SOURCE: "Ernestus Berchtold; or, The Modern Oedipus," in Poor Polidori: A Critical Biography of the Author of "The Vampyre," University of Toronto Press, 1991, pp. 204-23.

In the first full-length critical biography of Polidori, Macdonald acknowledges Polidori's marginal status as a literary figure, but suggests that Polidori's life and works, as well as his relationships with more renowned contemporaries, are worthy of scholarly study. In the following excerpt from that work, Macdonald examines the novel Ernestus Berchtold.

Byronic Influence on the First Vampire in English Literature:

In one important way, Byron's presence in the introduction of the vampire into popular culture should not go unnoticed. Byron, no doubt inadvertently, first coupled the folklore nosferatu with his own magnificent creation—himself. The character of the Byronic hero, that lusty libertine in the open shirt that Byron made such a part of his verse dramas and life dramas, is simply the...