Coleridge’s Christabel

• Matthew Gibson 

• Living reference work entry
• First Online: 29 July 2023

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Abstract

This chapter looks at the claims for seeing Coleridge’s narrative poem “Christabel” as being a vampire tale. Looking first at the genesis and origins of the poem, it also recounts in detail the theories of Arthur H. Nethercot, who argued that it was in fact a vampire poem, by deep research into the sources available to the young Coleridge. The essay also details the importance of “Christabel” in spurring the works of Byron, Shelley, Polidori, and Le Fanu and thus also shows the extent to which Coleridge’s poem inspired later literary works on the vampire. As such, it acts as an introduction to both the more conventional reading of “Christabel” as a Unitarian poem and also to the poem’s more occult sources and implications.