#john polidori

[burningvelvet]

my dealer: got some straight gas 🔥😛 this strain is called “laudanum-dosed wine at the villa diodati on lake geneva in 1816” 😳 you’ll be zonked out of your gourd 💯

me: yeah whatever i don’t feel shit

5 minutes later: dude i swear i just saw mary shelley and claire clairmont talking about reanimation and vampires with lord byron

my buddy percy pacing: dr. john polidori is plotting against us and my wifes nipples have been replaced by eyeballs

#meme #memes #the geneva squad #geneva squad #percy bysshe shelley #percy shelley #mary shelley #lord byron #claire clairmont #john polidori #the vampyre #frankenstein #gothic 1986 #the haunting of villa diodati #dr. who #villa diodati #gothic literature #gothic lit #laudanum #19th century #vampires #goth #funny #english literature #literature #romanticism #the romantics #poetry #dark academia #lit memes

[kayaks00n]

I love how one summer, a bunch of nineteenth century emo kids wrote some books, kinda making fun of their friend, and somehow they are the reason why now, 200 years later vampires are hot and people still make new art about bringing corpses back to life

#the vampyre #frankenstein #mary shelley #mary shelly's frankenstein #john polidori #lord byron #kayak rambles

[belle-keys]

One stormy night on Lake Leman, Lord Byron proposed a little ghastly writing contest...

#they are my roman empire #mary shelley #percy bysshe shelley #percy shelley #lord byron #claire clairmont #john polidori #frankenstein #geneva squad #the vampyre #the romantics #the romantic poets #poetry #literature #english lit #gothic #gothic lit #dark academia #dark academia moodboard #books and literature #book blog #spooky season #ghosts

[amatesura]

Gothic (1986) | dir. Ken Russell

#gothic #perioddramaedit #horroredit #filmedit #filmgifs #john polidori #lord byron #timothy spall #gabriel byrne #ken russell #*

[vousnepouvezpas]

Gothic, 1986 - dir. Ken Russell

#gothic #ken russell #mary shelley #lord byron #john polidori #percy bysshe shelley #claire clairmont #horror #horror movies #ghost #ghosts #ghost stories

[piedalchemist]

#dracula #dracula daily #carmilla #mircalla #millarca #lestat #the vampyre #john polidori #sheridan le fanu #bram stoker #anne rice #gothic horror #gothic #vampires #vampire #vampire memes #vampire media #dracula memes #carmilla karnstein #carmilla memes #mary shelley #frankenstein #lord byron #byronic hero #lord ruthven

[kingbuffy]

I can't believe Lord Byron is the reason we have vampires

#and possibly the internet #not because of his accomplishments but because he was a heartbreaker and a scoundrel #modern vampires as we know them today #I'm well aware that vampires go way back but they used to be a lot closer to what we'd call zombies before polidori wrote his revenge fic #lord byron #the vampyre #john polidori #vampires

[terryboot]

My bullet journal for November. Did something a little different this time.

If youve been following me for a while then you'll know i love Mary Shelley and her contemporaries, especially those who were with her at Villa Diodati in the summer of 1816. But in the last week or so i've been particularly drawn to them. I read The Villa by Rachel Hawkins which is partly inspired by the Villa Diodati gang and havent stopped thinking about them since.

Doing a Romantic Era poets theme has been in the back of my head for a while but this is the first time i've actually thought of a way to do it and i'm pretty happy with how its turned out! Each week will feature a different member of the group but of course Shelley herself had to be first!

#my art #my bullet journal #bullet journal #bullet journal inspo #mary shelley #frankenstein #romantics #romantic era #villa diodati gang #percy shelley #lord byron #claire clairmont #john polidori

[isablooo]

Lord Ruthven and Victor Frankenstein ♡

#my contribution to society #frankenstein #the vampyre #vampire #victor frankenstein #pride 2023 #isabelle draws lit #myart #gothic literature #gothic #mary shelley #john polidori

[cashthecomposer]

#guess who finally got polls #poll #polls #Villa Diodati #Diodati #Mary Shelley #Percy Shelley #Lord Byron #John Polidori #Claire Clairmont #classic literature #gothic #gothic literature #regency #Frankenstein #Don Juan #Vampyre

[burningvelvet]

being a romantic era poet: a quick how-to guide

walk around in nature contemplating Things. start hiking, swimming, sailing, rowing, shooting, riding, etc. for inspiration

be obsessed with the french revolution and related enlightenment-era figures like rousseau, voltaire, mary wollstonecraft, and madame de staël. be more disappointed by napoleon bonaparte than you are by your own father. 

speaking of fathers, your parents and most of your other relatives are all either dying or dead or emotionally abusive. if you have any siblings (full, half, step, or adopted) who DIDN'T die tragically already, then you may choose to be close to them. you also may end up being much TOO close to them. various circumstances may also ban you from seeing them. 

be at least slightly touched by madness and/or some other severe illness(es) including but not limited to: consumption, horrors, syphilis, deformities, lameness, terrors, piles, boils, pox, allergies, coughing, sleep abnormalities, gonorrhea, etc. — for which you must take frequent bed rest and copious amounts of Laudanum (opium derivation)

consider foregoing meat and adopting a vegetable diet instead to purify the spirits. you may also abstain from alcohol for the same reasons. alternatively, you may attempt the veggie diet, end up rejecting it, and becoming a rampant alcoholic instead. in romanticism there is no healthy medium between abstinence and excess.

reject, or at least heavily criticize, christianity. refuse to get married in a church and consider becoming a fervent champion of atheism. alternatively, you may embrace catholicism, but only on an aesthetic basis. eastern religions and minority religions are also acceptable, only because they piss off the christians. 

if you’re not a self-hating member of the aristocracy and instead have to work for a living, do something that allows you to benefit society, be creative, and/or contemplate life. viable options include, but are not limited to: apothecarist, doctor, teacher, preacher, lawyer, farmer, printmaker, publisher, editor. there is also the possibility of earning a few coins from your art. if you were cursed to be born a She, no worries. we believe in equality. you may choose from these occupations: wife, nanny, housekeeper, spinster, amanuensis (copy writer for a man), lady’s companion, divorced wife, singer/actress/escort, widow, regular escort, tutor, or housewife. 

speaking of sexist institutions, try rejecting marriage entirely. Declare your eternal devotion to your lover by having sex with them on your mother’s grave instead.

if you do get married — elope, and only let it be for necessary financial reasons, or to try and save a teenage girl from her controlling family, or out of true love with someone you view as your intellectual equal, or because your life is so racked with scandals and debt that you can only clear your name by matrimony to a wealthy religious woman as your last resort before fleeing the country.

After marriage, quickly assert your belief in the powers of free love and bisexuality by taking extramarital lovers and suggesting your spouse follow suit. If they cannot keep up with your intellectual escapades then consider leaving them. Later on, propose a platonic friendship with them following the separation, or beg them for reconciliation.

If your marriage is happy, try moving in with another bohemian couple to shake things up. Alternatively, you may die before the wedding for dramatic effect.

If you beget children (whether in or out of marriage, makes no matter), do society a favor by choosing to raise them with your beliefs. Consider adopting orphan children, or even non-orphan children. If their parents are poor enough they probably won’t mind. Try kidnapp— I mean adopting — children off the side of the road if you can. 

DIE but do it creatively. ideally young. ideas: prophecy your own death, lead an army into war and then die right before your first battle and on your deathbed curse everyone and demand to see a witch, write a will leaving money to your mistresses or some random young man you have an unrequited romantic obsession with, carry a copy of your dead friend's poetry and read it right before you drown so that your washed up corpse can only be identified by his book in your pocket, die while staring at your lover's shriveled up heart that you keep wrapped up in a copy of his own poetry and then be buried with it, die of the poet's illness (consumption) while your artist friend draws you and then be buried with your lover's writing, get mysteriously poisoned (by yourself) after a series of scandals and accidents and then have your family announce that you were killed by god, die from romanticizing poverty or receiving bad reviews from literary critics, die from walking or horseback riding in the cold and the rain while poeticizing, etc.

#romanticism #romantics #romantic poetry #english romanticism #literature #english literature #lord byron #percy shelley #history #dark academia #aesthetic #poetry #lit #english #mary shelley #john polidori #william wordsworth #john keats #thomas chatterton #samuel taylor coleridge #william blake #the romantics #geneva squad #funny #meme #lit memes #my writing

[mymultiplehyperfixations]

Me and my sister were talking about The Vampyre earlier and my sister was like “yeah Polidori was a bit creepy, he would def be reported to hr now” and I was like “why?” And she said “he wrote fanfiction about his patient”

Yeah that is a bit creepy

#lord byron #romantic poets #classic lit memes #classic lit #classic literature #the vampyre #john polidori

[empirearchives]

I tried reading Polidori’s “The Vampyre” one night before I went to sleep and I for the life of me cannot remember a single word from it or anything that happened.

But I do remember that the author was very pretty:

#it’s probably because I was sleepy #need to reread it #napoleonic shitposting #vampires #Polidori #John Polidori #The Vampyre #romanticism #english romanticism #vampire novels #napoleonic era #literature #romantic #1800s #19th century

[theersatzcowboy]

Gothic (1986)

Director: Ken Russell

Cinematographer: Mike Southon

Starring: Gabriel Byrne, Natasha Richardson, Timothy Spall, Julian Sands, and Myriam Cyr.

#gothic #1986 #ken russell #gabriel byrne #natasha richardson #julian sands #myriam cyr #timothy spall #cult cinema #cult classic #cult horror #period piece #mary shelley #mary shelly's frankenstein #percy shelley #lord byron #john polidori #gothic literature #80s film #80s movies #80s horror #gothic horror #art history #period horror #period film #costume design #production design #set design #queer horror #queer cinema

[byronfucks]

Actual footage of Polidori and Byron boating on Lake Geneva

#moments before disaster #john polidori #lord byron #geneva squad #romantic poets

[uwmspeccoll]

Spooky Staff Pick of the Week: The Vampyre

Because Halloween is coming up, I decided to pick something spooky for my staff pick this week! I chose this first edition copy of the original modern vampire story, The Vampyre, by John Polidori (1795-1821). Although the binding is not original (there is a note on the front cover from the Harvard College Library that it was bound on July 12, 1904), it is indeed a first edition, published in 1819 by Sherwood, Neely, and Jones in Paternoster Row, London. 

It follows the story of Aubrey, a wealthy young English gentleman who becomes acquainted with the mysterious Lord Ruthven. They set out to travel together to Greece, where Aubrey meets the beautiful Ianthe, who warns him of the evil vampyre and tells him that if he does not believe the tale he will surely have some evidence of this evil creature befall him. During a storm, Aubrey encounters the vampyre in a hovel where Ianthe is found dead, with her throat opened. Afterward, Ruthven and Aubrey leave Greece and on their travels are ambushed by robbers and Ruthven is mortally wounded. Before he dies, Ruthven makes Aubrey swear that he will not speak of his death for a year and a day, then dies with an evil cackle. Can you guess who the vampire is? Hint: It ain’t Aubrey. 

Ruthven’s body disappears the following morning and Aubrey decides to return to England and his sister, who is oddly only called “Miss Aubrey.” Shortly thereafter, Miss Aubrey is introduced to society and who should appear but Lord Ruthven! Only now he goes by the name Earl of Marsden. He reminds Aubrey to keep his oath, and Aubrey subsequently has a nervous breakdown because he now knows for sure that Ruthven/Marsden is... THE VAMPYRE! 

While Aubrey is having his nervous breakdown for literally the next year, his sister is being seduced by none other than the “Earl of Marsden.” Aubrey snaps out of his misery only to find out that his sister is to be married to Marsden on the exact day his oath is to end. He writes a letter to his sister warning her of the danger she is in, and dies. The letter is never delivered, and Miss Aubrey is found dead on her wedding night with her throat ripped open and Marsden long gone into the night. 

The story was written after a fragment by Lord Byron—in which a man seemingly dies and then comes back to life—for the same scary story contest that prompted Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein. John Polidori, who was 21 at the time, was Lord Byron’s personal physician during some of his travels and joined Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Godwin (not-yet-Shelley), and Mary’s stepsister Claire Clairmont at Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva in the summer of 1816. When The Vampyre was initially published in 1819 without Polidori’s permission, it was credited to Lord Byron, who denied having written it, and attributed it to Polidori. It is perhaps the case that Lord Byron was unhappy with Polidori’s portrayal of Ruthven, whose name was taken from the satirical novel Glenarvon by Lady Caroline Lamb in which Ruthven is based on Lord Byron, who was Lady Lamb’s ex-lover. Eventually Polidori’s authorship was established and his name added to subsequent editions. Polidori died of “natural causes” in 1821 at the age of 25 in a state of depression due to various things including large gambling debts. 

View more Staff Picks.

View more Halloween posts. 

-- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager

#The Vampyre #John Polidori #Lord Ruthven #Vampires #Lord Byron #Mary Shelley #John William Polidori #spooky #scary #horror #scary stories #Halloween #Lady Caroline Lamb #Glenarvon