A review by oeystein
The Vampyre by John William Polidori

2.0

The other tale to come out of the conversations by Lake Geneva that sparked Frankenstein, and apparently the "first modern" vampire story. This is enough reason in itself to read it, especially since it's so short. But as a story on its own merits - this is not, to the modern reader, a good read. The story has no suspense, as everything that happens is flagged well in advance, many of the plot devices are pretty incomprehensible - such as the protagonist's "giving his word" and therefore being unable to prevent the vampire's evil plan. And the language - one expects the writing to be stilted in prose from this period, but many of the sentences here are pretty near unreadable.
So read it for its historical value, but don't expect anything great.