Fragment of a Novel by Lord Byron

In tracing the history of the vampyre story in print, The Fragment of a Novel by Lord Byron is the story that started it all. It was written at the Villa Diodati, on a fateful night when a group of friends decided to write a ghost story (more here)


Byron wrote no more than a few pages, but the idea was taken up by Polidori, who used it as the basis for his famous story, The Vampyre. This story, in turn, was the forerunner of all our modern vampyre tales.

Mr Darcy, Vampyre, has an homage to the Byron fragment in the last few chapters. It's inspired by this section:

" 'On the ninth day of the month, at noon precisely (what month you please, but this must be the day), you must fling this ring into the salt springs which run into the Bay of Eleusis; the day after, at the same hour, you must repair to the ruins of the temple of Ceres, and wait one hour.'"

A ruined temple, a set of extraordinary instructions . . . anyone who has read Mr Darcy, Vampyre, will recognise these elements in the finale!