Author: John Polidori, Sheridan Le FanuForeword by: V. E. SchwabIntroduction by: Nick Groom
Pubished: 10/14/2025

The first vampire short story and novella, which came beforeDracula, together in one Penguin Classics hardcover, a Penguin Speculative Fiction Special, with a foreword by #1New York Timesbestselling author V. E. Schwab

A Penguin Classic HardcoverThe first vampire short story in English,The Vampyreby John Polidori, and the first vampire novella,Carmillaby Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, are published together in one volume.The Vampyre, first published in 1819, features Lord Ruthven, a deathly pale yet fatally charismatic nobleman who preys on women of high societyand is generally considered as the first fully developed vampire narrative in English literature. It is here accompanied by Alaric Wattss introduction, with which it was published throughout the nineteenth century, and which contains important supplementary material on vampire beliefs.Carmilla(18712) by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu is a nineteenth-century Gothic novella featuring a protagonist who typifies the long line of female and lesbian vampires in literature, movies, television series, and artwork. In a castle deep in the Austrian forest, Laura, a young woman, leads an isolated life with her father. A horse-drawn carriage crashes and an unexpected guest, the mysterious and seductive Carmilla, enters their lives. An early, sophisticated, and influential vampire novel,CarmillapredatesBram StokersDraculaby twenty-five years and the filmNosferatuby fifty.

Penguin Speculative Fiction Special is a hardcover series of horror, science fiction, fantasy,andmore published by Penguin Classics. Featuring custom endpapers, specially commissioned cover art,andintroductions by scholarsandnotable figures, these collectible editions celebrate classics that invite us to ask, What if?andthat, through bold imagination, alternative visions,andmagical realms, transform our perception of our world.