This paper is a close reading of Dr John Polidori’s short prose narrative ‘The Vampyre’, supporting my article, based on external evidence, on re-dating the composition of the text by three years – from 1816 to 1819. The paper argues this new date of composition in two ways. First, by examining the influence of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein (1818) on ‘The Vampyre’, showing how the themes of ‘The Vampyre’ are deeply influenced by Frankenstein and must therefore post-date Shelley’s text. Secondly, by arguing for a new reading of the characters of Aubrey and Ruthven and their relationship. The character Aubrey has often been seen as a self-portrait of Polidori while it is generally accepted that the vampire Lord Ruthven is an audacious attack on Byron, who employed Polidori as his personal physician. However, in this essay I will present a radical and unsettling close-reading of the character of Aubrey, informed by Shelley’s presentation of Victor Frankenstein, arguing that the relationship between Aubrey and Ruthven is far more complex and uncanny than has hitherto been recognized....