The Best Vampire Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Vampire Anthology

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (28 August 1814 – 7 February 1873), best known as Sheridan Le Fanu, was an Irish writer of Gothic tales, mystery novels, and horror fiction. He was a leading ghost story writer of the nineteenth century and was central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era. M. R. James described Le Fanu as "absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories". Three of his best-known works are Uncle Silas, Carmilla, and The House by the Churchyard. **S...

Dr. Polidori was Lord Byron's personal physician. Upon accompanying Byron on holiday to Switzerland, he participated in a "ghost story" writing exercise. His own story was met with scorn, but, inspired by the fragment that Byron wrote, Polidori used this base to write was would become the first modern vampire story in the English language. His character, Lord Ruthven, an aristocratic bloodsucker based on Byron, would be used in English, French and German novels, operas and plays until th...