Vampires

English Lit: OCR A Level Dracula, topic 1.2.1

Vampire Literature - The Vampyre: A Tale

Whilst Count Dracula may be the most famous literary vampire, he is by no means the first.

In 1816, Lord Byron’s physician - John Polidori - accompanied him to Lake Geneva and participated in the famous writing competition that also resulted in Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein.
Polidori’s novella (a short novel) The Vampyre: A Tale was published in 1819.
Polidori’s vampyre is Lord Ruthven, who terrorises Aubrey, a young Englishman, marrying and killing his sister.

In his introduction, Polidori refers to the real-life story of Arnold Paole - a Serbian soldier in the Austrian army.
Paole claimed that he was attacked by a vampire. After the vampire bit him, Paole killed it. Feeling cursed, he tried to reverse the effects of the vampire attack by eating soil from the vampire’s grave and smearing himself with the vampire’s blood.

Paole returned home but soon died from a great fall.
After his burial, strange reports began to circulate. People claimed that they'd seen Paole in various locations about town and four people reported that he had attacked them. All four victims died soon after.
Paole’s grave was opened and his body was allegedly found without decomposition, with blood trickling from his lips. He was declared a vampire and his body was staked, decapitated and burned.

Serial killer Countess Elizabeth Bathory both influenced Vampire novels and featured as an antagonist in the sequel to Dracula.

In 1872, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu published Carmilla, giving rise to the oft-cliched portrayal in modern literature of the lesbian vampire.
The young narrator Laura is preyed upon by the vampire Carmilla. It is believed that Sheridan’s inspiration for his vampire-antagonist was drawn (as was Stoker’s) from Countess Elizabeth Bathory.

Bathory is the antagonist in the official sequel to Dracula - Dracula: The Un-dead.
The novel is co-written by Stoker’s great-grandnephew, Dacre Stoker.
Bathory was a serial killer who, allegedly, bathed in the blood of virgins in order to retain her youth. The original title of Dracula was The Undead and remained so until just before it was published.