Lord Ruthven Begins

Scotland, 1648. Sir William Clifford expects to receive the vast Ruthven estates after the death of the old Lord, but a young man suddenly appears, claiming to the be the new Lord Ruthven, and also claiming the hand of the beautiful Anna Clifford in marriage. Only Anna's lover, Dr. Maxwell, knows the handsome stranger's ghastly secret--that he is a vampire returned from the grave! The character of the Byronesque vampire Lord Ruthven was first imagined in 1816 by John William Polidori on the same night that Mary Shelley created Frankenstein and published in 1819, becoming the first vampire in English fiction. The character of Lord Ruthven went on to inspire a number of famous French authors who penned their own versions of the tale. This is part of 4-volume selection of some French works featuring the first romantic vampire in the history of popular literature. Lord Ruthven Begins includes an 1865 stage play by Jules Dornay, Douglas le Vampire, adapted and retold by Frank J. Morlock as Lord Ruthven Begins; and The Confession of Mary Queen of Scots Regarding Lord Ruthven, an all-new story by Morlock, purporting to tell the origins of Ruthven.