Hello, Tony. Thank you for including this novella in your outstanding collection. Even though I’m a retired English professor, I was never given a chance to read the piece during all my years of undergraduate and postgraduate work. This was before the days of easy Internet access, of course. One thing I’d like to clarify. We often discussed John Polidori’s novella, “the year without a summer,” and the assemblage at Villa Diodati during 1816’s cold and dreary days. The unseasonable weather was indeed due to a volcanic eruption. However, that eruption was not in Iceland. Instead, the eruption was that of Mount Tambora, in what was then known as the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia). The eruption began on 5 April 1815 and lasted for about 10 days. Mount Tambora’s blast remains the most severe volcanic eruption in history. So great was the volume of ash in Earth’s atmosphere that the Northern Hemisphere was radically affected in 1816. There have been subsequent eruptions, two in the 19th Century, and several more recent incidents of tremors. Mount Tambora can be visited today, although it’s still active. I, for one, am content to view it online! Thanks again for including “The Vampyre” amongst all of your splendid readings. Sincerely, Alix Long, Ph.D., Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Always the best from Tony Walker! Very few narrators can manage Victorian prose and imbue it with the voice of the author. Mr Walker is a master at this.
This is an amazing story! Whoa! One of the first, and best, storues on the subject. What a wonderful and chilling story. Fantastic narration, Tony! They needed the two main characters from "Four Wooden Stakes" in the scene! Your picture for this story is amazing, and I think the look of it fits the time period well.
Yes, agree! He somehow picks the most fitting images for the stories. They add a visual representation of the subject, the mood, the place- which always complement the stories perfectly.
Yes!!! Last week I was trying to find a RUclips audiobook on this but didn’t like the narrator at all. I was thinking at the time “I wish Tony comes out with this” Happy Friday to Meeeeee!! Thank you so much 🤍🖤🧛🏻♂️
Why is the full theme song at the end such a bop? 😅❤ Aubrey was such a tragic character - I was delightfully devastated at the hovel scene. If he hadn’t lost track of time, it feels like his innocent friend wouldn’t have been out apparently following him after the troubling conversation with her parents..? But if it were me, I’d have lost track of time, too, because that’s who I am as a person. It’s what I do. I’d learned about penny dreadfuls but never had them connected so nicely to the newly literate working class of the time. Fascinating context of how economics change form and access of/to literature. I hated the end but such that I will remember it bitterly, the way the author intended. Had there been a “good” ending, I might be happier but it also wouldn’t have been so neat of a total loss, perfectly wrapped with bow on top. That said, I so hoped Aubrey was gonna stab Ruffianstiltskin with his ceremonial dagger after going after Aubrey’s sis. 😡 The audacity! 🤔 …or… the aubracity! Ok I’ll leave.
Just as captivating narration, this time around. Listening with new ears, enjoying the language structure, adoring its complicated sentences, flowery adjectives and using ten words of boringly merely one. Also your informative "ramblings". Thank you so much for all of your hard work for us!!!!
I love his descriptive language in this story! It was translatable to modern vocabulary and conveyed the story with great detail. Gothic is one of my favorite Ken Russell films, about the night that inspired the Vampyre and Frankenstein.
Fantastic story and narration! Also, really enjoyed the chat after the story. I love you’ve pointed out where, how, and when the certain characteristics of the vampire were acquired, leading to the present vampire lore. I love vampire stories (sparked mainly by Bram Stoker’s Dracula 1992 film - which portrayed a vampire with ethos, depth- and pure and true emotion (love). Francis Ford Coppola gave the vampire humanity, and therefore, sympathy and empathy). Thank you for an engaging narration of a story about a vampire with none of these traits!
Hi Tony, Absolutely loving the vampire thread, but having to stop and start a bit lately. ( very frustrating! ). Carmilla was enchanting and this deserves more attention than I can give it right now. Looking forward to work, so I can put headphones on again without censure. Thank you for your wonderful work. 🦇
From Start to Finish this is a 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Narration!! I was just going to listen as I was falling asleep.... But,, this has me on tenterhooks!! So,,, I'm going to be intently listening 💯%,!! Thank you Tony, for keeping us company,,,,, as insomnia grips me because I'm moving house!! Namasté 🙏🕊️💞 Andréa and Jasper. . ..XxX...
Looking forward to this - I particularly enjoyed "Dracula" which I thought you narrated superbly and remains a great pleasure. I've had an idea recently for a vampire story (been getting back into writing again lately) and I like the idea of a mixture of the monstrous and the noble, but done in a particular way. A combination of the raw and monstrous, almost alien perhaps, combined with seduction and intrigue. Looking forward to seeing where it takes me, and It's great to hear these older vampire stories being brought back to life and how the genre has been shaped over the years. Keep up the great work Tony.
Spoiler My brain knew this would not end happily, but my heart held out hope. Which is ironic, as I will never be confused with Pollyanna. 🤷😆 Excellent reading, as always!
I researched this because I was familiar with that pronounciation. However I checked reddit (the source of wisdom) and a load of Scots people were saying definitely Ruthven. Those were Glaswegians about Ruthven Street. then I I found Ruthven in Angus was /rivven/ so I decided I could go either way and preferred ruth-ven. I also knew that if I pronounced it rivven it would get lots of comments telling me I was wrong. See the threads about Dr Jekyll and the town Albany in New York. Which have guarded lots of furious and bitter debate. however, I only reply to this to let you know that I do think about how I pronounce the names. (mostly) you will also see elsewhere, possibly my pronunciation of impious as Impeeus rather than im-pie-us. that did not get the amount of comments that I’d hoped I was following someone whose name I can’t remember who is narrating Milton Paradise Lost and I really liked im-pee-us so I used it to the odd person chagrin. Don’t get me started on the pronunciation of chagrin. do we get go with the French 🇫🇷 or the Oxford dictionary? I bet you’re glad you raised this now.
@@ClassicGhost hahaha knew I'd push someone's buttons, hope I didn't annoy you with it. Yep I'd only ever heard of rivven pronunciation as clan Ruthven, lowland clan. Don't you just love our English language, it's so full of weirdness!!!! Like I said, hope I didn't annoy you. Love this story by pollydolly, and you can see the development of vampires till Dracula with it more or less following that spiritualist movement and interest in scientifically exploring the supernatural. 💚🇬🇧
It is no wonder that a physician of the early 19th century would conceive of the vampire as the question of reliable anatomy and the mystery of blood were predominant subjects. Still, since the vampire is a parasite, I have never been able to think of them as sophisticated or as attractive. It is only a tick, a big zombie tick, which is too large to pop.
I really enjoyed that and I love how it reflects the time it was written in. I hadn't heard of the author before so that was interesting. Personally, I don't feel that characters have to 'be rounded out', as it were, as it's not really necessary in a story like this. I think there's too much of getting inside people's heads, lol, when we just want the character to be ominous or scary, etc. I started watching a film on Netflix called Spaceman the other night, as I love Sci-Fi, but it wasn't Sci-fi at all; just one of those social thingies where the astronaut was battling depression and loneliness because his wife was about to leave him. Pfft! How boring, lol. Anyway, that's just me! Loved this and your rendition as always, Tony. Cheers. :)
It reads like Don Juan. Byron had gonorrhea and possibly syphilis, which Polidori probably knew about. Syphilis is one of the diseases that vampirism is based on. We can also see something of Renfield in Aubrey. Thanks for a great read!
Thank you . Those AI channels are exploding at the moment . I guess that i’d you are only using the voice to fall asleep to it doesn’t matter if it’s AI. They mispronounce all the names anyway
Nice one, tyvm! If I remember correctly "Blade" was a daywalker as well (being explained by him being a half-vampire). Prolly plagiated by Twighlight too (if the quick online-search is to be trusted)... so it seems the "sunlight kills" has gone a bit out of fashion (prolly due to movie's lighting budgets).
There is a movie from "86 called Gothic that tells the story of how this story and Frankenstein were written. Timothy Spall played Polidori and Julian Sands played Shelly. It's pretty good, if a bit disturbing.
@ClassicGhost Cats and foxes who talk, secret passages, witches who dance, and hidden treasure!!!!!! How on earth could listeners not be mesmerized????? I'll search out the book, but would love so much to hear you read it to me xoxox
@@ClassicGhost maybe you should re-upload it tony sometimes the algorithm just buries things arbitrarily, in this way it could get a second chance. I'm sure folk would like it if they can see it. Your readings are good and i'm sure your channel has grown, it would be fun to showcase some of your favourite works and get an insight into your personal tastes.
I don't know how Europeans pronounced "giaour" in their day, but the Turkish word it's a borrowing of sounded like "jah-WOOR" (pardon for the ad-hoc phonetic spelling!)
Sorry sir but these are two stories that came before. Account of A Vampire. (1738), Dead Persons in Hungary Who Suck The Blood Of The Living. (1746). Please check them out. I do enjoy your video
Hello, Tony. Thank you for including this novella in your outstanding collection. Even though I’m a retired English professor, I was never given a chance to read the piece during all my years of undergraduate and postgraduate work. This was before the days of easy Internet access, of course. One thing I’d like to clarify. We often discussed John Polidori’s novella, “the year without a summer,” and the assemblage at Villa Diodati during 1816’s cold and dreary days. The unseasonable weather was indeed due to a volcanic eruption. However, that eruption was not in Iceland. Instead, the eruption was that of Mount Tambora, in what was then known as the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia). The eruption began on 5 April 1815 and lasted for about 10 days. Mount Tambora’s blast remains the most severe volcanic eruption in history. So great was the volume of ash in Earth’s atmosphere that the Northern Hemisphere was radically affected in 1816. There have been subsequent eruptions, two in the 19th Century, and several more recent incidents of tremors. Mount Tambora can be visited today, although it’s still active. I, for one, am content to view it online! Thanks again for including “The Vampyre” amongst all of your splendid readings. Sincerely, Alix Long, Ph.D., Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Well, this is a delicious way to kick off the weekend! Thank you, Mr. Walker! 🎉
My pleasure!
I do appreciate all the vampire stories. Thank you for your amazing talent shared, my dear Tony. ❤
More to come i think too
I’ve always been curious about this novella but never read it. Now it’s read for me-thanks!
Always the best from Tony Walker! Very few narrators can manage Victorian prose and imbue it with the voice of the author. Mr Walker is a master at this.
Very kind
Thanks Tony always enjoy your narration and chat 👍🏻
Thank you very much :)
Omg yes. This story was written in the same writing competition as "modern day prometheus"
Nanowrimo 1818
This is an amazing story! Whoa! One of the first, and best, storues on the subject. What a wonderful and chilling story.
Fantastic narration, Tony!
They needed the two main characters from "Four Wooden Stakes" in the scene!
Your picture for this story is amazing, and I think the look of it fits the time period well.
Yes, agree! He somehow picks the most fitting images for the stories. They add a visual representation of the subject, the mood, the place- which always complement the stories perfectly.
I love vampire stories can’t get enough of them. Thanks Tony
I’m going to do a bit of Varney soon
Yes!!! Last week I was trying to find a RUclips audiobook on this but didn’t like the narrator at all. I was thinking at the time “I wish Tony comes out with this” Happy Friday to Meeeeee!! Thank you so much 🤍🖤🧛🏻♂️
That's very weird. You must have magicked me into doing it.
@@ClassicGhost🤣
Thank you, I love it! I'm very familiar with this story. I never noticed before that it must have been written to be read aloud. Terrific!
What a great story!!!
Why is the full theme song at the end such a bop? 😅❤
Aubrey was such a tragic character - I was delightfully devastated at the hovel scene. If he hadn’t lost track of time, it feels like his innocent friend wouldn’t have been out apparently following him after the troubling conversation with her parents..? But if it were me, I’d have lost track of time, too, because that’s who I am as a person. It’s what I do.
I’d learned about penny dreadfuls but never had them connected so nicely to the newly literate working class of the time. Fascinating context of how economics change form and access of/to literature.
I hated the end but such that I will remember it bitterly, the way the author intended. Had there been a “good” ending, I might be happier but it also wouldn’t have been so neat of a total loss, perfectly wrapped with bow on top.
That said, I so hoped Aubrey was gonna stab Ruffianstiltskin with his ceremonial dagger after going after Aubrey’s sis. 😡 The audacity! 🤔 …or… the aubracity! Ok I’ll leave.
That was funny. I liked the end :)
The end of your comment I mean. Aubracity!
@@ClassicGhostYes! 🤣🤣🤣
Just as captivating narration, this time around. Listening with new ears, enjoying the language structure, adoring its complicated sentences, flowery adjectives and using ten words of boringly merely one. Also your informative "ramblings". Thank you so much for all of your hard work for us!!!!
I love his descriptive language in this story! It was translatable to modern vocabulary and conveyed the story with great detail. Gothic is one of my favorite Ken Russell films, about the night that inspired the Vampyre and Frankenstein.
What a great story, thank you Tony, much appreciated 👏👏
James Mason played a great Polidori
Fantastic story and narration! Also, really enjoyed the chat after the story. I love you’ve pointed out where, how, and when the certain characteristics of the vampire were acquired, leading to the present vampire lore. I love vampire stories (sparked mainly by Bram Stoker’s Dracula 1992 film - which portrayed a vampire with ethos, depth- and pure and true emotion (love). Francis Ford Coppola gave the vampire humanity, and therefore, sympathy and empathy). Thank you for an engaging narration of a story about a vampire with none of these traits!
Can't wait to listen this evening 😍 🇮🇪🍀
Yn wir!
Hi Tony,
Absolutely loving the vampire thread, but having to stop and start a bit lately. ( very frustrating! ).
Carmilla was enchanting and this deserves more attention than I can give it right now.
Looking forward to work, so I can put headphones on again without censure.
Thank you for your wonderful work.
🦇
From Start to Finish this is a 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Narration!!
I was just going to listen as I was falling asleep....
But,, this has me on tenterhooks!!
So,,, I'm going to be intently listening 💯%,!!
Thank you Tony, for keeping us company,,,,,
as insomnia grips me because I'm moving house!!
Namasté 🙏🕊️💞
Andréa and Jasper. . ..XxX...
Glad someone else is sharing the knowledge about vampires and sunlight being fairly modern.
So excited!! Listening now. Love the thumbnail!!
Hope you like it!
@fiercest_calm, I just noticed your handle ; very cool.
A Tori Amos reference?
This is one of my favorites! ❤️ Thank you for uploading it. 😊 🌷
Tak!
Again very generous so thank you again Marti
Enjoyed this. I agree with you that it’s a story that has a rocky start as there’s not much dialogue but it picks up and it’s worth the wait.
Looking forward to this - I particularly enjoyed "Dracula" which I thought you narrated superbly and remains a great pleasure. I've had an idea recently for a vampire story (been getting back into writing again lately) and I like the idea of a mixture of the monstrous and the noble, but done in a particular way. A combination of the raw and monstrous, almost alien perhaps, combined with seduction and intrigue. Looking forward to seeing where it takes me, and It's great to hear these older vampire stories being brought back to life and how the genre has been shaped over the years. Keep up the great work Tony.
So glad I stumbled across your page, it's the best audio books being read. I truly enjoy it
Lovely to have you here
The artwork for this is very eye catching. ❤ the story itself was wonderful too. Thank you!!!! 🙏
Spoiler
My brain knew this would not end happily, but my heart held out hope. Which is ironic, as I will never be confused with Pollyanna. 🤷😆
Excellent reading, as always!
Such a good story, in its way, and well read, thank you.
Little known fact, Ruthven is Scottish and pronounced Riven (sounds like driven)
Great reading sir
I researched this because I was familiar with that pronounciation. However I checked reddit (the source of wisdom) and a load of Scots people
were saying definitely Ruthven. Those were Glaswegians about Ruthven Street. then I I found Ruthven in Angus was /rivven/ so I decided I could go either way and preferred ruth-ven. I also knew that if I pronounced it rivven it would get lots of comments telling me I was wrong. See the threads about Dr Jekyll and the town Albany in New York. Which have guarded lots of furious and bitter debate. however, I only reply to this to let you know that I do think about how I pronounce the names. (mostly) you will also see elsewhere, possibly my pronunciation of impious as Impeeus rather than im-pie-us. that did not get the amount of comments that I’d hoped I was following someone whose name I can’t remember who is narrating Milton Paradise Lost and I really liked im-pee-us so I used it to the odd person chagrin. Don’t get me started on the pronunciation of chagrin. do we get go with the French 🇫🇷 or the Oxford dictionary? I bet you’re glad you raised this now.
@@ClassicGhost hahaha knew I'd push someone's buttons, hope I didn't annoy you with it. Yep I'd only ever heard of rivven pronunciation as clan Ruthven, lowland clan. Don't you just love our English language, it's so full of weirdness!!!! Like I said, hope I didn't annoy you. Love this story by pollydolly, and you can see the development of vampires till Dracula with it more or less following that spiritualist movement and interest in scientifically exploring the supernatural. 💚🇬🇧
@@amgroves76 No I wasn’t annoyed . Did you see i’d done an Anne Rice vampire recently?
So well read. I enjoy longer stories and the subject matter is enjoyable. Thank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
LUV the 🧛♂️ vampire audio books! Perfect for falling asleep!
Thank you 🙂
Aaaaand I got into the locked door- away we go.
Fantastic! Loved it!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Omg! I can't wait to to listen to this! 🤗
Hope you like it!
Thank you for this upload.
You're welcome
High time I listened to this. Thank you for the reading. Great story!
Listening to it again. I like it. 😊
Thank you again
Ah, oui, mon favorite. Vampyres❤
Always heard of this one, but never got to actually read it. Thanks again Tony! From Texas
Nice to see you
Really enjoyed hearing your breakdown of the book at the end!
That was really, really good.
Wow, what a ride! Thanks for another dark fantasy!
One of my favourite stories.I loved hearing this.
I quite liked the grim ending.
Good doesn't always triumph.
Spoiler alert would've been nice prior to your comment! 🫥
Your narration is excellent !!!! Thank you
Wow, this was fantastic.
No one can make a story come to life the way you can. ❤
It is no wonder that a physician of the early 19th century would conceive of the vampire as the question of reliable anatomy and the mystery of blood were predominant subjects. Still, since the vampire is a parasite, I have never been able to think of them as sophisticated or as attractive. It is only a tick, a big zombie tick, which is too large to pop.
You are old school
not necessarily a bad thing !
I don't have an educated opinion so I liked it the way it was.
Loved this! Great artwork choice too!
Really good voice
Thank you
Thank you sir😊❤
Loved it! Thank uou
Thank you Captain Cornelius fore the idea in the year 1536 ad
So glad i found your channel. I absolutely love your research at the end. Going to be an avid listener from here on in. Thank you for your hard work.❤
Thank you thank you thank you. I was having a bad patch after some comment I read. So you really helped.
I really enjoyed that and I love how it reflects the time it was written in. I hadn't heard of the author before so that was interesting. Personally, I don't feel that characters have to 'be rounded out', as it were, as it's not really necessary in a story like this. I think there's too much of getting inside people's heads, lol, when we just want the character to be ominous or scary, etc. I started watching a film on Netflix called Spaceman the other night, as I love Sci-Fi, but it wasn't Sci-fi at all; just one of those social thingies where the astronaut was battling depression and loneliness because his wife was about to leave him. Pfft! How boring, lol.
Anyway, that's just me! Loved this and your rendition as always, Tony. Cheers. :)
Funnily enough that’s how i found True Detective. too much time exploring peoples inner problems
and not
enough story
@@ClassicGhost Ah, I haven't seen that. Now I know not to watch it. Cheers, Tony. :)
It reads like Don Juan. Byron had gonorrhea and possibly syphilis, which Polidori probably knew about. Syphilis is one of the diseases that vampirism is based on. We can also see something of Renfield in Aubrey. Thanks for a great read!
New here. This is so refreshing to hear a HUMAN BEING narrating. Instead of all these lazies using A.I.
👏🏿👏🏿
Thank you . Those AI channels are exploding at the moment . I guess that i’d you are only using the voice to fall asleep to it doesn’t matter if it’s AI. They mispronounce all the names anyway
Thank you! 😊
Good image choice!
Thanks!
One I don't know .Thank you for your information.
You're welcome
This reminds me of one of my favorite books. 🙁
Nice one, tyvm!
If I remember correctly "Blade" was a daywalker as well (being explained by him being a half-vampire).
Prolly plagiated by Twighlight too (if the quick online-search is to be trusted)... so it seems the "sunlight kills" has gone a bit out of fashion (prolly due to movie's lighting budgets).
p.s.: I think you should relativize the 2nd patreon shout-out's "you can do with them whatever you want" by excluding any rights of republication ;)
I’m just listening to London Horror Stories on Spotify. I’m really enjoying it. Did you write the stories yourself?
Those are my own, yes . Thank you
@@ClassicGhost They are really well written. You have a true talent and the narration was so good. I wanted more stories at the end.
@@angelariley.9963 That’s good! I’m doing some more right now
@@ClassicGhost Wonderful. I will look forward to that.
There is a movie from "86 called Gothic that tells the story of how this story and Frankenstein were written. Timothy Spall played Polidori and Julian Sands played Shelly. It's pretty good, if a bit disturbing.
That's the Ken Russell film I think. very good too
I just listened to The Midnight Folk part 1&2. Is there a 3?
No, I gave up due to lack of interest unfortunately. hardly anyone listened
@ClassicGhost Cats and foxes who talk, secret passages, witches who dance, and hidden treasure!!!!!! How on earth could listeners not be mesmerized????? I'll search out the book, but would love so much to hear you read it to me xoxox
@@missmouse20 The book is great. one of my favourites. I don’t know why but it bombed
@@ClassicGhost maybe you should re-upload it tony sometimes the algorithm just buries things arbitrarily, in this way it could get a second chance. I'm sure folk would like it if they can see it. Your readings are good and i'm sure your channel has grown, it would be fun to showcase some of your favourite works and get an insight into your personal tastes.
@@MrMonkfiish Thank you . Your comment and advice seem very sensible
Well, yes 😊
Ahhh what year is this as i awoke in caves of Brindabella Mountain range vampyre Count Clayness as reported 13th century
This is the story that I got my son's name from- Aubrey not Lord Ruthven.
Though Lord Rivven (see previous comments) would have been a fun name. Though it might of caused some chaffing at school.
@@ClassicGhost "Aubrey" for a boy born in 1989 was bad enough!
@@usedscarI love the name!
Gogoniant!
Gogoneddus!
Sound very low...had to put earphones sound quite high
Be careful of your hearing
@@ClassicGhost thank you I was careful..an really enjoyed the story.love your voice I do.
❤😮😮😮❤
The O.G. vampire story but Frankenstein was the o.g. Science Fiction story ❤️
have you heard my Frankenstein? i loved the story after narrating it
4:17
well vampires are seen as a type of undead demon i can believe the guy being helpless in the story how would he know to fight it he doesn't
11:50
He's not dead so I don't see the oath standing. I had trouble listening to this one.
I don't know how Europeans pronounced "giaour" in their day, but the Turkish word it's a borrowing of sounded like "jah-WOOR" (pardon for the ad-hoc phonetic spelling!)
I struggled with that one so thanks
Sorry sir but these are two stories that came before. Account of A Vampire. (1738), Dead Persons in Hungary Who Suck The Blood Of The Living. (1746). Please check them out. I do enjoy your video
Oh Tony, stay far away from politics.
People have gone mad, its not like when we were young.
Sounds like Vincent price
I’ll take that as a compliment
🌹🖤🇦🇺
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️➕
I know this is an old story but, seriously... 10 minutes and nothing has happened. Sorry, this story does nothing for me.
;)
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Fact check: Edward Cullen was not sexy.
Nothing interesting after 7 mins 41 seconds so didn't listen further. Seems rather boring.
I admire your precision in nailing down where the fun stops
@@ClassicGhost🤣
@@yesterdayitrained😂💯% Agreed!!😎👍👍
What a great story!!!