The Poet and the Vampyre: The Curse of Byron and the Birth of Literature’s Greatest Monsters

Stott’s chronicle of Lord Byron and his circle concerns itself exhaustively with their itineraries and entanglements—less so with their literary works. In 1816, following the collapse of “Byromania” in the wake of his broken marriage, Byron crosses the Channel in the company of his physician, John Polidori. While abroad, the poet and the doctor encounter Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley’s wife-to-be, Mary Godwin, and Mary’s stepsister, Claire Clairmont. The party lingers in picturesque spots, and readers learn of their erotic intrigues and the jostling of their Romantic egos; the momentous literary consequences of their European vacation, however, receive less consideration. The novels Frankenstein and The Vampyre, written by Mary Shelley and Polidori respectively, were prompted by the “ghost story contest” set by Byron one night in Geneva. Stott (The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi) observes this occasion and gives updates on the drafting processes and practicalities of publication (or, in Polidori’s case, piracy), but his discussion of the novels themselves, which gave birth to “literature’s greatest monsters,” is cursory. Though the book successfully draws attention to two figures—Polidori and Clairmont—who have been overshadowed by their more illustrious companions, it can scarcely be described as literary scholarship. As a popular history, however, it’s certainly engaging. 16 pages of color and b&w photos. Agent: Ben Mason, Fox Mason. (Sept.)