Lord Byron in popular culture from characterisations of Byron. The image of a vampire portrayed as an aristocrat was created by John William Polidori in "The Vampyre", during the summer of 1816 which he spent in the company of Byron. The titled Count Dracula is a reprise of this character. Tom Holland, in his 1995 novel "The Vampyre: Being the True Pilgrimage of George Gordon, Sixth Lord Byron", romantically describes how Lord Byron became a vampire during his first visit to Greece — a fictional transformation that explains much of his subsequent behaviour towards family and friends, and finds support in quotes from Byron poems
Lord Ruthven (vampire) "The Vampire: A Phantasm", and played the title role during its long run. Alexandre Dumas, père also used the character in an 1852 play. A Lord Ruthven also exists in Tom Holland's novel, "Lord of the Dead". Lord Ruthven is actually Lord Byron. A Lord Ruthven also appeared in the Swedish novel "Vampyren" (1848), the first published work by author and poet Viktor Rydberg; as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that he is inspired by him in name only. This Ruthven is not a supernatural being, but a lunatic believing himself to be a vampire. In "The Count of