Lot 281

Byron, George Gordon Noel, Lord, [i.e Polidori, John William]

The Vampyre

Books, Maps & Manuscripts

Auction: 8 February 2006 at 11:00 GMT

£347

Description

a tale by the Right Honourable Lord Byron. Paris: Galignani, 1819. third edition, 12mo., contemporary half calf, marbled boards, spine and corners rubbed and worn, water stain at the top of the inner margin, some spotting.

Note: Summers Gothic bibliography pp. 121 & 542; Wise Byron p. 96 (for the first edition)

By John William Polidori, though often attributed to Lord Byron, who explicitly denied the authorship in a letter to Galignani's Messenger, April 27, 1819. First published in the New monthly magazine, April 1819, it was translated into French and German, these translations persisting upon regarding Byron as the author. The real author, who was uncle to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ended by taking his own life.

Polidori is credited with creating the vampire genre. His vampire, based on Byron to whom Polidori was personal physician, is given the name Lord Ruthven, a name originally given to a Byron based character in Caroline Lamb's Glencarron. Polidori's vampire was not only the first in English fiction, but provided the character type that came to predominate in fantasy fiction i.e. the aristocratic fiend who preys on victims in high society.

Provenance: With the book-label of Susan Euphemia Beckford, daughter of William Beckford, as Duchess of Hamilton and wife of the 10th Duke.