The Giaour is clearly modelled upon Byron himself – a typical Byronic hero whose “pale lip will curl and quiver” and of whom one can see his “… hood fly back, his dark hair fall / That pale brow wildly wreathing round…”⁵⁶

The Aristocratic Vampire in English Literature

The image now firmly established in English society was that of a romantic vampire, sexually alluring, cursed and suffering. The first appearance of a vampire in an English novel would reinforce some of these elements so strongly that the influence would never be shaken off. This novel was The Vampyre by John Polidori, published in 1819.

This short novel enjoyed considerable success, not least because it was attributed to Byron. That it was influenced by Byron is inarguable – its inspiration came from a sketched-out plan by Byron which he never developed.

The story concerns the doings of a nobleman, Lord Ruthven, whose coldness and pallor excite the interest of the ton. In his apparent distaste for shameless women, he appears at first to be the epitome of virtue – but as his young friend Aubrey eventually realises, Ruthven’s shunning of such obvious women is not a matter of virtue at all. He prefers to seduce the innocent – and perhaps worse.

Having parted company with Ruthven, Aubrey hears from a beautiful Greek girl, Ianthe, the stories of vampires. “Her earnestness and apparent belief of what she narrated, excited the interest even of Aubrey; and often as she told him the tale of the living vampyre, who had passed years amidst his friends, and dearest ties, forced every year, by feeding upon the life of a lovely female to prolong his existence for the ensuing months, his blood would run cold, whilst he attempted to laugh her out of such idle and horrible fantasies; but Ianthe cited to him the names of old men, who had at last detected one living among themselves, after several of their near relatives and children had been found marked with the stamp of the fiend's appetite; and when she found him so incredulous, she begged of him to believe her, for it had been remarked, that those who had dared to question their existence, always had some proof given, which obliged them, with grief and heartbreaking, to confess it was true. She detailed to him the traditional appearance of these monsters, and his horror was increased by hearing a pretty accurate description of Lord Ruthven; he, however, still persisted in persuading her, that there could be no truth in her fears, though at the same time he wondered at the many coincidences which had all tended to excite a belief in the supernatural power of Lord Ruthven.”⁵⁷