In the spring of 1816, John Polidori, a young and ambitious physician, was engaged by the poet Lord Byron to accompany him to continental Europe. Polidori was just twenty at the time and Byron eight years his senior. Their tumultuous relationship would become immortalised in Polidori’s novel <em>The Vampyre</em> (1819).<br><br>Aubrey, the novel’s youthful protagonist, is about to embark on the Grand Tour. Lord Ruthven, a mysterious and wealthy gentleman, asks to accompany him. On his journey, Aubrey meets various townspeople who warn him of the dangers of vampires.<br><br>Polidori had clearly intended Ruthven to be a stand-in for Byron as his very name is taken from a parody of Byron, written by his former lover Lady Caroline Lamb<sup>1</sup>. Aubrey in turn is modelled on Polidori’s youthfulness and naiveté, but, perhaps reflecting his admiration for the older man, Polidori also bestows on him Byron’s adventurous spirit and heroic nature.<br><br>They were accompanied on their travels by the writers Percy and Mary Shelley, and Polidori was quickly replaced by Percy as Byron’s primary companion<sup>2</sup>. Polidori also notes in his diary that he tried to impress Byron by sharing his attempts at playwriting, which were brushed off<sup>3</sup>.<br><br>Polidori reflects his dissatisfaction through Lord Ruthven by making him cold and selfish. Yet Ruthven also tends to a sickly Aubrey, acting as his ‘constant attendant’<sup>4</sup>. The desire to be admired by Byron remained. <br><br>The theme of love and hate is so integral to the novel that it has become a staple of vampire fiction itself. The seductive vampire, who loathes humanity yet is drawn to it, has appeared in vampire fiction from <em>Dracula</em> (1897) to the contemporary <em>Twilight</em> (2005).<br>