Vampyre' and Other Writings

June 18. Began my ghost story after tea. Twelve o clock, really began to talk ghostly. [Lord Byron] repeated some verses of Coleridges Christabel, of the witchs breast, when silence ensued, and Shelley, suddenly shrieking and putting his hands to his head, ran out of the room with a candle. (from the Diary of Dr John William Polidori, 1816) So Polidori (1795-1821) records one of the most famous storytelling evenings in English literature, the stormy night at the Villa Diodati that was the source of Mary Shelleys Frankenstein and his own tale The Vampyre, as well as his Gothic novel Ernestus Berchtold. Polidoris still-compelling works, included here in full, created figures of seductive evil that continue to exert a powerful hold over literature and popular culture. In addition, this collection makes available some of Polidoris fascinating lesser-known works such as his medical thesis on nightmares, his essay on the death penalty, his poetry and diary. Many of these have not been republished since the nineteenth century. Franklin Charles Bishops introduction illuminates the context in which The Vampyre was written, This book, first published in 1993, collects Sparks essays on the Bronts, her selection of their letters and of Emilys poetry. Evident throughout are Sparks critical intelligence, dry wit, and refusal to sentimentalise qualities that gave her own novels their particular appeal. At the same time, The Essence of the Bronts is Muriel Sparks tribute to the sisters whose talents placed them on a stage from where they could hypnotize their own generation and, even more, posterity.