Poor Polidori : a critical biography of the author of The vampyre / D.L. Macdonald.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Macdonald, David Lorne, 1955-2010.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Polidori, John William, 1795-1821.

Polidori, John William.

Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron, 1788-1824--Friends and associates.

Byron, George Gordon Byron.

Authors, English--19th century--Biography.

Authors, English.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (354 p.)

Place of Publication:

Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, c1991.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In 1816, John William Polidori travelled to Geneva as Byron's doctor. There he took part in the famous ghost-story project that inspired Frankenstein. As the medical member of the party, he contributed some scientific information to Mary shelley's novel. As a writer, he was the most industrious of the party, producing both a novel of his own, Ernestus Berchtold, and The Vampyre, a tale based on an idea of Byron's. An unscrupulous publisher issued Polidori's tale under Byron's name, thereby ensuring great success for the book, although not for its true author. (Byron fired Polidori as his doctor soon after.) History has not paid Polidori much attention. Although he has figured prominetly in a few novels and films, there has never been a full-length study of his life until now.D.L. Macdonald rectifies the situation with this biography. He explains how Polidori's vampire was created as a caricature of the doctor's employer - the aristocrat, the traveller, the seducer. This version differed entirely from the vampire of folklore. It became extraordinarily influential, and remains essentially the vampire of popular culture today.Polidori's life, through short and unsuccessful, provides an opportunity for a new look at the Romantic period. His very lack of success forced him to engage himself succesfully in medicine, literature, law, politics, philosophy, and religion. In following his course we encounter not only a fascinating character but also a wide cross-section of cultural history.

Contents:

Contents

Preface

I: BEFORE BYRON: 1795�1816

1 Beginnings

2 The University of Edinburgh

3 Ximenes: The Modern Abraham

4 Oneirodynia

5 'On the Punishment of Death'

II: BYRON: 1816

6 Negotiations

7 Travels with Byron

8 A Star in the Halo of the Moon

9 Ghost Stories

10 A Series of Slight Quarrels

III: AFTER BYRON: 1816�1821

11 Crossing the Alps

12 Milan

13 Travels in Italy

14 Norwich

15 An Essay upon the Source of Positive Pleasure

16 London

17 The Scandal of The Vampyre

18 Ernestus Berchtold or, The Modern Oedipus

19 The Fall of the Angels

20 Death and Afterlife

Notes

Bibliography

Index

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-313) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

ISBN:

1-282-01160-X

9786612011603

1-4426-7863-1

OCLC:

244768150