper crust of society.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He spends his summers in Greece so he may be alone.\u00a0 In regards to his personality, he is cool by nature (Mascetti 154).\u00a0 He is charismatic but can be sadistic when it comes to not caring about the misfortunes of others.\u00a0 He is a gambler and a seducer of women.\u00a0 He is a master manipulator in how he uses his money to taint those who simply want assistance.\u00a0 One could reasonably argue that Lord Ruthven is the epitome of a psychic vampire by the way he causes others to lose their vitality, health, and most importantly, their respectability (Guiley 185).\u00a0 In the story, all of these traits are displayed in how he treats his traveling companion, Aubrey.\u00a0 Throughout the tale, Lord Ruthven constantly destroys Aubrey\u2019s life by killing his loved ones, which include a lady friend and his sister.\u00a0 He manipulates Aubrey into taking an oath for a year and a day.\u00a0 The oath does not allow Aubrey to discuss the matter of the Lord\u2019s death after the pair was attacked by bandits.\u00a0 When the Lord reappears and seeks Aubrey\u2019s sister\u2019s hand in marriage, Aubrey can do nothing to stop it or his sister\u2019s death that quickly follows.\u00a0 In the end, Aubrey suffers a nervous breakdown while Lord Ruthven continues his life of leisure and deceit (Melton 528).<\/p>\n
Next month\u2026meet Varney<\/p>\n
***To those in the vampire community:\u00a0 I am looking for individuals who are interested in a case study\/survey to be conducted by yours truly.\u00a0 If you are interested in participating in this activity, please email me at Lady_TNP@homtail.com.\u00a0 The results will be published as an article in Paganpages!*** Works Cited <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Guiley, Rosemary Ellen.\u00a0 The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters.\u00a0 New York:\u00a0 Checkmark Books, 2005.<\/em><\/p>\n Mascetti, Manuela.\u00a0 Vampire:\u00a0 The Complete Guide to the World of the Undead.\u00a0 New York:\u00a0 Penguin Books, 1992.<\/em><\/p>\n Masters, Anthony.\u00a0 The Natural History of the Vampire.\u00a0 London:\u00a0 Rupert Hart-Davis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ltd, 1972.<\/em><\/p>\n Melton, J. Gordon.\u00a0 The Vampire Book.\u00a0 Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1994.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most people are very much acquainted with Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula but are unaware of other important literary vampires that preceded him.\u00a0 These literary vampires include Lord Ruthven, Varney, and Carmilla.\u00a0 In this series, these vampires and their respective authors will be introduced and show how these lesser known characters greatly impacted both Bram Stoker and other authors such as Anne Rice. Dr. John Polidori was originally hired as a medical advisor to the infamous Lord Byron.\u00a0 Polidori was to be his travelling companion as well.\u00a0 However, his greater mission was to chronicle Byron\u2019s journeys because he was commissioned to do so from Byron\u2019s publisher.\u00a0 One would figure such an arrangement would be perfect, but the two quarreled from the very beginning (Masters 199).\u00a0 It was during one of these argumentative travels that Polidori gathered inspiration for his upcoming work.\u00a0 Byron and Polidori happened to be in the company of Claire Clairmont, Mary Godwin, and Percy Shelley, and they all decided to fabricate ghost stories one evening.\u00a0 Polidori\u2019s attempt failed of course, while Mary Godwin achieved success with her story becoming the legendary Frankenstein.\u00a0 During this story-telling session, Polidori managed to take notes as instructed by Byron\u2019s publisher (Melton 480).\u00a0 It was from these notes that the first vampire story came to be published in English (Guiley 229). Polidori examined his notes from the evening of storytelling and using pieces from the story that Lord Byron told about a Greek and his travelling companion, created \u201dThe Vampyre\u201d.\u00a0 In addition to using Byron\u2019s initial ideas, Polidori decide to mock him as well with his choice of name for the main character.\u00a0 The vampire\u2019s name was Lord Ruthven which was the name chosen by Byron\u2019s former lover to ridicule Byron in a novel titled, Glenarvon.\u00a0 The character himself could be described as cold and aristocratic individual whose deadly hue attracted the ladies much like Lord Byron (Gregory 26).\u00a0 The story remained unpublished for quite some time until 1819 when Polidori sold it, and it appeared in the New Monthly Magazine.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Polidori initially did not receive credit for the work.\u00a0 The magazine implied that Byron was the author, and it was due to this mistake that the novella achieved instant success.\u00a0 Although Polidori eventually laid claim to the work, the recognition did not do him much good.\u00a0 His troubled life and gambling losses caused him to commit suicide in 1821 (Guiley 230).\u00a0 He would never realize how much of an impact his work would be to the aristocratic and sexy vampire cult that continued throughout the rest of the nineteenth century and beyond (Mascetti 189). To better grasp how \u201cThe Vampyre\u201d impacted future vampiric writings and how it mirrored the relationship between Polidori and Byron, one must better understand the character Lord Ruthven.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lord Ruthven is an English vampire living in London.\u00a0 He frequents the many various parties held by the upper crust of society.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He spends his summers in Greece so he may be alone.\u00a0 In regards to his personality, he is cool by nature (Mascetti 154).\u00a0 He is charismatic but can be sadistic when it comes to not caring about the misfortunes of others.\u00a0 He is a gambler and a seducer of women.\u00a0 He is a master manipulator in how he uses his money to taint those who simply want assistance.\u00a0 One could reasonably argue that Lord Ruthven is the epitome of a psychic vampire by the way he causes others to lose their vitality, health, and most importantly, their respectability (Guiley 185).\u00a0 In the story, all of these traits are displayed in how he treats his traveling companion, Aubrey.\u00a0 Throughout the tale, Lord Ruthven constantly destroys Aubrey\u2019s life by killing his loved ones, which include a lady friend and his sister.\u00a0 He manipulates Aubrey into taking an oath for a year and a day.\u00a0 The oath does not allow Aubrey to discuss the matter of the Lord\u2019s death after the pair was attacked by bandits.\u00a0 When the Lord reappears and seeks Aubrey\u2019s sister\u2019s hand in marriage, Aubrey can do nothing to stop it or his sister\u2019s death that quickly follows.\u00a0 In the end, Aubrey suffers a nervous breakdown while Lord Ruthven continues his life of leisure and deceit (Melton 528). Next month\u2026meet Varney ***To those in the vampire community:\u00a0 I am looking for individuals who are interested in a case study\/survey to be conducted by yours truly.\u00a0 If you are interested in participating in this activity, please email me at Lady_TNP@homtail.com.\u00a0 The results will be published as an article in Paganpages!*** Works Cited Gregory, Constantine.\u00a0 The Vampire Watcher\u2019s Handbook:\u00a0 A Guide For Slayers.\u00a0 New York:\u00a0 St. Martin\u2019s Griffin, 2003. Guiley, Rosemary Ellen.\u00a0 The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters.\u00a0 New York:\u00a0 Checkmark Books, 2005. Mascetti, Manuela.\u00a0 Vampire:\u00a0 The Complete Guide to the World of the Undead.\u00a0 New York:\u00a0 Penguin Books, 1992. Masters, Anthony.\u00a0 The Natural History of the Vampire.\u00a0 London:\u00a0 Rupert Hart-Davis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ltd, 1972. Melton, J. Gordon.\u00a0 The Vampire Book.\u00a0 Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1994.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nGregory, Constantine.\u00a0 The Vampire Watcher\u2019s Handbook:\u00a0 A Guide For Slayers.\u00a0 New York:\u00a0 St. Martin\u2019s Griffin, 2003.<\/em><\/p>\n