company and the eerie ambiance of the locale -- contributed to the genesis of Frankenstein, Polidori's "The Vampyre" and in all likelihood, modern weird fiction. On the night of June 16th, the group read aloud a collection of German ghost stories, The Fantasmagoriana. This inspired Byron to challenge the group to write a ghost story. Shelley wrote an forgettable story; Byron wrote a story fragment; and Polidori began the "The Vampyre", the first modern vampire tale.

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