 The vampire is now a fixture in popular fiction . Such fiction began with 18th @-@ century poetry and continued with 19th @-@ century short stories , the first and most influential of which was John Polidori 's The Vampyre ( 1819 ) , featuring the vampire Lord Ruthven . Lord Ruthven 's exploits were further explored in a series of vampire plays in which he was the anti @-@ hero . The vampire theme continued in penny dreadful serial publications such as Varney the Vampire ( 1847 ) and culminated in the pre @-@ eminent vampire novel of all time : Dracula by Bram Stoker , published in 1897 . 
