History Literature / TheVampyre

* VampiresAreSexGods: Mild and implied. Lord Ruthven is "seductive" and women are easily infatuated by his charms. Its also notable that [[spoiler: Aubrey's sister dies on her honeymoon with Lord Ruthven.]]

As a matter of historical interest, Polidori wrote ''The Vampyre'' while holed up in a villa on the shores of Lake Geneva whiling away the extremely unpleasant [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer summer of 1816]] with two of Lord Byron's other friends: Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. The latter produced ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' on the same trip.

''[[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6087 The Vampyre]]'' by John William Polidori, published in April 1819, was the first English prose vampire story and set off a craze of vampire fiction. It began as a fragment of a novel by Creator/LordByron and was adapted into a short story by Polidori, who had been Byron's personal physician. It was published by ''The New Monthly Magazine'' with an attribution to Lord Byron -- probably on purpose for the sake of selling more copies, as the misattribution stuck long after both Polidori and Byron corrected it, much to the two's despair.

''[[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6087 The Vampyre]]'' by John William Polidori, published in April 1819, was the first English prose vampire story and set off a craze of vampire fiction. It began as a fragment of a novel by Creator/LordByron and was adapted into a short story by Polidori, who had been Byron's personal physician. It was published by ''The New Monthly Magazine'' with an attribution to Lord Byron -- probably on purpose, for the sake of selling more copies, as the misattribution stuck long after both Polidori and Byron corrected it, much to the two's despair.

''[[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6087 The Vampyre]]'' by John William Polidori, published in April 1819, was the first English prose vampire story and set off a craze of vampire fiction. It began as a fragment of a novel by Creator/LordByron and was adapted into a short story by Polidori, who had been Byron's personal physician. It was published with an attribution to Lord Byron -- probably on purpose, for the sake of selling more copies, as the misattribution stuck long after both Polidori and Byron corrected it.

* ByronicHero: Arguably the TropeCodifier, since Ruthven was based directly on Byron, whom Polidori knew and disliked. Which arguably could make it a "[[UnbuiltTrope pre-deconstruction]]." Writing the story was, in fact, initially Bryon's idea.

* GoodIsDumb: Ianthe's chief appeal to Aubrey is her innocence and naivety.

* TakeThat: In an attempt to correct the misattribution of authorship to him, Byron wrote about ''The Vampyre'', "I desire the responsibility of nobody’s dullness but my own."

* UpperClassTwit: Aubrey is blind to the fact Ruthven is a vampire SerialKiller until it's almost smacking him in the face. At one point, he goes into a haunted forest against warnings just because he was told ''not'' too.

* ValuesDissonance: Ianthe is described as "infantile" and GoodIsDumb repeatedly to show how sexy she is.