The Vampyre and Carmilla

John Polidori (1795-1821)

Born in London to an Italian immigrant father and English mother, John Polidori studied medicine at Edinburgh University, graduating at the age of nineteen. In 1816, he became physician to Lord Byron and accompanied him on a tour through Europe. They spent the summer at the Villa Diodati in Switzerland, where they regularly met with Percy Shelley, Mary Godwin (later Shelley), and Claire Clairmont. It was during this time that Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein was inspired, partly by conversations with Polidori and his behavior as recorded in his diary.

Though Polidori’s relationship with Byron eventually led to their parting, they remained on cordial terms until the publication of Polidori’s tale ‘The Vampyre’ in 1819. The publisher, Henry Colburn, willfully misattributed the work to Byron. Polidori, seeking to realize his literary ambitions, also published extracts from his diary, a volume of drama and poetry, and a novel begun at Diodati (Ernestus Berchthold; or, The Modern Oedipus). However, the controversy surrounding ‘The Vampyre’ derailed his writing career, and he published little else. He died by his own hand in 1821.

Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873)

Born in Dublin to staunch Protestant parents descended from French Huguenots, Sheridan Le Fanu studied law at Trinity College Dublin. While he maintained a desultory legal practice after graduating, his primary focus was on fiction and journalism. He published his first novel, the historical adventure The Cock and the Anchor, in 1845. Le Fanu edited several newspapers, most notably the Dublin University Magazine, where he serialized his own stories and, despite his Irish nationalist Tory sympathies, maintained a relaxed editorial stance.

He found his distinctive authorial voice in mysteries and thrillers such as The House by the Church-Yard (1861-3), Wylder’s Hand (1863-4), and Uncle Silas (1864). His collections of uncanny and supernatural tales, most famously In a Glass Darkly (1872), are often imbued with Irish politics and history. Known in Dublin as ‘The Invisible Prince’ for his solitary and nocturnal lifestyle, Le Fanu died a recluse in 1873.

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