0:00:11 > 0:00:13In the summer of 1816,
0:00:13 > 0:00:17strange goings-on troubled puritan Switzerland.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21The owner of a hotel on the banks of Lake Geneva
0:00:21 > 0:00:24charged the curious to observe what was going on
0:00:24 > 0:00:27in a grand house on the opposite shore.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29The Villa Diodati.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38There were scandalous rumours of free love, incest,
0:00:38 > 0:00:40drunken revelry and drugs.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43And some of them were true.
0:00:45 > 0:00:49Many of the rumours involved the famously debauched poet
0:00:49 > 0:00:50Lord Byron.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54By that time, he was like a rock star.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57But he was joined in notoriety by the brilliant young poet,
0:00:57 > 0:01:02Percy Shelley, and his teenage lover Mary.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05I think society underestimates 18-year-old girls.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10It's a unique gathering of very brilliant minds
0:01:10 > 0:01:13that almost you couldn't imagine coming together today.
0:01:15 > 0:01:16Drawn into their orbit
0:01:16 > 0:01:20were a starstruck young fan and an ambitious doctor.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24And everyone at the villa had their secrets,
0:01:24 > 0:01:26each their passions and desires.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28A disastrous love affair.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30Illegitimate children.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34Fights, feuds and jealousies.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40From this turmoil would emerge two vital works of literature.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44When we think back to that summer of 1816,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47and that particular night,
0:01:47 > 0:01:50we're looking at what is probably
0:01:50 > 0:01:54THE key romantic moment in all of literature.
0:01:55 > 0:02:01I think it's fair to say there's never been another night like that
0:02:01 > 0:02:03in terms of what it spawned.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10From one tempestuous night at the villa would spring
0:02:10 > 0:02:12two astonishing creations -
0:02:12 > 0:02:15the vampire and Frankenstein.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23Both born on a dark and stormy night.
0:02:41 > 0:02:45The story behind the creation of Frankenstein and the vampire
0:02:45 > 0:02:47begins with a scandal,
0:02:47 > 0:02:50a scandal surrounding the poet Lord Byron.
0:02:50 > 0:02:56Byron was 28 years old and renowned as an outrageous genius
0:02:56 > 0:02:57with an ego to match.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01A man of enormous sexual appetites.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05At a time when poets were as famous as rock stars today,
0:03:05 > 0:03:09he was notoriously mad, bad and dangerous to know.
0:03:11 > 0:03:17His poems were received in much the same way
0:03:17 > 0:03:23that, in the 1960s, a new album by the Beatles was.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26There were queues down the streets
0:03:26 > 0:03:29outside Byron's publishers.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33He did say, "I woke up one day to find myself famous."
0:03:34 > 0:03:37Blimey, you read his life and you realise, you know,
0:03:37 > 0:03:41Russell Brand is nowhere near the kind of life Byron had,
0:03:41 > 0:03:43you know what I mean?
0:03:43 > 0:03:47It's like he was a comet through civilisation, in a sense.
0:03:48 > 0:03:54Byron may have had his adoring fans, but his private life was a mess.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58Stalked by bailiffs and fearing for his life,
0:03:58 > 0:04:02in April 1816, he fled England for the Continent.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05Difficult to imagine the equivalent now.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08It's as if there was a kind of red-top campaign
0:04:08 > 0:04:11with your photograph and name all over it.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15That's the kind of equivalent that was happening to Byron.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20One of the most shocking accusations was that Byron had had
0:04:20 > 0:04:24an incestuous relationship with his half-sister Augusta
0:04:24 > 0:04:26and fathered a child.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28Later, in a letter to her,
0:04:28 > 0:04:32he would share the pain of his humiliation and his failed marriage.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36She, or rather the separation...
0:04:38 > 0:04:39..has broken my heart.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44I feel as if an elephant had trodden on it.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47I'm convinced I shall never get over it.
0:04:47 > 0:04:52But I try, but this last...wreck
0:04:52 > 0:04:54has affected me very differently.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58I breathe lead.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06But the scandal was not the only reason behind Byron's departure.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09He may possibly also
0:05:09 > 0:05:13have been running away from an incredibly persistent young lady
0:05:13 > 0:05:15called Claire Clairmont.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24Claire Clairmont had been one of scores of women
0:05:24 > 0:05:26to throw herself at Byron's feet.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28Most he ignored.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31But few were as headstrong as Claire.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34She was determined to catch her man
0:05:34 > 0:05:36and wrote to him repeatedly.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40I do assure you, your future will shall be mine
0:05:40 > 0:05:43and everything that you shall do or say
0:05:43 > 0:05:45I shall not question.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51Byron was left in no doubt of Claire's intentions.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55If you stand in need of amusement,
0:05:55 > 0:06:01and I afford it you, pray indulge your humour.
0:06:04 > 0:06:09Claire Clairmont was kind of a Byron groupie.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13And she had pretty much fan-lettered him
0:06:13 > 0:06:14into sleeping with her
0:06:14 > 0:06:17and then he had no interest really from there.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23And she thinks she's going to be the love of Byron's life.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27And she doesn't really see what kind of character Byron is.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33Claire knew Byron was heading for Switzerland
0:06:33 > 0:06:35and decided she would follow him.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39I think Claire enjoyed being in his shadow.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41People do escalate towards fame
0:06:41 > 0:06:46and kind of get importance by association with famous people.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49I mean, why else would she trek halfway across Europe,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52well, right across Europe, to be with him?
0:06:56 > 0:06:59And so the fuse was lit on an explosive venture
0:06:59 > 0:07:02which would transform five extraordinary lives.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06First, Claire was joined by a young couple
0:07:06 > 0:07:10keen to escape England because of a trauma of their own -
0:07:10 > 0:07:12her 18-year-old stepsister Mary...
0:07:14 > 0:07:19..and Mary's lover, the 23-year-old poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
0:07:23 > 0:07:28Now, Percy and Mary were already leaving England to travel in Europe
0:07:28 > 0:07:32due to Percy's ill-health at that time.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35But Claire Clairmont is absolutely key
0:07:35 > 0:07:39in persuading them to go to Geneva in particular,
0:07:39 > 0:07:42so that she can actually pursue Byron.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49The two lovers were also escaping a scandal.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53Shelley had outraged society by advocating free love.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58And he'd already fathered a child with Mary,
0:07:58 > 0:08:00despite being a married man.
0:08:01 > 0:08:0310 days after Byron,
0:08:03 > 0:08:06they too fled the country in secret.
0:08:07 > 0:08:12They had skedaddled while he was still legally married.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17So this was a pretty daring thing for her to have done. In fact, they were
0:08:17 > 0:08:21all doing daring things. They were challenging accepted norms.
0:08:21 > 0:08:25Mary came from a famous family of radicals.
0:08:25 > 0:08:30Her father, William Godwin, once shared Shelley's belief in free love.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34But not now and not when it came to his daughter.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38He accused the poet of corrupting her.
0:08:39 > 0:08:46In my judgment, neither I, nor your daughter, nor her offspring
0:08:46 > 0:08:49ought to receive the treatment we encounter on every side.
0:08:50 > 0:08:55A young family, innocent and benevolent and united,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59should not be confounded with prostitutes and seducers.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04Shelley was in financial difficulties,
0:09:04 > 0:09:08was not being received by the Godwin house, broken off from his own family.
0:09:08 > 0:09:13And so travel looked like one of the ways of dealing with this.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17I resolve to commit myself by decided step.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21I therefore take Mary to Geneva.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23I leave England...
0:09:23 > 0:09:27I know not... perhaps for ever.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33The three of them began the long journey to Switzerland,
0:09:33 > 0:09:37a country that offered more than just an escape from personal troubles.
0:09:39 > 0:09:44For over a decade, travel in Europe had been difficult and dangerous
0:09:44 > 0:09:46because of the Napoleonic Wars.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50The British victory at the Battle of Waterloo the year before
0:09:50 > 0:09:51had changed all this.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59Switzerland, from the point of view of Gothic interest,
0:09:59 > 0:10:01was up there with Italy
0:10:01 > 0:10:06as the kind of rugged, sublime, picturesque place to go and see.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11After the Napoleonic wars, the poor English had to make do with
0:10:11 > 0:10:17Devon and the Lake District which is why all the poetry of 1800 to 1815
0:10:17 > 0:10:19is chock-a-block with views of the Lake District because
0:10:19 > 0:10:21they couldn't get anything better,
0:10:21 > 0:10:23that's the only sublime thing they'd got.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28But suddenly there's Switzerland, with Mont Blanc.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34And so it's very much a part of what drew them there.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42Travelling to Switzerland with Lord Byron was his personal physician,
0:10:42 > 0:10:45Dr John Polidori, the fifth and final character
0:10:45 > 0:10:49to play a decisive role in the remarkable events of the summer.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55Polidori hoped it would be his big break into the literary world.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59He had ambitions of his own to be a writer.
0:11:01 > 0:11:05Polidori is a kind of wannabe. He dresses like Byron, he's his doctor,
0:11:05 > 0:11:08he's a kind of groupie, in a sense.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10He hangs on to the train, the menagerie,
0:11:10 > 0:11:12he's a member of the bestiary of Byron
0:11:12 > 0:11:15that travels around Europe, you know.
0:11:15 > 0:11:20Polidori's job was to look after Byron, whose louche lifestyle
0:11:20 > 0:11:23of sex, drugs and drinking meant that in the past
0:11:23 > 0:11:28he'd suffered from gonorrhoea, haemorrhoids and liver problems.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32Byron was also paranoid about putting on weight.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34He'd been very fat as a child
0:11:34 > 0:11:37and used medicinal purges to keep off the pounds.
0:11:39 > 0:11:41But although he relied on the doctor,
0:11:41 > 0:11:46Byron didn't take him seriously, nicknaming him Polly Dolly.
0:11:54 > 0:11:59And so it was that the travellers arrived in Geneva in May 1816.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04The ground was laid for an explosive coming together
0:12:04 > 0:12:07of talent, ambition and desire.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12A summer that would shape the rest of their lives.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20Mary felt relief at her new surroundings,
0:12:20 > 0:12:24sensing she was on the verge of a dramatic change in her life.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28At what a different scene are we now arrived?
0:12:28 > 0:12:33To the warm sunshine and to the humming of sun-loving insects.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38From the windows of our hotel, we see the lovely lake,
0:12:38 > 0:12:41blue as the heavens which it reflects
0:12:41 > 0:12:44and sparkling with the golden beams.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46I feel as happy as a new-fledged bird
0:12:46 > 0:12:50and hardly care what twig I fly to
0:12:50 > 0:12:53so that I may try my new-found wings.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06But Mary's stepsister Claire's frustration had been growing.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09She'd assumed she would be back in Byron's bed by now.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14Instead, she'd had to wait 10 days for him just to arrive.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18And when he did, despite staying in the same hotel,
0:13:18 > 0:13:20he avoided her.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23Claire wrote to him, he ignored her.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26How can you be so very unkind?
0:13:26 > 0:13:30I did not expect you to answer my note last evening
0:13:30 > 0:13:32because I supposed you'd be so tired.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34But this morning?
0:13:34 > 0:13:37I'm sure you cannot say, as you used in London,
0:13:37 > 0:13:39that you are overwhelmed with affairs
0:13:39 > 0:13:41and had not an instant to yourself.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46I have been in this weary hotel this fortnight.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51It seems so unkind, so cruel of you
0:13:51 > 0:13:54to treat me with such marked indifference.
0:13:56 > 0:14:01Will you go straight up to the top of the house this evening at 7.30
0:14:01 > 0:14:06and I shall be on the landing place and show you the room.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15Claire was not the only one with a secret plan.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18Polidori had a hidden agenda.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24He was keeping a secret journal of his time with Byron.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29So, this sort of idea of secret narratives going on,
0:14:29 > 0:14:31not merely Polidori's secret diary,
0:14:31 > 0:14:37but Claire's secret plan as she thinks innocently to capture Byron.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41So there are considerable psychological and sexual tensions
0:14:41 > 0:14:43going on in that little group.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50On the 29th of May, the five met for the first time.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54Over the coming days, they began to socialise together.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58Byron continued to shun Claire.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03But the two poets delighted in each other's company.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07Soon, Byron and Shelley started looking for houses by the lake
0:15:07 > 0:15:09to rent for the summer.
0:15:10 > 0:15:15In his diary, Polidori recorded his first impressions of Shelley.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18May 30th. Got up late,
0:15:18 > 0:15:22went to Mr and Mrs Shelley, breakfasted with them,
0:15:22 > 0:15:24rode out to see a house together.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28Shelley gone through much misery.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31Paid Godwin's debts
0:15:31 > 0:15:33and seduced his daughter.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36Then wondered that he would not see him.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38He is very clever.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42The more I read his Queen Mab, the more beauties I find.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48Byron had poured scorn on Polidori's literary ambitions.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51Polidori tried to impress Shelley instead.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55June 1st, up late, began my letters.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57Went to Shelley's.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00After dinner, jumping a wall,
0:16:00 > 0:16:03my foot slipped and I strained my left ankle.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07Shelley, etc, came in the evening.
0:16:07 > 0:16:13Talked of my play, etc, which all agreed was worth nothing.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21Shelley, Mary and Claire moved into a small house on the lake.
0:16:22 > 0:16:27Soon after, Byron and Polidori moved into a grander property just above it.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29The Villa Diodati.
0:16:31 > 0:16:36"It was," wrote Byron, "the prettiest place in all the lake."
0:16:39 > 0:16:43The villa in summer 1816, the Villa Diodati, it's still there.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47It's a rather superior house with a wonderful balcony.
0:16:47 > 0:16:52Just the kind of place Lord Byron would have chosen, very expensive.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59The five soon developed a routine.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02After evenings spent drinking together,
0:17:02 > 0:17:04Byron would write into the early hours,
0:17:04 > 0:17:07each night keeping a pistol by his bedside,
0:17:07 > 0:17:11paranoid his enemies in England might be out to get him.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15Shelley and Mary took morning walks by the lake,
0:17:15 > 0:17:19at last free of the scandal that had surrounded them in London.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23While Polidori had been relegated
0:17:23 > 0:17:26to overseeing Byron's household accounts.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31And still Claire plotted how to use her charms
0:17:31 > 0:17:33to win back the man she loved.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37He was more concerned with his appearance
0:17:37 > 0:17:40than with another lovestruck teenage fan.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44Worried that drunken binges might ruin his figure,
0:17:44 > 0:17:49Byron even measured his wrists to check they weren't getting flabby.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05But any hopes of an idyllic summer by the lake were rudely interrupted.
0:18:05 > 0:18:07There's a kind of scandal
0:18:07 > 0:18:10that the Shelleys' party and Lord Byron's party,
0:18:10 > 0:18:12who is sleeping with who, that's one of the questions.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15And a wonderful story is that people in the hotel
0:18:15 > 0:18:17across the lake hired telescopes
0:18:17 > 0:18:20so that they could spy on the balcony of the Diodati.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24Even what the washing was being hung out, there was great speculation
0:18:24 > 0:18:25as to who the nightwear belonged to.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28They said that we have formed a pact
0:18:28 > 0:18:33to outrage all that is regarded as most sacred in human society.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37The English papers did not delay to spread this scandal
0:18:37 > 0:18:39and the people believed it.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42Hardly any affliction was spared us.
0:18:48 > 0:18:49And things only got worse.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52There was a sudden change in the weather.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58No-one knew that this was the beginning of the summer of darkness.
0:19:00 > 0:19:05A volcanic explosion in Indonesia had pumped tonnes of debris
0:19:05 > 0:19:08into the atmosphere, blocking out the sun
0:19:08 > 0:19:10and creating a volcanic winter.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17Across Europe, crops failed
0:19:17 > 0:19:20and there was flooding and thunderstorms.
0:19:20 > 0:19:22They'd never seen anything like it.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25The whole city of Geneva was completely flooded.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30The lake was perpetually lit up by dramatic storms.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33It was a completely new,
0:19:33 > 0:19:39half terrifying and half thrilling experience
0:19:39 > 0:19:43for a party of people who were highly literary,
0:19:43 > 0:19:46highly excitable, looking for sensations
0:19:46 > 0:19:49and you could say that God just gave them it,
0:19:49 > 0:19:52"OK, you want it, I'll give it to you."
0:19:55 > 0:19:57It was so dark that some days
0:19:57 > 0:20:00they were forced to use candles in the afternoon.
0:20:00 > 0:20:05An almost perpetual rain confines us principally to the house.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09The thunderstorms that visit us are grander and more terrific
0:20:09 > 0:20:11than I have ever seen before.
0:20:11 > 0:20:16One night, we enjoyed a finer storm than I have ever beheld.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18The lake was lit up,
0:20:18 > 0:20:20the pines made visible
0:20:20 > 0:20:24and all the scene illuminated for an instant.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29When a pitchy blackness succeeded
0:20:29 > 0:20:32and the thunder came in frightful bursts
0:20:32 > 0:20:34over our heads amid the darkness.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41To escape the storms, the five spent more time together
0:20:41 > 0:20:43socialising at the villa.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47A heady atmosphere quickly developed.
0:20:47 > 0:20:52There's a sense of real synergy between all these different authors
0:20:52 > 0:20:55at the time who are playing off each other,
0:20:55 > 0:20:58reading different things together
0:20:58 > 0:21:02and actually bouncing ideas off each other all the time.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06It sounds like a really wonderful, creative period.
0:21:06 > 0:21:11They are perched on the edge of their destinies in a curious way.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14But on this beautiful lake.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17So it's an immense literary...
0:21:17 > 0:21:21like an unexploded bomb, in a way, when they're all there.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27# At the mid hour of night
0:21:27 > 0:21:31# When stars are weeping, I fly
0:21:31 > 0:21:33# To the lone vale... #
0:21:33 > 0:21:38I think, at that age, you start to think about the world -
0:21:38 > 0:21:39where you come from, you know,
0:21:39 > 0:21:42all the things that are part of creation and life.
0:21:42 > 0:21:47You can imagine it was a bit like an Oxford University dorm room
0:21:47 > 0:21:48with people getting stoned
0:21:48 > 0:21:51and talking about life, the universe and everything.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57And beneath the surface, sexual tensions had been simmering.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06Finally, Byron had given in to Claire's advances.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09She'd found a way back into his bed.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15You know, and I believe saw once, that odd-headed girl
0:22:15 > 0:22:19who introduced herself to me shortly before I left England.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23But you do not know that I found her with Shelley and her sister at Geneva.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29I never loved, nor pretended to love, her, but a man is a man.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34And if a girl of 18 comes prancing to you at all hours,
0:22:34 > 0:22:36there is but one way.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40Byron used Claire in the bedroom,
0:22:40 > 0:22:43but neglected her in public.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47I think she was already miserably aware
0:22:47 > 0:22:51that she was just a bit of froufrou. She was one of many.
0:22:51 > 0:22:56Goodness knows, nobody's ever tried to count how many women Byron went to bed with.
0:22:56 > 0:22:57Claire was just another.
0:23:00 > 0:23:05Shelley tried to comfort Claire, but this only made Mary suspicious.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09If Shelley believed in defying convention,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12what was to stop them becoming lovers?
0:23:12 > 0:23:16There's this weird thing about Mary I've always been intrigued with.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18How did they think of things in those days,
0:23:18 > 0:23:21especially under the shadow of what they were kind of branding as
0:23:21 > 0:23:26free love, which seemed a kind of licence for betraying each other,
0:23:26 > 0:23:28you know, do what you like.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32Shelley's views on sex are very open.
0:23:32 > 0:23:37You know, it seems to work more for him than it does for Mary, I think.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43According to Polidori's diary, Shelley had even admitted
0:23:43 > 0:23:46encouraging Mary to sleep with one of his friends.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49He married, and a friend of his,
0:23:49 > 0:23:52liking his wife, he tried all he could
0:23:52 > 0:23:55to induce her to love him in turn.
0:23:56 > 0:23:58Sexual intrigue rippled through the group.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03It's a bit like a mad kind of playground, you know,
0:24:03 > 0:24:05"You're not my best friend, you're my best friend."
0:24:05 > 0:24:09Or "Is she going out with him, or is he going out with her?"
0:24:09 > 0:24:11Or "I don't like you any more, I like him now."
0:24:12 > 0:24:15Some say Polidori had a crush on Mary,
0:24:15 > 0:24:18who in turn had eyes for Byron.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24We know that Mary captivated Byron
0:24:24 > 0:24:26and that Mary in her own journal
0:24:26 > 0:24:33would always refer to Lord Byron in terms of tenderness, wonder,
0:24:33 > 0:24:36admiration, affection and even love.
0:24:36 > 0:24:41She was very, very attached to him.
0:24:41 > 0:24:47And I think that the influence of Byron on Mary,
0:24:47 > 0:24:51during that summer at Lake Geneva, was tremendous.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59On the fateful evening of 16 June,
0:24:59 > 0:25:04the five gathered at the villa. They would not leave until morning.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08As a storm raged outside, Byron would act as ringmaster
0:25:08 > 0:25:11to his captive audience.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13I think maybe it's time for a ghost story.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19First, he spooked them with a reading from a French translation
0:25:19 > 0:25:23of Fantasmagoriana, a remarkable book full of blood-chilling tales
0:25:23 > 0:25:28of spirits, dagger-wielding ghosts and wandering death brides.
0:25:29 > 0:25:30The Spectre Barber.
0:25:30 > 0:25:31Ssh!
0:25:34 > 0:25:37HE READS IN FRENCH
0:25:42 > 0:25:45You had thunder and you had lightning
0:25:45 > 0:25:49and you had people sitting around listening to ghost stories.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52HE CONTINUES READING
0:25:52 > 0:25:58Feeling people getting quieter and quieter as you tell your story,
0:25:58 > 0:26:02there's a kind of peculiar electricity, there's a way
0:26:02 > 0:26:06that suddenly everything is a little more alive.
0:26:06 > 0:26:12Your fight or flight responses start to activate,
0:26:12 > 0:26:18whether you want them to or not. The adrenaline is just starting to pump.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22You're actually scared, you can smell fear,
0:26:22 > 0:26:24somebody got a little bit scared
0:26:24 > 0:26:27and fear pheromones are going off and you're near them
0:26:27 > 0:26:30and unconsciously those little fear pheromones
0:26:30 > 0:26:32ring little bells in you too.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35And now you have a group of people
0:26:35 > 0:26:38who are a little more alert, a little weirded out
0:26:38 > 0:26:42and just a little bit scared, and having the time of their lives.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53And then a challenge gets thrown down of - can we do better?
0:26:53 > 0:26:54I have a challenge.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58We will each write...
0:27:00 > 0:27:02..a ghost story.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12It is itself like some amazing experiment.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15You put these various different chemicals -
0:27:15 > 0:27:17the Byron chemical,
0:27:17 > 0:27:21the Mary Shelley chemical, the Percy Shelley chemical.
0:27:23 > 0:27:25And even Polidori.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30You put them together and heat
0:27:30 > 0:27:36and this amazing group of literary works arises out of it.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53Byron was the first to attempt the challenge,
0:27:53 > 0:27:56dashing off the beginnings of an intriguing story.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03He smiled in a ghastly manner and said faintly,
0:28:03 > 0:28:05"It is not yet time."
0:28:05 > 0:28:09It tells of an Englishman on an exotic adventure
0:28:09 > 0:28:14who befriends a mysterious wealthy gentleman called Augustus Darvell.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18I felt Darvell's weight, as it were, increase upon my shoulder.
0:28:19 > 0:28:24And turning to look upon his face, perceived that he was dead.
0:28:24 > 0:28:29I was shocked, with a certain certainty that could not be mistaken.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32His countenance in a few minutes became almost black.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36I should have attributed so rapid a change to poison
0:28:36 > 0:28:41had I not been aware that he had no opportunity of receiving it unperceived.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46The day was declining, the body rapidly altering.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51And nothing remained but to fulfil his request.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57Byron had thrown down the gauntlet to the others.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00Nothing survives of Shelley's story,
0:29:00 > 0:29:04but both Polidori and Mary were aspiring writers
0:29:04 > 0:29:07and desperate to impress the famous poet.
0:29:09 > 0:29:12And Mary felt another pressure. She wanted to prove she was worthy
0:29:12 > 0:29:14of her high achieving parents -
0:29:14 > 0:29:19the pioneering feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft
0:29:19 > 0:29:20and radical thinker William Godwin.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25I was nursed and fed with the love of glory.
0:29:25 > 0:29:31To be something great and good was the precept given to me by my father.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36And both Percy and Mary were very conscious
0:29:36 > 0:29:38of this kind of literary inheritance.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42And we know, Mary says, that Percy Shelley was always saying,
0:29:42 > 0:29:45"You must write, you must fulfil your inheritance."
0:29:47 > 0:29:50She's been raised to be a very independent woman.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53She's been raised to be a freethinker, to do her own thing,
0:29:53 > 0:29:56and I think she would have been appalled at herself
0:29:56 > 0:29:58if she couldn't come up with something.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04Mary would soon channel these demons into her work.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17But now, unrobe yourself,
0:30:17 > 0:30:22for I must pray 'ere yet in bed I lie.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25But first, as the hours drew on,
0:30:25 > 0:30:27Byron continue to dominate proceedings,
0:30:27 > 0:30:32choosing another haunting work to provoke the others into action.
0:30:32 > 0:30:36A poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Christabel.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38Her gentle limbs did she undress
0:30:38 > 0:30:42And lay down in her loveliness...
0:30:42 > 0:30:45Byron starts to read,
0:30:45 > 0:30:49probably quite deliberately, one of the most terrifying passages
0:30:49 > 0:30:50in Christabel.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53So, halfway from the bed she rose...
0:30:53 > 0:30:57Which is when the seemingly innocent figure
0:30:57 > 0:31:00is turned into a kind of witch,
0:31:00 > 0:31:05a horrible creature, where her body is described as half deformed.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08Beneath the lamp the lady bowed
0:31:08 > 0:31:10And slowly rolled her eyes around
0:31:10 > 0:31:12Then drawing her breath aloud
0:31:12 > 0:31:14Like one that shuddered, she unbound
0:31:14 > 0:31:16The cincture from beneath her breast...
0:31:16 > 0:31:18And there's this extraordinary scene in the poem
0:31:18 > 0:31:21where she takes her clothes off gradually
0:31:21 > 0:31:24and it's revealed that in fact she's a kind of monster woman.
0:31:24 > 0:31:26Her silken robe, and inner vest
0:31:26 > 0:31:28Dropped to her feet...
0:31:28 > 0:31:32So they were all very on edge, creeped out.
0:31:32 > 0:31:35Then drawing in her breath aloud Like one...
0:31:38 > 0:31:42And the description is that her breast and half her side
0:31:42 > 0:31:46is all sort of tortured and damaged and twisted.
0:31:46 > 0:31:51Behold! Her bosom and half her side A sight to dream on, not to tell
0:31:51 > 0:31:53And she is to sleep with Christabel.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04In his diary, Polidori recorded Shelley's explanation
0:32:04 > 0:32:06for running from the room.
0:32:07 > 0:32:1112 o'clock, really began to talk ghostly.
0:32:11 > 0:32:16Lord Byron repeated some verses of Coleridge's Christabel,
0:32:16 > 0:32:18of the witches breast, when silence ensued
0:32:18 > 0:32:23and Shelley, suddenly shrieking and putting his hands to his head,
0:32:23 > 0:32:25ran out of the room with a candle.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28Threw water in his face and after gave him ether.
0:32:28 > 0:32:30He was looking at Mrs Shelley
0:32:30 > 0:32:32and suddenly thought of a woman he'd heard of
0:32:32 > 0:32:35who had eyes instead of nipples
0:32:35 > 0:32:39which, taking hold of his mind, horrified him.
0:32:39 > 0:32:45I think we can assume that Dr Polidori had been pretty liberal
0:32:45 > 0:32:49with the ether that he had in his little doctor's medicine bag
0:32:49 > 0:32:52because they were all clearly pretty high a lot of the time
0:32:52 > 0:32:56and this was part of the whole thing of let's get the maximum sensation,
0:32:56 > 0:32:58let's get really scared.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02Lightning might do it, but the ether might help, and Christabel too.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07It's not just ordinary ghost stories, it's something quite surreal,
0:33:07 > 0:33:10quite strange, obviously partly sexual thing going on.
0:33:18 > 0:33:20Byron had sown the seeds
0:33:20 > 0:33:25which would make the Villa Diodati go down in literary history.
0:33:25 > 0:33:28Over the following nights and days,
0:33:28 > 0:33:31Mary and Polidori continued their attempts to write.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36According to Mary, Polidori produced a tale
0:33:36 > 0:33:38of a woman with a skull for a head.
0:33:39 > 0:33:44Like his plays, it impressed no-one and was soon abandoned.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49Mary was desperate to do better.
0:33:52 > 0:33:57I busied myself to think of a story, one which would rival those
0:33:57 > 0:34:00that had excited us to this task,
0:34:00 > 0:34:04one which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature
0:34:04 > 0:34:07and awaken thrilling horror.
0:34:07 > 0:34:09One to make the reader dread to look round,
0:34:09 > 0:34:13to curdle the blood and quicken the beatings of the heart.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17If I did not accomplish these things,
0:34:17 > 0:34:21my ghost story would be unworthy of its name.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24"Have you thought of a story?" I was asked each morning.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28And, each morning, I was forced to reply with a mortifying negative.
0:34:28 > 0:34:32Mary thought and thought and thought
0:34:32 > 0:34:35and she could not come up with an idea.
0:34:35 > 0:34:40And it was really mortifying to Mary because she always
0:34:40 > 0:34:44prided herself tremendously on her imagination
0:34:44 > 0:34:47and I'm quite sure that she was longing
0:34:47 > 0:34:51to win the admiration of Lord Byron with a wonderful story.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58I actually think Mary Shelley was the most competitive of them
0:34:58 > 0:35:01in that I think she thought she had something to prove a little bit.
0:35:01 > 0:35:05And clearly didn't want to be the one that couldn't do it.
0:35:21 > 0:35:27When I placed my head on my pillow, I did not sleep.
0:35:27 > 0:35:28Nor could I be said to think.
0:35:31 > 0:35:36My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me,
0:35:36 > 0:35:40gifting the successive images that arose in my mind
0:35:40 > 0:35:44with a vividness far beyond the usual bounds of reverie.
0:35:46 > 0:35:49I saw with shut eyes,
0:35:49 > 0:35:52but acute mental vision.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts,
0:35:55 > 0:35:59kneeling beside the thing he had put together.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03SHE GASPS
0:36:03 > 0:36:08I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out,
0:36:08 > 0:36:13and then, on the workings of some powerful engine,
0:36:13 > 0:36:14show signs of life
0:36:14 > 0:36:18and stir with a half-vital motion.
0:36:21 > 0:36:27Mary had found her inspiration, in part from conversations
0:36:27 > 0:36:30at the villa about the latest scientific developments.
0:36:31 > 0:36:33Things were in the air,
0:36:33 > 0:36:36particularly galvanic experiments
0:36:36 > 0:36:39in which you could electrify a corpse
0:36:39 > 0:36:43and make it look as if it had momentarily come back to life.
0:36:45 > 0:36:50So, I think that it was within the realm of possibility
0:36:50 > 0:36:54that you might be able to create a being.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01Inspiration may also have come from Mary's personal grief.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03She had already lost one child.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07When you combine it with what was internal to her, her life
0:37:07 > 0:37:12of losing children, the thought, what if we could control death?
0:37:12 > 0:37:16What if this scientific stuff could help us be in control,
0:37:16 > 0:37:18bring our dead children back?
0:37:20 > 0:37:24A journal entry from when she lost her child two years earlier
0:37:24 > 0:37:26shows just how much this idea haunted her.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32Dream that my little baby came to life again,
0:37:32 > 0:37:35that it had only been cold
0:37:35 > 0:37:39and that we rubbed it by the fire and it lived.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42I awake and find no baby.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45I think about the little thing all day.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52No doubt, the idea of being able to re-vivify something that was
0:37:52 > 0:37:56not alive was something remarkably fascinating to her.
0:37:59 > 0:38:05The idea so possessed my mind that a thrill of fear ran through me,
0:38:05 > 0:38:09and I wished to exchange the ghastly image of my fancy
0:38:09 > 0:38:10for the realities around.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14Oh, if I could only contrive one which would
0:38:14 > 0:38:18frighten my reader as I myself had been frightened that night.
0:38:22 > 0:38:27Swift as light, and as cheering, was the idea that broke in upon me.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29SHE MOANS
0:38:29 > 0:38:31I have found it.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34What terrified me will terrify others.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37And I need only describe the spectre
0:38:37 > 0:38:39which had haunted my midnight pillow.
0:38:42 > 0:38:45Mary would begin writing Frankenstein,
0:38:45 > 0:38:48the story of the tortured genius, Dr Frankenstein,
0:38:48 > 0:38:52who creates a living creature from dead body parts.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56"It was on a dreary night of November
0:38:56 > 0:38:59"that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03"With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony,
0:39:03 > 0:39:08"I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse
0:39:08 > 0:39:13"a spark of being to the lifeless thing that lay at my feet.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18"It was already one in the morning.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21"The rain pattered dismally against the panes
0:39:21 > 0:39:24"and my candle was nearly burnt out,
0:39:24 > 0:39:29"when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light,
0:39:29 > 0:39:35"I saw the dull, yellow eye of the creature open.
0:39:35 > 0:39:40"It breathed hard and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs."
0:39:41 > 0:39:44LOW MOANING
0:39:44 > 0:39:48Frankenstein is written in homage to what seemed to be the looming
0:39:48 > 0:39:52possibility that, actually, maybe you would someday bring somebody
0:39:52 > 0:39:56back to life, and that might really lead to a nightmarish end.
0:39:59 > 0:40:04In Mary's story, Dr Frankenstein is disgusted by the creature
0:40:04 > 0:40:06he creates and rejects it.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09Banished, the monster seeks revenge.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16He has a reason for behaving and feeling the way he does,
0:40:16 > 0:40:19and all he really wants is to be understood.
0:40:21 > 0:40:23The creator doesn't come out of it very well.
0:40:26 > 0:40:27The creature itself says,
0:40:27 > 0:40:33"I am not a monster, I have feelings, just like you."
0:40:33 > 0:40:38And that is the theme that continues throughout - what is it to be human?
0:40:46 > 0:40:50But just as Mary had begun to develop her story,
0:40:50 > 0:40:53events at the villa took another turn.
0:40:53 > 0:40:57Claire, the catalyst who had brought the five of them together,
0:40:57 > 0:41:00revealed a secret that would ultimately drive them apart.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05She was pregnant with Byron's child.
0:41:06 > 0:41:08Whether this impregnation took place
0:41:08 > 0:41:13before I left England or since, I do not know.
0:41:13 > 0:41:17The carnal connection had commenced previously to my setting out.
0:41:17 > 0:41:19Next question - is the brat mine?
0:41:20 > 0:41:22I have reason to think so, for I know,
0:41:22 > 0:41:26as much as one can know such thing, that she had not lived with Shelley
0:41:26 > 0:41:29for during the time of our acquaintance,
0:41:29 > 0:41:33and that she had had a good deal of that same with me.
0:41:33 > 0:41:35This comes of putting it about.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39And be damned to it, and thus, people come into the world.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44Soon, Claire would return home with Mary and Shelley
0:41:44 > 0:41:47to have her child in secret.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51The clock was ticking on their time at the villa.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55But this would be a pivotal moment in all their lives.
0:41:56 > 0:42:00This much alone is certain.
0:42:00 > 0:42:05That before we return, we shall have seen and felt
0:42:05 > 0:42:11and heard a multiplicity of things which will haunt our talk
0:42:11 > 0:42:14and make us a little better worth knowing
0:42:14 > 0:42:16than we were before our departure.
0:42:18 > 0:42:22At the end of August, after almost three months in Geneva,
0:42:22 > 0:42:25Shelley and the sisters left for England.
0:42:25 > 0:42:30Claire knew she had lost Byron, but kept writing him pleading letters.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33But for Byron, the relationship with the woman
0:42:33 > 0:42:37he would later call "a damned bitch" was over.
0:42:37 > 0:42:39He wouldn't even see her when she left.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41That's how Byron felt about Claire.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47When you receive this, I shall be many miles away.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50Indeed, I should have been happier to have seen
0:42:50 > 0:42:52and kissed you once before I went.
0:42:54 > 0:42:58There is nothing in the world I love or care about but yourself.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02My dreadful fear is, lest you quite forget me...
0:43:04 > 0:43:07..I shall love you until the end of my life, and nobody else.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14Mary returned to England with a precious cargo -
0:43:14 > 0:43:16a rough draft of Frankenstein,
0:43:16 > 0:43:20which she would expand and develop over the coming year.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25But there was to be one more surprise.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28One more astonishing piece of work to emerge from within
0:43:28 > 0:43:30the walls of the Villa Diodati.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35Polidori had continued trying to rise to Byron's challenge
0:43:35 > 0:43:40to create a terrifying tale of the supernatural.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44He may only have been 20, but he was no stranger to horror.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49John Polidori had been a medical student in Edinburgh,
0:43:49 > 0:43:52and I speak as an ex-Edinburgh student myself,
0:43:52 > 0:43:55a very Gothic place to live, I can assure you,
0:43:55 > 0:43:57particularly in those days.
0:43:57 > 0:43:59And it's worth remembering how horrendous
0:43:59 > 0:44:04the experience of a medical student would have been in those days.
0:44:04 > 0:44:08We are in, almost in Burke and Hare days, digging up corpses,
0:44:08 > 0:44:12operations being done without anaesthetic, so, Polidori was
0:44:12 > 0:44:17steeped in this blood and pain and anguish, which he knew at first-hand.
0:44:20 > 0:44:24Tensions had been growing all summer between Polidori and Byron.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27The doctor was frustrated that Byron treated him like a lowly
0:44:27 > 0:44:31employee, when he really wanted to be Byron's equal as a writer.
0:44:33 > 0:44:38When Byron and Polidori came out to Lake Geneva, Polidori had
0:44:38 > 0:44:42barely got to Dover before he was pulling out little plays
0:44:42 > 0:44:45he had written and saying, "Would you like to listen to this?"
0:44:45 > 0:44:47He was terribly proud of his talent
0:44:47 > 0:44:50and foolish enough to say things to Byron like, you know,
0:44:50 > 0:44:52"You and I are writers together,"
0:44:52 > 0:44:55which, you know, rather annoyed Byron.
0:44:55 > 0:45:01Polidori was a brilliant young man. He had passed medical school at 19.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04But what he wanted to be was Byron,
0:45:04 > 0:45:07and what he could never be was Byron.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10He didn't have the personality, he didn't have the charm,
0:45:10 > 0:45:13he didn't have the talent.
0:45:13 > 0:45:17The relationship is a very, very tense one.
0:45:18 > 0:45:22Polidori was continuously mocked by Byron,
0:45:22 > 0:45:24the whole time they were there.
0:45:25 > 0:45:30He was taunting Polidori, calling him Dr Polly, ridiculing him,
0:45:30 > 0:45:32making him feel small.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38Everywhere they went, Polidori felt overshadowed by the famous poet.
0:45:39 > 0:45:45Went to Geneva. Introduced to a room where, about eight, two ladies.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49Lord Byron's name was alone mentioned.
0:45:49 > 0:45:55Mine, like a star in the halo of the moon, invisible.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01Polidori started to escape the villa and mingle with the social set
0:46:01 > 0:46:07across the lake, a more sympathetic audience for his writing.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11He began the tale of blood and lust which would become The Vampyre.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18There was no colour upon her cheek, not even upon her lip.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22Yet, there was a stillness about her face that seemed
0:46:22 > 0:46:26almost as attaching as the life that once dwelt there.
0:46:26 > 0:46:28Upon her neck and breast was blood,
0:46:28 > 0:46:32and upon her throat were the marks of teeth having opened a vein.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35To this, the men pointed, crying simultaneously,
0:46:35 > 0:46:39struck with horror, "A vampire! A vampire!"
0:46:41 > 0:46:44Polidori's story took elements of Byron's supernatural tale
0:46:44 > 0:46:47from the night at the villa -
0:46:47 > 0:46:51the exotic settings, the mysterious, aristocratic adventurer -
0:46:51 > 0:46:55and developed them into a fully fledged vampire story.
0:46:57 > 0:46:59But he did something remarkable.
0:46:59 > 0:47:03In a kind of act of revenge, he used Lord Byron himself
0:47:03 > 0:47:06as inspiration for the sinister creature.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11It happened that in the midst of the dissipations
0:47:11 > 0:47:13attendant upon a London winter,
0:47:13 > 0:47:15there appeared at the various parties of the leaders of the town
0:47:15 > 0:47:20a nobleman more remarkable for his singularities than his rank.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25Up until that point, vampires,
0:47:25 > 0:47:27in Eastern European legend,
0:47:27 > 0:47:30were monstrous, they were creepy,
0:47:30 > 0:47:34they were nasty and unpleasant.
0:47:37 > 0:47:41They are disgusting and they have no redeeming features.
0:47:41 > 0:47:45They are back from the dead, they want your blood, they are icky!
0:47:46 > 0:47:51Polidori's vampire, however, displayed many of Byron's qualities.
0:47:51 > 0:47:56Aristocratic decadence, predatory sexuality
0:47:56 > 0:47:58and a seemingly endless appeal to women.
0:48:00 > 0:48:03In spite of the deadly hue of his face,
0:48:03 > 0:48:05which never gained a warmer tint,
0:48:05 > 0:48:09either from the blush of modesty or the strong emotion of passion,
0:48:09 > 0:48:11though its form in outline were beautiful,
0:48:11 > 0:48:16many of the female hunters, after notoriety,
0:48:16 > 0:48:18attempted to win his attentions
0:48:18 > 0:48:21and gain at least some marks of what they might term affection.
0:48:24 > 0:48:26This was a shocking transformation.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29By giving his vampire a Byronic twist,
0:48:29 > 0:48:33Polidori had created the first truly modern vampire story.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37There had been vampires before Polidori.
0:48:37 > 0:48:38None of them, as far as I know,
0:48:38 > 0:48:42had been members of the English aristocracy.
0:48:42 > 0:48:48And it was that, the fusion of Byron with the vampire world,
0:48:48 > 0:48:50that he gave us.
0:48:50 > 0:48:54And suddenly, the cool vampire came into the world.
0:48:56 > 0:49:01Dracula would explore the cool vampire from another direction.
0:49:01 > 0:49:08These days, you could fire crucifixes from your crucifix-firing
0:49:08 > 0:49:14machine gun at 1000 vampires and not hit any who weren't cool,
0:49:14 > 0:49:16lonely, Byronic and probably aristocratic.
0:49:20 > 0:49:24By the end of the summer, Byron had had enough of Polidori.
0:49:25 > 0:49:26He fired him.
0:49:28 > 0:49:33And early in October, the poet's time in Geneva also came to an end.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37Byron left for Italy.
0:49:37 > 0:49:39But even the sensual delights on offer in Venice,
0:49:39 > 0:49:42a city he called his "sea Sodom",
0:49:42 > 0:49:48could not dispel the long shadow cast by the Villa Diodati.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52Writing to a friend, he would lament his time in Switzerland,
0:49:52 > 0:49:56where he had penned a new section of his poem, Childe Harold.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00I was half mad during the time of this composition,
0:50:00 > 0:50:06between metaphysics, mountains, lakes, love,
0:50:06 > 0:50:07unextinguishable of thoughts,
0:50:07 > 0:50:10unutterable in the nightmare of my own delinquencies.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18I should, many a good day, have blown my brains out.
0:50:18 > 0:50:19Apart for the recollection that
0:50:19 > 0:50:21it would have given pleasure to my mother-in-law.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24And even then, if I could have been certain to haunt her.
0:50:36 > 0:50:41The Villa Diodati would fade back into the mists of literary history.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44But the impact of the work sparked into life
0:50:44 > 0:50:46by this heady summer had barely begun.
0:50:49 > 0:50:53Mary continued to redraft Frankenstein,
0:50:53 > 0:50:55finally publishing it in 1818.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00The subject matter is so extraordinary.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04No-one conceived it was by Mary Shelley.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07They produce a very small number, 500 copies.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11But it doesn't have a popular impact.
0:51:11 > 0:51:15And if we look ahead, what really transforms it is,
0:51:15 > 0:51:18a few years later, there is a dramatised version of it.
0:51:20 > 0:51:21And it is a huge hit.
0:51:25 > 0:51:26The early dramatised versions
0:51:26 > 0:51:30turned a reflective tale into a creepy spectacle.
0:51:31 > 0:51:33They silenced the creature
0:51:33 > 0:51:36and shaped how we think of Frankenstein today.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41But all versions share the original's central thought.
0:51:41 > 0:51:43In this case, I think
0:51:43 > 0:51:47it's one of the first warnings that science can run amok.
0:51:48 > 0:51:53It is a constant warning to people to not overstep their own boundaries.
0:51:53 > 0:51:55But people still keep doing it.
0:51:55 > 0:51:59It's amazing, that's a lesson that we keep trying to
0:51:59 > 0:52:02teach each other over and over, and yet, it never takes.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05It's alive! It's alive, it's alive!
0:52:05 > 0:52:07It's alive!
0:52:07 > 0:52:12He has attempted to better the work of God. How rebellious.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15But the result has not been...
0:52:15 > 0:52:18It's not lived up to his expectations.
0:52:20 > 0:52:23It's a "what if" story. You know, what if we could do this?
0:52:23 > 0:52:25How would it work out?
0:52:27 > 0:52:31It is a very, very serious book, it's not just a Gothic novel.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34And I think the reason it goes on resonating
0:52:34 > 0:52:40so much is that one can see so many different interpretations in it.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44Trifling with science, how should science be used?
0:52:44 > 0:52:50But it also is a book from which we can learn about ways to treat
0:52:50 > 0:52:52somebody who doesn't look like us -
0:52:52 > 0:52:56the creature certainly doesn't look like us.
0:52:56 > 0:53:00It's a story about innocence, which is corrupted by man.
0:53:08 > 0:53:13One year after Frankenstein, in 1819, The Vampyre was published.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18But from the outset, there was confusion about who wrote it,
0:53:18 > 0:53:23with Byron still identified by some as the author, even decades later.
0:53:25 > 0:53:28I mean, ironic that when The Vampyre came out, it was successful,
0:53:28 > 0:53:31but it was successful because first of all,
0:53:31 > 0:53:33people thought it was Byron who had written it.
0:53:35 > 0:53:39Byron himself came to hear about it and was absolutely furious.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43And he, plainly, himself, did not think all that well of The Vampyre,
0:53:43 > 0:53:48because he was extremely keen to quickly distance himself from it.
0:53:49 > 0:53:53Polidori, however, was eager to claim the work.
0:53:53 > 0:53:58And whatever its merits, by taking an ancient piece of folklore
0:53:58 > 0:54:02and transforming its villain into a rapacious aristocrat,
0:54:02 > 0:54:05Polidori created a powerful tale that resonated with the times.
0:54:06 > 0:54:11He's channelling into anxieties of the time about a particularly
0:54:11 > 0:54:15dissipated English aristocratic society,
0:54:15 > 0:54:21a society which is far too complacent about
0:54:21 > 0:54:24an alluring stranger being admitted into the midst.
0:54:27 > 0:54:32I think vampires have represented different things at different times.
0:54:36 > 0:54:43But there is always a level on which a vampire story is about sex.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46And that's simply what they are about, you look at them,
0:54:46 > 0:54:50sometimes it's subtext, sometimes it's text,
0:54:50 > 0:54:52but there is sex in every vampire story.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59It represented the untamed part of us,
0:54:59 > 0:55:03the carnal part of us that cannot be denied.
0:55:03 > 0:55:08If you deny it, it just grows stronger and more primal.
0:55:18 > 0:55:23Two works, Frankenstein and The Vampyre,
0:55:23 > 0:55:27that can both be traced back to one brief moment in time.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32We don't normally get to know where things begin.
0:55:33 > 0:55:38You know, you don't get to know what inspired a certain book,
0:55:38 > 0:55:44what inspired something that changed the game for ever.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47In this case, we actually have an origin story,
0:55:47 > 0:55:52we know where Dracula began. We know where Frankenstein began.
0:55:53 > 0:55:57We know where the twin pillars of horror fiction
0:55:57 > 0:56:00that we stand on today began.
0:56:00 > 0:56:05And it's in a house on a very rainy, thundery, miserable night,
0:56:05 > 0:56:09by Lake Geneva. Perfect night to tell ghost stories.
0:56:16 > 0:56:20But if the tales inspired by the time at the Villa Diodati
0:56:20 > 0:56:23are still flourishing almost 200 years later,
0:56:23 > 0:56:26there seems to have been something of a curse on the lives
0:56:26 > 0:56:30of those five people who came together that giddy summer.
0:56:33 > 0:56:38John Polidori died in 1821, shortly before his 26th birthday.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42Unable to keep up with debts from gambling,
0:56:42 > 0:56:45it's thought he killed himself by taking prussic acid.
0:56:47 > 0:56:49Shelley drowned the following year
0:56:49 > 0:56:54in the Gulf of Spezia in Italy after a sudden storm.
0:56:54 > 0:56:55He was not quite 30.
0:56:58 > 0:57:04Two years later, in 1824, Byron died from an illness after joining
0:57:04 > 0:57:09the cause of the Greek Nationalists in their battle against the Turks.
0:57:09 > 0:57:11He was 36 years old.
0:57:14 > 0:57:18Claire never got over Byron and never married,
0:57:18 > 0:57:23describing herself as "unhappily the victim of a happy passion".
0:57:27 > 0:57:30Frankenstein established Mary Shelley as a writer.
0:57:32 > 0:57:37Almost 25 years after the summer by Lake Geneva that inspired it,
0:57:37 > 0:57:42she revisited the Villa Diodati and reflected on her time there, and how
0:57:42 > 0:57:47her life since had had something of the character of a horror story.
0:57:50 > 0:57:54At length, I caught a glimpse of the scenes among which I had lived
0:57:54 > 0:57:58when first I stepped out from childhood into life,
0:57:58 > 0:58:03there on the shores of Belle Rive to Diodati.
0:58:03 > 0:58:07Was I the same person who had lived there,
0:58:07 > 0:58:09the companion of the dead?
0:58:09 > 0:58:12For all were gone.
0:58:12 > 0:58:16Storm and blight and death had passed over and destroyed all.
0:58:17 > 0:58:21While yet very young, I had reached the position of an aged person,
0:58:21 > 0:58:25driven back on memory for companionship of the beloved,
0:58:25 > 0:58:30to feel that all my life since was but an unreal phantasmagoria.