JК
Danse Macabre :: Кинг Стивен
Страница: 55 из 359" George Gordon Byron produced an interesting macabre tale titled "The Burial." But it is John Polidori, the good doctor, who is sometimes mentioned as a possible link to Bram Stoker and Dracula. His short story was later expanded to novel length and became a great success. It was called "The Vampyre.” In point of fact, Polidori's novel isn't very good . . . and it bears an uncomfortable resemblance to "The Burial," the short story written by his immeasurably more talented patient, Lord Byron. There is perhaps a breath of plagiarism there. We do know that Byron and Polidori argued violently shortly after the interlude at Lake Geneva, and that their friendship ended. It is not entirely beyond supposition that the similarity between the two tales was the cause.
Polidori, who was twenty-one at the time he wrote "The Vampyre," came to an unhappy end.
The success of the novel he developed from his story encouraged him to retire from the doctoring profession and to become a full-time writer. He had little success at writing, although he was quite good at piling up gambling debts. When he felt his reputation had become irredeemably impugned, he behaved as we would expect of an English gentleman of the day and shot himself.
Stoker's turn-of-the-century horror novel Dracula bears only a slight resemblance to Polidori's The Vampyre-the field is a narrow one, as we will point out again and again, and exclusive of any willful imitation, the family resemblance is always there-but we can be sure that Stoker was aware of Polidori's novel. One believes, after reading Dracula, that Stoker left no stone unturned as he researched the project. Is it so far-fetched to believe that he might have read Polidori's novel, have been excited by the subject matter, and determined to write a better book? I like to believe this might be so, much as I like to believe that Polidori really did crib his idea from Lord Byron. That would make Byron the literary grandfather of the legendary Count, who boasts early on to Jonathan Harker that he drove the Turks from Transylvania . . . and Byron himself died while aiding the Greek insurgents against the Turks in 1824, eight years after the gathering with the Shelleys and Polidori on the shores of Lake Geneva. It was a death of which the Count himself would have greatly approved.
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All tales of horror can be divided into two groups: those in which the horror results from an act of free and conscious will-a conscious decision to do evil-and those in which the horror is predestinate, coming from outside like a stroke of lightning.
Polidori, who was twenty-one at the time he wrote "The Vampyre," came to an unhappy end.
The success of the novel he developed from his story encouraged him to retire from the doctoring profession and to become a full-time writer. He had little success at writing, although he was quite good at piling up gambling debts. When he felt his reputation had become irredeemably impugned, he behaved as we would expect of an English gentleman of the day and shot himself.
Stoker's turn-of-the-century horror novel Dracula bears only a slight resemblance to Polidori's The Vampyre-the field is a narrow one, as we will point out again and again, and exclusive of any willful imitation, the family resemblance is always there-but we can be sure that Stoker was aware of Polidori's novel. One believes, after reading Dracula, that Stoker left no stone unturned as he researched the project. Is it so far-fetched to believe that he might have read Polidori's novel, have been excited by the subject matter, and determined to write a better book? I like to believe this might be so, much as I like to believe that Polidori really did crib his idea from Lord Byron. That would make Byron the literary grandfather of the legendary Count, who boasts early on to Jonathan Harker that he drove the Turks from Transylvania . . . and Byron himself died while aiding the Greek insurgents against the Turks in 1824, eight years after the gathering with the Shelleys and Polidori on the shores of Lake Geneva. It was a death of which the Count himself would have greatly approved.
5
All tales of horror can be divided into two groups: those in which the horror results from an act of free and conscious will-a conscious decision to do evil-and those in which the horror is predestinate, coming from outside like a stroke of lightning.