The weather went from being beautiful to tempestuous: torrential thunderstorms plagued the Shelleys, Byron and Polidori. The weather - along with the 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. | Polidori's Vampyre By John Polidori Fiction Horror, Paperback | Indigo Chapters