Rating: WARTY!
Here's another classic, and I have to say right up front that the story of how this novella came to be written is far more interesting than the story itself actually is! I'm not a fan of vampire stories. They're tedious for the most part and with few exceptions, but this is a classic and in my ongoing quest, I decided I should read it. In its favor, it's very short!
The legend is well-known to anyone who has any interest in Mary Shelly, Percy Shelly, or George Byron: it was the wintry cold summer of 1816 which was literally overshadowed by the eruption of Mount Tambora the year before. That volcano spewed out so much ash that, though it reduced the temperature of the planet by only a fraction of a degree, it ruined the crops the next year and caused widespread famine. This is what people don't get about climate change - oh it will only heat up by a degree or two, they think, dismissively. They think it isn't worth worrying about, but it's actually highly significant and dangerously destructive.
So that summer, the two Shellys, plus Byron and his doctor, John Polidori, were staying at a villa close by Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Mary was only eighteen. After entertaining themselves one night by reading ghost stories to each other, Byron came up with a challenge that they each write their own. None did! Mary began work on a short story that over the next couple of years expanded into a novel, which was published in 1818 as Frankenstein. Percy didn't write a damned thing. Neither did Polidori at first. Byron began a tale about a vampire, which he abandoned, leaving Polidori to complete it. This is that story - a mere thirty pages or so which didn't materialize as a published work until the year after Shelley's novel.
It's tedious to read. The doctor goes on for screens at a time in a single paragraph making it a chore to read, and the story has no drama, no excitement, and no real ending. There's barely even any vampirism in it! I cannot commend it as a decent read.
