The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori
The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori offers a rare and invaluable firsthand glimpse into one of the most mythologized moments in literary history: the summer of 1816 at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva. This was the now-famous "Year Without a Summer," during which Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Godwin (later Shelley), Claire Clairmont, and Polidori himself convened for a fateful gathering that birthed the modern Gothic tradition.

The diary, which Polidori began during his tenure as Lord Byron's personal physician, meticulously documents the interpersonal dynamics, intellectual debates, literary ambitions, and cultural tensions that shaped the creative atmosphere of the villa. More than a simple travel log, it is a work of self-reflection, chronicling Polidori's deep admiration for Byron, his feelings of professional and personal inadequacy, and his desire for literary achievement. His candid entries chart the inception of Byron's Fragment of a Novel and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, as well as the emotional and psychological pressures that contributed to Polidori's later mental decline.

What distinguishes this diary is its duality: it is both a personal confessional and a historical record. Through Polidori's eyes, readers witness the intellectual intensity and emotional turbulence of early 19th-century Romanticism. The journal also reveals the creative genesis of The Vampyre, a short story that became the first significant work of vampire fiction in English, often misattributed to Byron but authored by Polidori himself.

Edited by William Michael Rossetti and published in 1911, the diary retains historical value not just for literary scholars of the Romantic period, but also for students of psychology, travel writing, and 19th-century European culture.
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The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori
The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori offers a rare and invaluable firsthand glimpse into one of the most mythologized moments in literary history: the summer of 1816 at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva. This was the now-famous "Year Without a Summer," during which Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Godwin (later Shelley), Claire Clairmont, and Polidori himself convened for a fateful gathering that birthed the modern Gothic tradition.

The diary, which Polidori began during his tenure as Lord Byron's personal physician, meticulously documents the interpersonal dynamics, intellectual debates, literary ambitions, and cultural tensions that shaped the creative atmosphere of the villa. More than a simple travel log, it is a work of self-reflection, chronicling Polidori's deep admiration for Byron, his feelings of professional and personal inadequacy, and his desire for literary achievement. His candid entries chart the inception of Byron's Fragment of a Novel and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, as well as the emotional and psychological pressures that contributed to Polidori's later mental decline.

What distinguishes this diary is its duality: it is both a personal confessional and a historical record. Through Polidori's eyes, readers witness the intellectual intensity and emotional turbulence of early 19th-century Romanticism. The journal also reveals the creative genesis of The Vampyre, a short story that became the first significant work of vampire fiction in English, often misattributed to Byron but authored by Polidori himself.

Edited by William Michael Rossetti and published in 1911, the diary retains historical value not just for literary scholars of the Romantic period, but also for students of psychology, travel writing, and 19th-century European culture.
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The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori

The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori

by John William Polidori
The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori
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The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori

The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori

by John William Polidori

Overview

The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori offers a rare and invaluable firsthand glimpse into one of the most mythologized moments in literary history: the summer of 1816 at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva. This was the now-famous "Year Without a Summer," during which Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Godwin (later Shelley), Claire Clairmont, and Polidori himself convened for a fateful gathering that birthed the modern Gothic tradition.

The diary, which Polidori began during his tenure as Lord Byron's personal physician, meticulously documents the interpersonal dynamics, intellectual debates, literary ambitions, and cultural tensions that shaped the creative atmosphere of the villa. More than a simple travel log, it is a work of self-reflection, chronicling Polidori's deep admiration for Byron, his feelings of professional and personal inadequacy, and his desire for literary achievement. His candid entries chart the inception of Byron's Fragment of a Novel and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, as well as the emotional and psychological pressures that contributed to Polidori's later mental decline.

What distinguishes this diary is its duality: it is both a personal confessional and a historical record. Through Polidori's eyes, readers witness the intellectual intensity and emotional turbulence of early 19th-century Romanticism. The journal also reveals the creative genesis of The Vampyre, a short story that became the first significant work of vampire fiction in English, often misattributed to Byron but authored by Polidori himself.

Edited by William Michael Rossetti and published in 1911, the diary retains historical value not just for literary scholars of the Romantic period, but also for students of psychology, travel writing, and 19th-century European culture.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940184327013
Publisher: John William Polidori
Publication date: 04/18/2025
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 546 KB

About the Author

Dr. John William Polidori was a British physician and writer, best known as the author of The Vampyre (1819), a short story that is widely regarded as the first modern vampire tale in English literature. Born in London to a family of Italian and Anglo-French descent, Polidori was a precocious student. He entered the University of Edinburgh at the age of 15 and completed his medical doctorate by the age of 19—his thesis was on sleepwalking, an early indicator of his interest in the borderlands of consciousness and the uncanny.

In 1816, Polidori was appointed as the personal physician to the renowned poet Lord Byron. That same year, he accompanied Byron on a journey through continental Europe, which led to their fateful stay at the Villa Diodati near Lake Geneva. There, during a famously stormy summer, Byron, Polidori, Mary Godwin (later Shelley), Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Claire Clairmont engaged in philosophical discussions, ghost story contests, and artistic experiments. While Mary Shelley began Frankenstein, Polidori composed what would become The Vampyre—a story that initiated a new literary archetype: the aristocratic, seductive vampire.

Polidori's literary career, however, was overshadowed by his professional struggles and strained relationship with Byron. Often ridiculed and dismissed in literary circles, he grappled with personal insecurity, feelings of failure, and religious conflict. His life was tragically brief; he died in 1821 at the age of 25, reportedly by suicide, though the exact circumstances remain a matter of scholarly debate.

Despite his short life, Polidori left an indelible mark on Gothic and horror literature. His pioneering contribution helped shape the modern vampire myth and influenced writers from Bram Stoker to Anne Rice. His Diary of 1816, published posthumously in 1911, offers a rare and poignant glimpse into his intellect, creativity, and internal turmoil, and serves as a critical document of the Romantic era.
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