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What 1819 novella by John Polidori invented the literary aristocratic vampire?
Polidori — Lord Byron's personal physician and one of the five English visitors stuck indoors at the Villa Diodati during the Year Without a Summer in 1816 — wrote *The Vampyre* (published 1819), introducing the figure of Lord Ruthven and the trope of the aristocratic vampire. Le Fanu's *Carmilla* came in 1872; Stoker's *Dracula* in 1897. *Varney* was a 1840s penny serial.
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The Doctor Who Invented the Vampire and Took Prussic Acid John Polidori was twenty-five. He had written the first English vampire novel, been disowned by Byron, and lost a libel suit. He drank prussic acid on a Wednesday.
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