"This atmospheric and erotic story follows the pursuits of Byron's personal secretary John Willian Polidri, whose all consuming envy of his employer and his literary friends leads him to strike a deal with a monster in the guise of a woman who promises him literary fame in return for his sperm. The reader follows Polidri's descent into madness as he discovers the true nature of the pact he has made and its consequences -- Publisher."
"Pendant l'été 1816 la villa Diodati rassemble des hôtes illustres : lord Byron, Percy et Mary Shelley, Claire Clarimont et le docteur Polidori, secrétaire privé de Byron. Ce dernier reçoit d'étranges messages et apprend l'histoire scandaleuse des jumelles Legrand, leur vie dissolue ... Un roman gothique moderne."
""In the summer of 1816, Percy and Mary Shelley, Mary's sister, and Lord Byron hid themselves inside a Swiss villa, whiling away rainy afternoons with a Gothic novel writing contest. In Andahazi's reimagining, there was a fifth competitor ... John Polidori, Byron's manservant, a talentless would-be writer resentful of the ease of his master's life. Through a Faustian pact with an unseen intercessant, Polidori obtains the most compelling vampire story ever written, which he will read aloud the night Mary Shelley first unveils Frankenstein."--Jacket."