A review by drowninginhistory
The Vampyre, by John William Polidori

3.0

This had the potential to be absolutely incredible but it had no room to breathe. My edition came in at 25 pages—barely a short story but it wanted to tell a novel’s plot. If everything had been fleshed out, the relationships could have developed and thus, the action and the horror would have been more impactful. Still, it’s difficult to be so hard on it, knowing that this launched the modern vampire genre as a whole. Also knowing how hard Polidori struggled to get his name attached to the work makes me want to give it something! And indeed, there is “something” there. It just didn’t have the space to expand and develop in the way it deserved.