'Fragment+of+a+Novel'+and+the+Birth+of+Modern+Horror

toc Text of "Fragment of a Novel" =The Writings on Holiday, 1816= During the unpleasant climate of 1816 (described in greater detail on page 'Darkness' (1816)) Byron and a group of companions, including Percy and Mary Shelley and the physician John Polidori, were on holiday in the Swiss mountains. Confined to the indoors, the group embarked on a number of creative exercises to pass the time, the most important of which was a challenge, to all present, to create the most frightening ghost story. =Byron's "Fragment"= For his part, Byron set to write the beginning of a prose piece about a elderly aristocrat who returns from the dead. Byron, however, did not particularly enjoy writing prose pieces, let alone novels, and never attempted to finish the story, beyond the initial fragment and some further description that he gave Polidori about his intentions for the story. His plan was to have the focus of the piece, Augustus Darvell, return to life as a vampire after passing away in Turkey, while journeying with the narrator. =After-effects, the birth of two great myths=

The Vampyre
Polidori, however, was intrigued by the idea of taking the monster of the vampire from scattered folklore into something more coherent and relevant to the Romantic era. He used Byron's fragment to launch a short story about an aristocratic British vampire, the character of which was, in fact, an only slightly disguised depiction of Byron, himself.

The work was immediately popular, due in part to its association with Byron, as well as the public hunger for gothic fantasy and "ghost stories" that had inspired the group writing exercise, in the first place.

The piece is considered to be the progenitor of the genre of vampire fantasy stories, inspiring early giants like Poe and Bram Stoker, and introducing ideas that continue to be integral to the genre, even in its modern incarnations.

Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus
From this same writing exercise was born another titan of the horror or monster fantasy genre. For her part in the contest, Percy Shelley's lover (and future wife) Mary Godwin wrote the beginnings of a short story about a man bringing life into the world by artificial means, mistreating and abhorring it, and, eventually, being shown to be more base and inhuman than the monster he created. Both Percy Shelley and Byron were intrigued by the Prometheus myth and the ideas of the dangers and promises of man's power and reach, and Percy encouraged Mary to expand and publish the work. The piece, obviously, would become the classic //Frankenstein//, one of the great works of fantasy fiction and possibly one of the earliest science-fiction pieces ever written.