The weather went from being beautiful to tempestuous: torrential thunderstorms plagued the Shelleys, Byron and Polidori. The weather -- along with the company and the eerie ambiance of the locale -- contributed to the genesis of Frankenstein, Polidori's "The Vampyre," and, in all likelihood, modern weird fiction. On the night of June 16th, the group read aloud a collection of German ghost stories, The Fantasmagoriana. This inspired Byron to challenge the group to write a ghost story. Shelley wrote an forgettable story; Byron wrote a story fragment; and Polidori began the "The Vampyre", the first modern vampire tale. (Jacketless library hardcover.)
