SOURCE: "Vampirism and Plagiarism: Byron's Influence and Polidori's Practice," in Studies in Romanticism, Vol. 28, No. 2, Summer, 1989, pp. 249-69.

In the following essay, Skarda contends that the plot of The Vampyre and the personal histories of Byron and Polidori "demonstrate the essential vampirism inherent in the powerful influence of a strong talent on a weak one. "

In our culture the most popular version of the vampire, which has spawned a multi-million-dollar movie industry, is the Romanian nosferatu, a blood-crazed living corpse that turns its victims into new vampires and can be combated with an odd, elaborate mixture of pagan and Christian remedies, including garlic, holy water, decapitation, a cross, a wooden stake driven through the heart, and (one of the more amusing and less exploited methods) tying the vampire up in his coffin with complicated knots. [The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, edited by Jack Sullivan]

The...