What happens when writers vacation together in a gloomy, cold summer in Lake Geneva, Switzerland . . . And challenge each other to write ghost stories?

On a stormy night in 1816, the writers Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Godwin (whom the world knows as Mary Shelley), John William Polidori, and Lord Byron undertook a challenge that would change literary history and create a new genre of fiction—Gothic horror.

This book contains the result of their challenge on that windswept evening—three chilling tales of monsters, vampires, and murder. Some of the first written works of their kind.

Lord Byron’s A Fragment is of historical importance as it is one of the very first vampire stories. Does it stand the test of time?

The Vampyre, by John Polidori, recounts the story of Aubrey and Lord Ruthven. What dark secret lies between them?

In Frankenstein, a university student unleashes a monster upon the world. Or is he the real monster?

If you love Gothic horror, you’ll love One Stormy Night.

One Stormy Night: A Story Challenge That Created the Gothic Horror Genre

by Lord Byron, Dr. John Polidori; and Mary Shelley