Is that Polidori's The Vampyre? That was the origin of the handsome, seductive vampire and was based on Byron. I just lectured on it two weeks ago.
I like the Folio Society's publications. The story behind The Vampyre is really fascinating. Polidori was a recent Edinburgh Univ. medical graduate who was hired by Byron's publishing firm to go down to Lake Geneva and keep an eye on their investment. Byron resented his presence and threw him out, but not before Polidori had scribbled down the story Byron had told about a vampire (it was a Syrian story, I believe). This happened on the famous "It was a dark and stormy night," during which Mary Shelley wrote the first version of Frankenstein. When Polidori got back to England he wrote the play, in which the title character was obviously based upon the poet, and the play was largely a huge success all across Europe due to Byron's popularity and notoriety. It's especially interesting when you consider that Byron was, in many ways, the first international celebrity - the first rock star. You've got to also hand it to Polidori for getting his own back, though: he made a fortune off the play.
I have almost every Nero Wolfe novel and short story collection. And, yes, I re-read them even when I know whodunnit, enjoying the writing and looking for the clues.
Celine's "North" has to be the most nightmarish novel I've ever read: strange that it was based on his actual experiences toward the end of the war, and stranger still that he deserved them. I can't think of another book quite like it, with the exception of O'Brien's novel, but that one's pure fiction. Fascinating writer and indubitably a genius, but his complete blindness to the effects of his own prose is very hard to understand.
