1 00:00:00,440 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 2 00:00:04,320 --> 00:00:08,160 Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion is advised. 3 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:14,760 Speaker 2: Hi, this is Danish Schwartz. Just a quick message if 4 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:17,400 Speaker 2: you want to support Noble Blood. We have a Patreon. 5 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:21,720 Speaker 2: It's at patreon dot com slash Noble Blood Tales, where 6 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:25,920 Speaker 2: I post episode scripts and bonus contents like I'm currently 7 00:00:26,120 --> 00:00:30,160 Speaker 2: watching through the CW series Rain. We also have Noble 8 00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:34,640 Speaker 2: Blood merch at DFTBA dot com, and I have a 9 00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:38,559 Speaker 2: book that's out that is all linked in the episode description. 10 00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:42,080 Speaker 2: But of course the best possible support is just listening 11 00:00:42,080 --> 00:00:44,560 Speaker 2: to the podcast, and you don't need to do any 12 00:00:44,600 --> 00:01:00,600 Speaker 2: of that. In April eighteen fifteen, the world world bore 13 00:01:00,680 --> 00:01:04,360 Speaker 2: witness to one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in 14 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:10,520 Speaker 2: human history when Mount Tambora, centered on the Indonesian island Sumbawa, erupted. 15 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:16,120 Speaker 2: It sent debris, gas and lava to decimate the surrounding area, 16 00:01:16,560 --> 00:01:21,479 Speaker 2: cloaking the island's inhabitants. In a two day long darkness. 17 00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:26,520 Speaker 2: Tsunamis were triggered across the Java Sea and oceans of 18 00:01:26,600 --> 00:01:32,480 Speaker 2: Ash tore through forest and grassland, an estimated ten thousand 19 00:01:32,520 --> 00:01:38,040 Speaker 2: people were killed instantly. Tambora's impact was felt far and wide. 20 00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:41,640 Speaker 2: By the next year, a massive dust cloud had formed 21 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:46,119 Speaker 2: in the atmosphere, which climate scientists now believe was partially 22 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:50,760 Speaker 2: responsible for a great chill that swept across the northern Hemisphere. 23 00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:55,840 Speaker 2: It led to crop failure and famine, unrest, and migration. 24 00:01:56,800 --> 00:02:00,840 Speaker 2: The period became known as the Year without a Summer, 25 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:05,440 Speaker 2: with Europe covered in fog and frost even through the 26 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:11,200 Speaker 2: typically warmer months. Take a description of the weather in Geneva, Switzerland, 27 00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:17,639 Speaker 2: on May seventeenth quote. The spring, as the inhabitants informed us, 28 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:22,639 Speaker 2: was unusually late, and indeed the cold was excessive. As 29 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:26,480 Speaker 2: we ascended the mountains, the same clouds which rained on 30 00:02:26,639 --> 00:02:30,560 Speaker 2: us in the valleys poured forth large flakes of snow, 31 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:35,920 Speaker 2: thick and fast. The sun occasionally shone through these showers 32 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:41,280 Speaker 2: and illuminated the magnificent ravines of the mountains, whose gigantic 33 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:46,160 Speaker 2: pines were some laden with snow, some wreathed round by 34 00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:50,520 Speaker 2: the lines of scattered and lingering vapor. Others darted their 35 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:55,119 Speaker 2: dark spires into the sunny sky, brilliantly clear and azure. 36 00:02:56,440 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 2: These are the words of the young Merry Wollstonecraft Godwin 37 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:04,640 Speaker 2: as she documented her journey to Geneva alongside her soon 38 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:08,440 Speaker 2: to be husband, the poet Percy Shelley, their four month 39 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:14,600 Speaker 2: old son William, and Mary's stepsister Claire Claremont. Also finding 40 00:03:14,639 --> 00:03:18,959 Speaker 2: his way to Geneva was Claire's former flame, Lord Byron, 41 00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:23,920 Speaker 2: England's most scandalous celebrity of the moment, whose trip to 42 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:28,120 Speaker 2: the country was less vacation and more of an escape 43 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:33,120 Speaker 2: from the increasingly scornful public eye. Traveling with Byron was 44 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:37,640 Speaker 2: his personal physician, John Polidori, who had literary aspirations of 45 00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:41,640 Speaker 2: his own. Shelley and Byron were already fans of each 46 00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:45,520 Speaker 2: other's work, so when the two parties crossed paths at 47 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:48,440 Speaker 2: the hands of a still love sick Claire, who was 48 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:51,760 Speaker 2: the one who casually suggested Geneva in the first place, 49 00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:55,720 Speaker 2: it seemed only natural that they would rent accommodations near 50 00:03:55,760 --> 00:03:59,840 Speaker 2: each other. The Shelley crew, not particularly well off, ran 51 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,520 Speaker 2: into a modest house called the Maisson Chapuis, located just 52 00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:09,119 Speaker 2: below a rather lavish mansion rented by Byron Villa Diodati. 53 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:14,200 Speaker 2: For days on end, the unseasonable rain was relentless, and 54 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:16,880 Speaker 2: the entire group was forced to spend much of their 55 00:04:16,920 --> 00:04:21,720 Speaker 2: time together inside the villa. Their nights were spent discussing 56 00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:26,719 Speaker 2: literary projects and debating philosophy. One of their favorite topics 57 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:30,200 Speaker 2: was whether or not human corpses could be re animated. 58 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:36,000 Speaker 2: Mary later described herself as a devout but nearly silent 59 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:40,120 Speaker 2: listener of those debates between the men. At some point, 60 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:45,520 Speaker 2: Byron proposed a competition to pass the time. Everyone was 61 00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:48,440 Speaker 2: to try to come up with their own ghost story. 62 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:53,279 Speaker 2: From a contest among a reigned in group of romantics, 63 00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:58,320 Speaker 2: two new Gothic horror genres were born from the ashes 64 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:05,279 Speaker 2: of Tambora wrote Monsters. I'm Danas Schwartz and this is 65 00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:14,640 Speaker 2: noble blood. First things first, let's establish the players at 66 00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:20,239 Speaker 2: Villa Diodati that summer. Let's start with George Byron. Where 67 00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:24,039 Speaker 2: we meet George Gordon Byron, the sixth Baron Byron in 68 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:28,200 Speaker 2: our story, is not a particularly high point in his life. 69 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:31,800 Speaker 2: Close friends would say that he was leaving England of 70 00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:36,280 Speaker 2: his own volition. According to the Baron John cam Hobhouse quote, 71 00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:40,120 Speaker 2: there was not the slightest necessity, even in appearance, for 72 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:44,640 Speaker 2: his going abroad those who weren't close friends would tell 73 00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:49,000 Speaker 2: a very different tale. The eighteen twelve publication of his 74 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:55,919 Speaker 2: poem Child Harold's Pilgrimage made Byron a nearly instant literary celebrity. 75 00:05:56,720 --> 00:06:00,800 Speaker 2: He was the darling of London society, of fixture at 76 00:06:00,839 --> 00:06:03,880 Speaker 2: their parties and in the hearts and minds of women. 77 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:09,560 Speaker 2: He was incredibly vain, likely fueled by his insecurities about 78 00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:14,200 Speaker 2: his clubbed right foot, and he acted as incredibly vain 79 00:06:14,279 --> 00:06:19,520 Speaker 2: men do. Despite his fame and title, Byron was not 80 00:06:19,640 --> 00:06:24,280 Speaker 2: born well off. His father, the former British officer nicknamed 81 00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:28,279 Speaker 2: mad Jack. Byron, had only married his mother from her money, 82 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:32,560 Speaker 2: and he squandered it all away quite quickly. Mad Jack 83 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:36,039 Speaker 2: then abandoned his wife and young son to fend for themselves. 84 00:06:36,960 --> 00:06:40,839 Speaker 2: After his uncle died without an heir, Byron inherited his 85 00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:43,720 Speaker 2: minor title of baron and all that came with it. 86 00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:47,440 Speaker 2: But it was Byron's poetry that truly allowed him to 87 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:53,159 Speaker 2: gain access to society. A reputation came with his status mad, 88 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:57,800 Speaker 2: bad and dangerous to know. In the words of Caroline Lamb, 89 00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:02,680 Speaker 2: noble Blood alumnus and one of Byron's most famous ex lovers, 90 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:07,080 Speaker 2: or take the words of writer Amelia Opie, another one 91 00:07:07,120 --> 00:07:11,520 Speaker 2: of the women that Byron charmed, quote such a voice 92 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:15,560 Speaker 2: as the devil tempted Eve with you feared its fascination 93 00:07:15,960 --> 00:07:20,040 Speaker 2: the moment you heard it. At this point, however, the 94 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:28,200 Speaker 2: gossip surrounding Byron went beyond hedonism and womanizing. Byron's January 95 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:33,400 Speaker 2: of eighteen fifteen marriage to Caroline Lamb's cousin Annabella, was 96 00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:38,280 Speaker 2: doomed from the start. Feeling trapped in monogamy, he began 97 00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:43,920 Speaker 2: to act out as Caroline predicted Byron quote would never 98 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:47,560 Speaker 2: be able to pull with a woman who went to church, punctually, 99 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:53,120 Speaker 2: understood statistics, and had a bad figure within his circle. 100 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:58,640 Speaker 2: He became less secretive of past homosexual affairs and spoken 101 00:07:58,720 --> 00:08:02,520 Speaker 2: innuendos as to the nature of his relationship with his 102 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:07,640 Speaker 2: half sister Augusta. Just a year after they were wed, 103 00:08:08,040 --> 00:08:11,920 Speaker 2: Annabella took the couple's infant daughter, Ada to her parents' 104 00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:16,800 Speaker 2: home in Leicestershire. A few short weeks later, Annabella's father, 105 00:08:17,080 --> 00:08:21,960 Speaker 2: Sir Ralph Milbank, wrote to Byron to formally request a separation. 106 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:27,880 Speaker 2: After that, rumors that had been contained within the Inno 107 00:08:28,120 --> 00:08:33,079 Speaker 2: literary circle began to spread across the city. The flames 108 00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:37,119 Speaker 2: of these wildfires were in some part fueled by Caroline herself, 109 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:45,240 Speaker 2: who famously wanted to see her ex lover burn marital violence, adultery, incest, sodomy. 110 00:08:45,880 --> 00:08:51,160 Speaker 2: Byron's public image was becoming truly dangerous to know. Writing 111 00:08:51,200 --> 00:08:56,319 Speaker 2: from London to Leicestershire, Augusta rather awkwardly informed her half 112 00:08:56,360 --> 00:09:00,640 Speaker 2: sister in law of quote reports abroad of a nature 113 00:09:00,760 --> 00:09:05,480 Speaker 2: too horrible to repeat. Every other sinks into nothing besides 114 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:10,720 Speaker 2: this most horrid one. In the same letter, Augusta quotes 115 00:09:10,760 --> 00:09:14,560 Speaker 2: Byron's response to the rumors, or rather one of the rumors, 116 00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:18,440 Speaker 2: quote even to have such a thing said is utter 117 00:09:18,559 --> 00:09:21,880 Speaker 2: destruction and ruin to a man from which he can 118 00:09:21,920 --> 00:09:27,280 Speaker 2: never recover. So which rumor was Byron referencing. It's worth 119 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:31,280 Speaker 2: noting at this point that many historians believe the incest 120 00:09:31,360 --> 00:09:36,160 Speaker 2: rumors to be true, and that Elizabeth Medora Lee, Augusta's 121 00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:40,560 Speaker 2: third daughter is still likely thought to be Byron's. Despite 122 00:09:40,600 --> 00:09:44,280 Speaker 2: its taboo, incest was not a criminal offense in England 123 00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:47,560 Speaker 2: at this point, so it's actually more likely that it 124 00:09:47,679 --> 00:09:52,800 Speaker 2: was the sodomy accusations that ultimately dissuaded Byron from protesting 125 00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:56,960 Speaker 2: his role in the divorce proceedings in court. Whether you 126 00:09:57,040 --> 00:10:00,520 Speaker 2: believe Hobhouse that Byron was simply heading out for a vacation, 127 00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:05,440 Speaker 2: or whether you're more inclined to believe the considerable evidence 128 00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:08,960 Speaker 2: pointing to the contrary, the fact is that in April 129 00:10:09,400 --> 00:10:14,439 Speaker 2: Byron left England, never to return. He ordered a carriage 130 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:18,360 Speaker 2: modeled after Napoleon's, which had been famously captured as the 131 00:10:18,440 --> 00:10:22,840 Speaker 2: general fled Waterloo just the year before Byron's exile. It's 132 00:10:22,840 --> 00:10:27,720 Speaker 2: not hard to imagine why Byron identified with Napoleon's indulgence 133 00:10:27,800 --> 00:10:31,880 Speaker 2: and tragedy. As Byron once told a friend, quote with me, 134 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:35,520 Speaker 2: there is, as Napoleon said, but one step between the 135 00:10:35,559 --> 00:10:41,200 Speaker 2: sublime and the ridiculous. Byron's traveling companion was his newly 136 00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:46,480 Speaker 2: certified physician, twenty year old John Polidori. It's unknown why 137 00:10:46,679 --> 00:10:51,839 Speaker 2: exactly Byron invited Polodori, despite protests from Hobhouse, but there 138 00:10:51,840 --> 00:10:54,960 Speaker 2: are several good guesses as to why the doctor accepted, 139 00:10:55,480 --> 00:10:58,760 Speaker 2: one being the offer of quote no less than a 140 00:10:58,800 --> 00:11:02,280 Speaker 2: sum of five hundred pounds for an account of Byron's 141 00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:07,880 Speaker 2: forthcoming tour from Byron's publisher, John Murray, Also on their 142 00:11:07,880 --> 00:11:11,520 Speaker 2: way to Geneva, of course, were Mary and Percy Shelley. 143 00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:15,920 Speaker 2: Mary wasn't technically a Shelley at this point. While the 144 00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:20,160 Speaker 2: couple had eloped nearly two years earlier, they wouldn't wed 145 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:28,480 Speaker 2: until December eighteen sixteen, after Percy's first wife ultimately committed suicide. Yes, 146 00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:32,200 Speaker 2: when the famous lovers met, the twenty one year old 147 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:37,479 Speaker 2: Percy was already married to another sixteen year old girl, Harriet, 148 00:11:37,679 --> 00:11:41,440 Speaker 2: with whom he had fathered a child. Percy was a 149 00:11:41,520 --> 00:11:45,640 Speaker 2: great fan of Mary's father, William Godwin, and he would 150 00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:49,880 Speaker 2: join the family for dinner, eventually visiting nearly every day. 151 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:55,480 Speaker 2: Percy's anti Christian and pro free love views had drawn 152 00:11:55,559 --> 00:12:00,800 Speaker 2: him to Godwin's famously anarchic works. At this point, young 153 00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:04,120 Speaker 2: Percy had been kicked out of Oxford for his atheism 154 00:12:04,440 --> 00:12:08,240 Speaker 2: and disowned by his wealthy father. He was living up 155 00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:12,160 Speaker 2: to his childhood nickname Mad Shelley, given to him by 156 00:12:12,200 --> 00:12:16,080 Speaker 2: Bullys at Eton College for his head in the cloud's attitude, 157 00:12:16,160 --> 00:12:20,600 Speaker 2: his refusal to adhere to hazing traditions, and his sometimes 158 00:12:20,679 --> 00:12:24,839 Speaker 2: violent bouts of anger. Shelley even claims his own father 159 00:12:25,160 --> 00:12:27,600 Speaker 2: once tried to have him admitted to a mad house 160 00:12:29,120 --> 00:12:33,560 Speaker 2: in Godwin, Percy sought both a mentor and a surrogate parent. 161 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:38,080 Speaker 2: Though Percy and Mary had actually met once before, uneventfully 162 00:12:38,160 --> 00:12:42,280 Speaker 2: in eighteen twelve. When Percy came around again two years later, 163 00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:47,480 Speaker 2: Mary was immediately smitten with his poems, his politics, and 164 00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:53,480 Speaker 2: his quote wild intellectual, unearthly looks, as Percy's friend Thomas 165 00:12:53,520 --> 00:12:58,800 Speaker 2: Jefferson Hogg had described them. Neither Godwin nor Mary's stepmother 166 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:03,040 Speaker 2: approved of the so Percy and Mary would often sneak 167 00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:08,200 Speaker 2: off together, namely to a local churchyard, Saint Pancras Old Church. 168 00:13:09,240 --> 00:13:13,840 Speaker 2: The churchyard was Mary's favorite spot, her retreat, where she 169 00:13:13,960 --> 00:13:17,560 Speaker 2: spent an obsessive amount of time seeking peace and a 170 00:13:17,600 --> 00:13:22,480 Speaker 2: connection with one woman buried there, her mother, the famous 171 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:26,920 Speaker 2: writer Mary Wollstonecraft. The Elder. Mary was one of the 172 00:13:26,960 --> 00:13:29,920 Speaker 2: most prominent writers of her time and one of the 173 00:13:29,960 --> 00:13:35,200 Speaker 2: most radical. Her seventeen ninety two treatise A Vindication of 174 00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:39,360 Speaker 2: the Rights of Women is often considered the first English 175 00:13:39,480 --> 00:13:45,240 Speaker 2: language feminist text. By the time Mary Wollstonecraft met Godwin, 176 00:13:45,400 --> 00:13:49,720 Speaker 2: a fellow radical, she already had a daughter, Fanny, born 177 00:13:49,800 --> 00:13:53,520 Speaker 2: from an affair with an American businessman, When Mary and 178 00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:57,760 Speaker 2: Godwin got together and Mary became pregnant for the second time, 179 00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:01,360 Speaker 2: they agreed that marriage would be best for the children, 180 00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:06,440 Speaker 2: despite neither of them believing in the practice. Baby Mary 181 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:11,200 Speaker 2: was born healthy, but her mother suffered complications. It was 182 00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:16,720 Speaker 2: ultimately the result of unhygienic medical practices that Mary Wollstonecraft 183 00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:20,320 Speaker 2: would not live to raise her daughter. She died of 184 00:14:20,360 --> 00:14:25,600 Speaker 2: a bacterial infection just eleven days after giving birth. Though 185 00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:28,360 Speaker 2: Godwin did not resent the baby Mary for the death 186 00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:31,480 Speaker 2: of his wife, she grew up knowing that she was 187 00:14:31,520 --> 00:14:37,040 Speaker 2: somehow responsible for her mother's absence. Still, Godwin kept his 188 00:14:37,120 --> 00:14:40,840 Speaker 2: late wife's presence in Mary's life. A portrait of her 189 00:14:40,960 --> 00:14:43,480 Speaker 2: was hung above the stairs, where young Mary saw it 190 00:14:43,600 --> 00:14:46,680 Speaker 2: every day, and her father would frequently take her to 191 00:14:46,760 --> 00:14:49,960 Speaker 2: visit her mother's grave site at the same church where 192 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:53,000 Speaker 2: the late Mary and Godwin had been married not too 193 00:14:53,040 --> 00:14:56,960 Speaker 2: long before. It said that young Mary learned how to 194 00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:00,440 Speaker 2: write her own name from tracing the engraving on her 195 00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:05,160 Speaker 2: mother's headstone. In the words of literary critic Sandra M. Gilbert, 196 00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:10,960 Speaker 2: Mary's only real mother was a tombstone. As young Mary 197 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:15,400 Speaker 2: grew up, the grave became her place of solace, increasingly 198 00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:19,440 Speaker 2: so after her father remarried. She would carry piles of 199 00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:22,720 Speaker 2: books from her home and spend the day reading with 200 00:15:22,920 --> 00:15:26,920 Speaker 2: her mother. Mary frequently re read her mother's own work, 201 00:15:27,440 --> 00:15:32,280 Speaker 2: absorbing her knowledge, searching for it. In herself quote, I 202 00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:35,360 Speaker 2: conceive it to be the duty of every rational creature 203 00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:40,320 Speaker 2: to attend to its offspring, Wollstonecraft had written in Thoughts 204 00:15:40,400 --> 00:15:44,480 Speaker 2: on the Education of Daughters in seventeen eighty seven. While 205 00:15:44,520 --> 00:15:47,920 Speaker 2: Wollstonecraft was not able to attend to her own daughter, 206 00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:53,480 Speaker 2: Mary would recreate her presence as best she could. Bringing 207 00:15:53,560 --> 00:15:57,880 Speaker 2: Percy to the grave, then, was the ultimate vulnerability, the 208 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:03,440 Speaker 2: ultimate invitation into her prime world. On Sunday, June twenty sixth, 209 00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:08,239 Speaker 2: eighteen fourteen, Mary brought Percy to the grave and declared 210 00:16:08,280 --> 00:16:13,480 Speaker 2: her love. He reciprocated, and it's notoriously believed that they 211 00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:18,160 Speaker 2: consummated the relationship then and there in the graveyard, an 212 00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:23,920 Speaker 2: inspiration to future Goths everywhere. While the story seems almost 213 00:16:24,160 --> 00:16:27,600 Speaker 2: too gothic to be true, we can assume that they 214 00:16:27,600 --> 00:16:30,160 Speaker 2: did in fact sleep together for the first time that 215 00:16:30,280 --> 00:16:34,880 Speaker 2: day in the graveyard or elsewhere, As Percy refers to 216 00:16:34,960 --> 00:16:39,200 Speaker 2: the day in his journal entries as his true birthday. 217 00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:44,640 Speaker 2: The couple eloped later that summer, to the disapproval of Godwin. 218 00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:49,360 Speaker 2: He still opposed marriage despite his own and was concerned 219 00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:54,080 Speaker 2: with Percy's increasing debt. Though he didn't outright disown Mary, 220 00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:59,040 Speaker 2: the relationship between father and daughter became distant and cold 221 00:16:59,200 --> 00:17:03,160 Speaker 2: after Mary left for France with her new quote unquote husband. 222 00:17:03,680 --> 00:17:06,680 Speaker 2: When the couple ran out of money, a then pregnant 223 00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:14,840 Speaker 2: Mary asked her father for assistance, he denied her. In 224 00:17:14,920 --> 00:17:20,200 Speaker 2: February of eighteen fifteen, Mary gave birth prematurely to a daughter, 225 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:23,840 Speaker 2: who would die within a month. Mary was plunged into 226 00:17:23,880 --> 00:17:27,639 Speaker 2: a deep depression and would consider herself haunted by the 227 00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:32,160 Speaker 2: baby for years. Nonetheless, in January of the next year, 228 00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:35,320 Speaker 2: she gave birth to a son and named him William, 229 00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:39,280 Speaker 2: after her father. That summer, at the urging of her 230 00:17:39,320 --> 00:17:44,040 Speaker 2: stepsister Claire, the Shelleys decided to follow Lord Byron on 231 00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:47,480 Speaker 2: a trip to Geneva. Of note is the fact that 232 00:17:47,560 --> 00:17:51,480 Speaker 2: Claire was pregnant with a child rumored at the time 233 00:17:51,840 --> 00:17:55,840 Speaker 2: to actually be Percy's. There's no actual evidence of an 234 00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:59,679 Speaker 2: affair between Claire and Percy, and we now know that 235 00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:04,120 Speaker 2: the wild in fact belonged to another free loving poet, 236 00:18:04,720 --> 00:18:08,919 Speaker 2: Lord Byron. Lake Geneva was an ideal spot for a 237 00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:13,040 Speaker 2: romantic poet. It was surrounded by vineyards and hugged by 238 00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:16,600 Speaker 2: the silhouette of the Alps snowy peaks in the distance. 239 00:18:17,200 --> 00:18:20,400 Speaker 2: The crescent moon shaped body of water is the largest 240 00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:25,040 Speaker 2: and deepest in Central Europe. Mary described it lavishly in 241 00:18:25,080 --> 00:18:28,960 Speaker 2: her travel journal as quote blue as the heavens, which 242 00:18:28,960 --> 00:18:34,159 Speaker 2: it reflects. During summers when there hasn't been recent volcanic activity, 243 00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:37,960 Speaker 2: the lake is warm enough to swim in. Situated on 244 00:18:38,119 --> 00:18:41,520 Speaker 2: top of a hill, overlooking those heavenly depths and the 245 00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:48,240 Speaker 2: stretching vineyards is the stately salmon pink Villa Diodati. The 246 00:18:48,320 --> 00:18:53,119 Speaker 2: villa still stands today, its exterior largely unchanged from the 247 00:18:53,160 --> 00:18:56,800 Speaker 2: time of the group's day, from its teal shuttered windows 248 00:18:57,040 --> 00:19:01,520 Speaker 2: to its expansive balcony. Though private owned, it's still a 249 00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:05,360 Speaker 2: habit for literary tourists to try to catch a glimpse 250 00:19:05,400 --> 00:19:09,159 Speaker 2: of the mansion from nearby walking ways. This is a 251 00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:14,359 Speaker 2: tradition that began in eighteen sixteen, when hotels started to 252 00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:19,000 Speaker 2: charge English tourists to spy on the villa from telescopes 253 00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:22,679 Speaker 2: across the lake. That's how famous Byron and his friends 254 00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:26,280 Speaker 2: were at the time. It said that people would sail 255 00:19:26,359 --> 00:19:29,960 Speaker 2: by in boats hoping to peek at the women's underwear 256 00:19:30,040 --> 00:19:33,439 Speaker 2: on the washing lines, or see anything to confirm that 257 00:19:33,480 --> 00:19:37,560 Speaker 2: the villa was as debaucherous as it was in their imaginations. 258 00:19:38,119 --> 00:19:42,040 Speaker 2: It was even deemed a quote league of incest at 259 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:46,159 Speaker 2: the time. Those words often attributed to the prominent poet 260 00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:52,400 Speaker 2: Robert Southey. There's no actual evidence for the knightly orgies 261 00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:54,960 Speaker 2: that were rumored to be happening there, and there was 262 00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:59,119 Speaker 2: even an outright denial from Byron. Quote so much for 263 00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:04,040 Speaker 2: scoundrels Southeast story of incest. Neither was there any promiscuous 264 00:20:04,040 --> 00:20:08,840 Speaker 2: intercourse whatever. Both are an invention of the execrable villain Southey, 265 00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:14,440 Speaker 2: whom I will term so publicly as he deserves end quote. Still, 266 00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:19,280 Speaker 2: the group's entangled web of romantic and platonic connections to 267 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:23,160 Speaker 2: one another, combined with the presence of the eager voyeurs 268 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:27,920 Speaker 2: across the lake, would soon contribute to an environment of claustrophobia. 269 00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:31,800 Speaker 2: Lest we forget, thanks to the weather, they were quite 270 00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:36,720 Speaker 2: literally confined to the house. It proved a wet ungenial 271 00:20:36,840 --> 00:20:41,119 Speaker 2: summer and incessant rain often confined us for days to 272 00:20:41,200 --> 00:20:45,240 Speaker 2: the house. Mary would later describe. She recounted that during 273 00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:50,400 Speaker 2: these periods, various philosophical doctrines were discussed, and among others, 274 00:20:50,440 --> 00:20:53,640 Speaker 2: the nature of the principle of life and whether there 275 00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:57,919 Speaker 2: was any probability of its ever being discovered and communicated 276 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:03,360 Speaker 2: to ground Byron and Percy's wild imaginations was the medical 277 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:07,080 Speaker 2: knowledge of Polodori, Who's due for a proper introduction in 278 00:21:07,119 --> 00:21:12,280 Speaker 2: our story now. John Polodori had never intended to study medicine, 279 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:15,040 Speaker 2: but his father forced him to follow the track he 280 00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:17,960 Speaker 2: envisioned for his son, and he had enrolled him in 281 00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:22,000 Speaker 2: the University of Edinburgh to study the science. Though John 282 00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:25,520 Speaker 2: never stood up to his father, He resented his rigidity, 283 00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:29,119 Speaker 2: which likely played a part in his hatred for both 284 00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:34,360 Speaker 2: medicine and school. Over the course of his reluctant education, 285 00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:40,240 Speaker 2: Polodori discovered a passion for literature. Still, he dutifully finished 286 00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:44,280 Speaker 2: his schooling and became a doctor at age twenty. At 287 00:21:44,280 --> 00:21:47,560 Speaker 2: the time, however, in order to practice in London, a 288 00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:51,320 Speaker 2: doctor had to be at least twenty six. It was 289 00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:55,080 Speaker 2: during this waiting period that Polodori took the job of 290 00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:58,800 Speaker 2: Byron's physician, which was offered thanks to a connection of 291 00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:04,000 Speaker 2: his father. Their relationship was doomed from the start, each 292 00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:07,560 Speaker 2: man self obsessed in his own way, but only one 293 00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:10,359 Speaker 2: with the prestige to back it up and the current 294 00:22:10,440 --> 00:22:14,280 Speaker 2: need for an emotional punching bag. At one of Byron's 295 00:22:14,359 --> 00:22:18,080 Speaker 2: last dinners with friends in England, Polodori had asked his 296 00:22:18,160 --> 00:22:20,679 Speaker 2: new employer if he could read a bit of a 297 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:24,560 Speaker 2: play he had written. Byron agreed, if only to have 298 00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:28,240 Speaker 2: the opportunity to play the role of mean girl and 299 00:22:28,359 --> 00:22:33,040 Speaker 2: skewer Polodori's efforts for the laughter of the table. In 300 00:22:33,119 --> 00:22:36,919 Speaker 2: another exchange, the doctor had asked the poet, what is 301 00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:40,440 Speaker 2: there accepting writing poetry that I cannot do better than you? 302 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:45,040 Speaker 2: Byron calmly replied, first, I can hit with a pistol 303 00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:48,520 Speaker 2: the keyhole of that door. Secondly, I can swim across 304 00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:51,640 Speaker 2: that river to yonder point, and thirdly I can give 305 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:55,800 Speaker 2: you a damned good thrashing. If you're feeling for Polodori 306 00:22:55,880 --> 00:22:58,359 Speaker 2: right now, keep in mind that at least all of 307 00:22:58,359 --> 00:23:01,520 Speaker 2: that would probably provide him with good material later on. 308 00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:06,920 Speaker 2: Back to the villa. During one of those indoor stretches, 309 00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:11,639 Speaker 2: the group began to read pieces from Phantasmagoriana, a French 310 00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:15,879 Speaker 2: anthology of German ghost stories. It was this collection that 311 00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:19,919 Speaker 2: gave Byron his famous idea, We will each write a 312 00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:24,439 Speaker 2: ghost story, he said, as Mary later recounted. Namely excluded 313 00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:28,879 Speaker 2: from each was Claire, who cared less about writing and 314 00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:33,960 Speaker 2: more about a certain writer. While the contest was a 315 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:36,719 Speaker 2: fun way to pass the time, it was also a 316 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:41,119 Speaker 2: desperately needed distraction from the growing tensions mounting in the house. 317 00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:45,159 Speaker 2: Claire was determined to make the trip worthwhile to resume 318 00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:50,600 Speaker 2: her affair with Byron. Despite his initial resistance, Claire got 319 00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:54,120 Speaker 2: what she came for. I never loved her, nor pretended 320 00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:57,119 Speaker 2: to love her, Byron wrote, But a man is a man, 321 00:23:57,240 --> 00:23:59,679 Speaker 2: and if a girl of eighteen comes prancing to you 322 00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:04,000 Speaker 2: at all hours, there is but what way? Classic Byron. 323 00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:09,960 Speaker 2: Some sources report that Paulodori became infatuated with Mary, who 324 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:13,919 Speaker 2: remained devoted to Percy and rejected his advances. As the 325 00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:20,560 Speaker 2: doctor would recount, Mary instead saw Polidori as a brother. Percy, meanwhile, 326 00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:24,639 Speaker 2: was described as falling into a depression. He struggled with 327 00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:28,320 Speaker 2: mental illness from a young age, and the claustrophobic environment 328 00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:32,280 Speaker 2: was beginning to weigh on his psyche. For example, one 329 00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:36,560 Speaker 2: dark and stormy evening, Byron read verses from Samuel Taylor 330 00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:42,360 Speaker 2: Coleridge's poem christabel in which a supernatural creature is disguising 331 00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:45,520 Speaker 2: itself as a woman named Geraldine in order to trick 332 00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:51,679 Speaker 2: the titular character. One particularly relevant section reads, behold her 333 00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:56,200 Speaker 2: bosom and half her side, hideous, deformed, and pale of Hugh, 334 00:24:56,800 --> 00:24:59,720 Speaker 2: A site to dream of, not to tell, and she 335 00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:04,680 Speaker 2: is to sleep by Christabelle. Percy fled from the room, 336 00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:09,400 Speaker 2: screaming in a fit of fantasy. As Byron described it, 337 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:12,720 Speaker 2: it was only when Polodori threw water in Percy's face 338 00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:16,000 Speaker 2: and gave him ether, the anesthetic of the time, that 339 00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:20,280 Speaker 2: he calmed down. They say Percy had been haunted by 340 00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:24,640 Speaker 2: visions of a monstrous woman whom some accounts describe as 341 00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:30,720 Speaker 2: Mary with eyes instead of nipples on her breasts. Clearly 342 00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:35,280 Speaker 2: inspired enough, the guests began to write and share their 343 00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:40,520 Speaker 2: ghost stories. Byron and Percy went first, both presenting the 344 00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:44,560 Speaker 2: beginnings of works that they would never finish. Percy's story, 345 00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:48,000 Speaker 2: which Mary remembered to have been inspired by his childhood, 346 00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:53,720 Speaker 2: is now completely lost Byron's story. The fragment of a novel, however, 347 00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:57,320 Speaker 2: can still be read in full. His story centered on 348 00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:00,879 Speaker 2: a young man traveling in Turkey with an old companion, 349 00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:07,440 Speaker 2: the wealthy aristocratic Augustus Darville. The elder's health declines rapidly, 350 00:26:07,880 --> 00:26:11,360 Speaker 2: and while the two rest in a Turkish cemetery, Darvill 351 00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:15,320 Speaker 2: asks his companion to tell no one of his impending death. 352 00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:19,080 Speaker 2: The old man gives the younger a ring and asks 353 00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:23,119 Speaker 2: him to perform a ceremony with it, before turning black 354 00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:29,080 Speaker 2: and instantly disintegrating. The end, the doctor hadn't managed to 355 00:26:29,119 --> 00:26:35,600 Speaker 2: come up with anything worthwhile, yet, Mary, later recalled poor Polidori, 356 00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:39,440 Speaker 2: had some terrible idea about a skull headed lady who 357 00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:45,679 Speaker 2: was so punished for peeping through a keyhole. Mary, for 358 00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:48,960 Speaker 2: her part, early on, was struck with a serious case 359 00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:53,560 Speaker 2: of writer's block. I was asked each morning and each evening, 360 00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:57,520 Speaker 2: I was forced to reply with a mortifying negative, She wrote. 361 00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:02,160 Speaker 2: Her devout but nearly silent listening to the scientific debates 362 00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:05,200 Speaker 2: of the men would soon pay off, though, having made 363 00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:10,200 Speaker 2: its way into her subconscious. One conversation in particular, had 364 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:15,080 Speaker 2: the greatest impact. They talked of the experiments of doctor Darwin, 365 00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:18,960 Speaker 2: who preserved a piece of Vermicelli in a glass case 366 00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:22,560 Speaker 2: till by some extraordinary means, it began to move with 367 00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:28,240 Speaker 2: voluntary motion. Perhaps a corpse would be reanimated. Galvanism had 368 00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:32,040 Speaker 2: given token of such things. Perhaps the component parts of 369 00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:36,280 Speaker 2: a creature might be manufactured, brought together, and endowed with 370 00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:41,680 Speaker 2: vital warmth. These images and ideas embedded themselves in her 371 00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:46,879 Speaker 2: mind and birthed perhaps the most famous dream of all time. 372 00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:52,080 Speaker 2: As Mary wrote, Knight waned upon this talk. When I 373 00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:55,520 Speaker 2: placed my head upon my pillow, I did not sleep, 374 00:27:56,040 --> 00:27:59,320 Speaker 2: nor could I be said to think. I saw, with 375 00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:03,840 Speaker 2: shut eyes, but acute mental vision. I saw the pale 376 00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:08,000 Speaker 2: student of unhallowed arts, kneeling beside the thing he had 377 00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:11,440 Speaker 2: put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man 378 00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:16,119 Speaker 2: stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, 379 00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:21,359 Speaker 2: showed signs of life and stir with an uneasy, half 380 00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:25,919 Speaker 2: vital motion. By her account, it was right then and 381 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:29,920 Speaker 2: there after, opening her eyes in terror, that Mary Shelley 382 00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:35,119 Speaker 2: began to draft Frankenstein. She recounts, I returned to my 383 00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:39,640 Speaker 2: ghost story, my tiresome, unlucky ghost story. I have found it. 384 00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:43,960 Speaker 2: What terrified me will terrify others. And I need only 385 00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:47,880 Speaker 2: describe the specter which has haunted my midnight pillow on 386 00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:50,600 Speaker 2: the morrow I announced that I had thought of a story. 387 00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:54,760 Speaker 2: I began that day with the words. That night, Mary 388 00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:58,240 Speaker 2: Shelley read a passage to the group that began. It 389 00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:05,719 Speaker 2: was on a dreary night of November. As Frankenstein developed 390 00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:09,840 Speaker 2: from ghost story to novel, Villa Diodatti remained in its 391 00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:15,400 Speaker 2: DNA even beyond Victor Frankenstein's Geneva family origins and the 392 00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:18,560 Speaker 2: number of scenes that take place at Lake Geneva itself. 393 00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:22,840 Speaker 2: The year without a Summer feels present in her descriptions 394 00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:26,360 Speaker 2: of the natural world that Victor and his creature experience. 395 00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:30,600 Speaker 2: One of the very first sentences of the novel reads, 396 00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:34,720 Speaker 2: this breeze, which has traveled from the regions towards which 397 00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:38,440 Speaker 2: I am advancing, gives me a foretaste of those icy climes. 398 00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:42,720 Speaker 2: Inspired by this wind of promise, my daydreams become more 399 00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:46,080 Speaker 2: fervent and vivid. I try, in vain to be persuaded 400 00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:48,800 Speaker 2: that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation. 401 00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:52,719 Speaker 2: It ever presents itself to my imagination as the region 402 00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:58,160 Speaker 2: of beauty and delight the novel's protagonist, Victor Frankenstein's own 403 00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:03,680 Speaker 2: scientific interest from watching a storm as a child. In Frankenstein, 404 00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:07,400 Speaker 2: the natural world is as fear inspiring as it is 405 00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:12,760 Speaker 2: awe inspiring. It's a perspective that feels timely given Mary 406 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:17,920 Speaker 2: writing in the wake of a catastrophic natural disaster. While 407 00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:20,960 Speaker 2: many have come to the conclusion that Mary identifies with 408 00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:26,160 Speaker 2: Victor the scientist, the circumstances surrounding that summer way heavily 409 00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:30,200 Speaker 2: in favor of Mary actually identifying more with the monster. 410 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:34,320 Speaker 2: Remember the words of Mary's mother. I conceive it to 411 00:30:34,360 --> 00:30:37,720 Speaker 2: be the duty of every rational creature to attend to 412 00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:42,800 Speaker 2: its offspring. Mary's mother had died just days after she 413 00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:46,680 Speaker 2: was born, and Mary had been all but abandoned by 414 00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:51,120 Speaker 2: her beloved father because of her relationship with Percy. Like 415 00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:57,520 Speaker 2: Frankenstein's Monster, Mary had become a lonely, wandering child, abandoned 416 00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:03,600 Speaker 2: by her creator, her husband Byron Polodori. All of them 417 00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:07,000 Speaker 2: were aching for the attention of their fathers. Perhaps it 418 00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:10,520 Speaker 2: came up in conversation one night, and Mary had silently 419 00:31:10,560 --> 00:31:14,240 Speaker 2: agreed to herself when it came to the conversations that 420 00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:18,280 Speaker 2: we know took place. Mary's devout listening likely gave her 421 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:23,480 Speaker 2: not only source material but character inspiration. Each night, three men, 422 00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:27,920 Speaker 2: all remembered in part for their egos, discussed reanimation of 423 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:32,880 Speaker 2: human life. Mary's character, Victor Frankenstein, who's torn down by 424 00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:36,320 Speaker 2: his own hubris, is remembered for thinking that he could 425 00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:42,400 Speaker 2: play god. Speaking of those men, the second most famous 426 00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:45,920 Speaker 2: work to stem from Villadia, Dotti, was written not by Shelley, 427 00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:50,760 Speaker 2: not by Byron, but by poor Polidori. He was intrigued 428 00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:55,080 Speaker 2: by that unfinished piece of Byron's, and after the trip finished, 429 00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:57,920 Speaker 2: he began to flush it out into a short story. 430 00:31:58,280 --> 00:32:02,200 Speaker 2: Polodori's story begins to about the same as Byron's, two 431 00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:06,080 Speaker 2: gentlemen traveling Europe, one dying of a serious death and 432 00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:09,160 Speaker 2: making the other swear not to speak of it. In 433 00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:12,840 Speaker 2: this version, however, we see the consequences of that deal, 434 00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:16,840 Speaker 2: as our protagonist is shocked to find his dead friend 435 00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:20,920 Speaker 2: alive and well in London and attempting to seduce his sister. 436 00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:25,360 Speaker 2: There are some changes. Right off the bat, locals tell 437 00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:30,320 Speaker 2: legends of vampires, and while our protagonist, Aubrey doesn't make 438 00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:36,720 Speaker 2: the connection. Mysterious seemingly vampire induced deaths take place when 439 00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:42,360 Speaker 2: his companion, the wealthy, charming and suave Lord Ruthven, arrives. 440 00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:46,040 Speaker 2: If you remember the Caroline Lamb episode we did on 441 00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:50,360 Speaker 2: this podcast, the name Ruthven might ring a bell. Maybe not. 442 00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:53,880 Speaker 2: It was a very long time ago, you see. It's 443 00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:58,320 Speaker 2: the same pseudonym Caroline Lamb used for the heartbreaker Mayle 444 00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:03,200 Speaker 2: Lead in her novel Glenarvan, which was a fictional account 445 00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:06,920 Speaker 2: of her affair with Byron. At an early point in 446 00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:12,080 Speaker 2: Polodori's novel, the vampire Ruthven abandons Aubrey during their travels 447 00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:17,480 Speaker 2: after seducing an acquaintance's daughter, Polodori often found himself abandoned 448 00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:22,200 Speaker 2: by Byron in favor of Byron's new preferred companion, Percy Shelley. 449 00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:27,360 Speaker 2: Ruthven is described as being deadly, pale, and dark haired. 450 00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:30,880 Speaker 2: He has a compelling voice and is attractive to women 451 00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:35,200 Speaker 2: whom he sees as prey. It's not hard to imagine 452 00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:39,800 Speaker 2: why Polodori saw Byron as a vampire plagued by scandal 453 00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:42,920 Speaker 2: that was destroying the lives of those around him. Treating 454 00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:47,440 Speaker 2: the woman pregnant with his child as a tempting annoyance, 455 00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:54,080 Speaker 2: and channeling his distress into mocking Polodori, Byron was figuratively 456 00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:59,520 Speaker 2: sucking the lives out of his friends. The Vampire did 457 00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:02,720 Speaker 2: not end up being the revenge Polidori had hoped it 458 00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:06,120 Speaker 2: would be. It wasn't originally meant to be published at all, 459 00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:10,239 Speaker 2: merely circulated among peers, but the manuscript ended up in 460 00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:14,200 Speaker 2: the hands of New Monthly Magazine, where the editor rather 461 00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:18,680 Speaker 2: presumptuously assumed that it was written by Lord Byron. It 462 00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:22,200 Speaker 2: was published under the name The Vampire, a Tale by 463 00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:27,160 Speaker 2: Lord Byron, and while it was eventually amended after Polodori's demand, 464 00:34:27,719 --> 00:34:31,680 Speaker 2: the resounding success of the publication would mean the story 465 00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:37,200 Speaker 2: would forever be connected to Byron. While Polodori explained that 466 00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:41,160 Speaker 2: it was Byron's initial idea to continue his fragment with 467 00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:45,440 Speaker 2: the protagonist finding his companion alive upon his return and 468 00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:49,040 Speaker 2: making love to his sister, everything else was of his 469 00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:55,480 Speaker 2: Polodori's own imagination. Still, well into the eighteen nineties, the 470 00:34:55,600 --> 00:35:00,120 Speaker 2: Vampire was included in collections of Byron's work. Still will 471 00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:03,239 Speaker 2: it's Polodori who we have to thank for making the 472 00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:08,839 Speaker 2: vampire genre what it is today. Vampire fiction existed before Polodori, 473 00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:14,440 Speaker 2: but they were grotesque creatures. The byronic lord Ruthven was 474 00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:19,120 Speaker 2: dark and seductive, like the vampires we know and love today. 475 00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:23,680 Speaker 2: There may not have been the vampire without Byron's fragment, 476 00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:28,600 Speaker 2: but without the vampire, we wouldn't have Dracula, or Carmela 477 00:35:28,840 --> 00:35:34,120 Speaker 2: or Twilight. So who won the ghost story contest? No 478 00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:37,759 Speaker 2: winner was formally declared, but we have to hand the 479 00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:41,600 Speaker 2: title to the two underdogs who not only created the 480 00:35:41,640 --> 00:35:50,520 Speaker 2: scariest monsters, but pioneered two literary genres. That's the story 481 00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:54,520 Speaker 2: of Villa Diodati. But keep listening after a brief sponsor break, 482 00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:58,040 Speaker 2: to hear more about very important work that was also 483 00:35:58,160 --> 00:36:13,360 Speaker 2: created during the Year without a s Summer in eighteen sixteen, 484 00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:17,680 Speaker 2: The nineteen year old composer Franz Schubert was hard at work. 485 00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:22,240 Speaker 2: In that year alone. He produced two symphonies, choral music 486 00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:27,040 Speaker 2: and chamber works that dark and rainy summer when our 487 00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:31,279 Speaker 2: romantic poets were writing their ghost stories. Schubert had also 488 00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:34,760 Speaker 2: been inspired by the weather in albed In. The Guardian 489 00:36:34,960 --> 00:36:38,560 Speaker 2: argues that quote almost all of his songs reflected not 490 00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:43,160 Speaker 2: only the wandering wondering and passionate romanticism of the age, 491 00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:48,000 Speaker 2: but also the coldness and darkness of this mysterious period. 492 00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:53,320 Speaker 2: I personally recommend Symphony number four in C Minor, dubbed 493 00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:58,840 Speaker 2: The Tragic by Schubert. The composer would soon write Prometheus, 494 00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:01,680 Speaker 2: of course, based on the myth of the Titan who 495 00:37:01,719 --> 00:37:05,720 Speaker 2: stole fire from the gods to give to humanity. Prometheus 496 00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:08,760 Speaker 2: had been a prominent figure in art since the early days, 497 00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:12,319 Speaker 2: but he happened to be of particular importance to the 498 00:37:12,400 --> 00:37:17,040 Speaker 2: Villa Diodatti crew Byron published his epic poem Prometheus in 499 00:37:17,120 --> 00:37:21,640 Speaker 2: eighteen sixteen. In eighteen twenty, Percy would publish one of 500 00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:27,560 Speaker 2: his major works, Prometheus Unbound and Lest We Forget Mary. 501 00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:32,319 Speaker 2: Shelley had actually given Frankenstein a longer title. The full 502 00:37:32,440 --> 00:37:43,880 Speaker 2: title of the novel was Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. 503 00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:50,000 Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and 504 00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:53,240 Speaker 1: Mild from Aaron Mankey. The show was written and hosted 505 00:37:53,239 --> 00:37:58,360 Speaker 1: by Dana Schwartz. Executive producers include Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, 506 00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:02,120 Speaker 1: and Matt Frederick. The show is produced by rima Il 507 00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:05,800 Speaker 1: Kahali and Trevor Young Noble Blood is on social media 508 00:38:05,920 --> 00:38:08,520 Speaker 1: at Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more about 509 00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:12,040 Speaker 1: the show over at Noblebloodtales dot com. For more podcasts 510 00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:16,720 Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 511 00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:26,680 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.