by William John Polidori (Author)

"The Vampyre" is a short story written by John William Polidori and is a progenitor of the romantic vampire genre of fantasy fiction. The work is described by Christopher Frayling as "the first story successfully to fuse the disparate elements of vampirism into a coherent literary genre." Polidori's work had an immense impact on contemporary sensibilities and ran through numerous editions and translations.