Title:
The poet and the vampyre : the curse of Byron and the birth of literature's greatest monsters
Edition:
First Pegasus Books hardback edition.
Publication Date:
2014
Publication Information:
New York, NY : Pegasus Books, 2014.
©2014
Physical Description:
xiv, 434 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color), portraits ; 24 cm
ISBN:
9781605986142
Abstract:
"In the spring of 1816, Lord Byron was the greatest poet of his generation and the most famous man in Britain, but his personal life was about to erupt. Fleeing his celebrity, notoriety, and debts, he sought refuge in Europe, taking his young doctor with him. As an inexperienced medic with literary aspirations of his own, Doctor John Polidori could not believe his luck. That summer another literary star also arrived in Geneva. With Percy Bysshe Shelley came his lover, Mary, and her step-sister, Claire Clairmont. For the next three months, this party of young bohemians shared their lives, charged with sexual and artistic tensions. It was a period of extraordinary creativity: Mary Shelley started writing Frankenstein, the gothic masterpiece of Romantic fiction; Byron completed Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, his epic poem; and Polidori would begin The Vampyre, the first great vampire novel. It was also a time of remarkable drama and emotional turmoil. For Byron and the Shelleys, their stay by the lake would serve to immortalize them in the annals of literary history. But for Claire and Polidori, the Swiss sojourn would scar them forever"--Publisher's description.
Contents:
St George's Day -- Directions for John -- The footing of an equal -- That odd-headed girl -- Here is a man -- An empire's dust -- Young Tahitians -- A star in the halo of the moon -- Fog of the Jura -- To die of joy -- The hero of Milan -- Household gods -- The vampyre -- Sea Sodom -- Torn clouds before the hurricane.
Personal Subject:
Subject Term:
Language:
English
