The ''F'' You Test

The narrator of the story is a lawyer with offices on Wall Street in New York City. He does "a snug business among rich men's bonds and mortgages and title-deeds," and describes himself as a prudent, methodical "man of assumptions". He has three employees: "First, Turkey; second, Nippers; third, Ginger Nut," each of whom is described at some length. Turkey and Nippers are copyists or scriveners while Ginger Nut, a boy of twelve, does odd jobs. Turkey, an old Englishman, is a model of efficiency in the morning, but becomes insolent and sloppy after his lunchtime beer; on the other hand, Nippers, an ambitious young man, is restless and irritable in the morning, but works well in the afternoon. The narrator notes these eccentricities, but excuses them. When his business increases, he decides to hire a third scrivener, and Bartleby responds to his advertisement and arrives at the office

The Vampyre was first published on April 1, 1819, by Colburn in the New Monthly Magazine with the false attribution "A Tale by Lord Byron." The name of the work's protagonist, "Lord Ruthven", added to this assumption, for that name was originally used in Lady Caroline Lamb's novel Glenarvon, in which a thinly-disguised Byron figure was also named Lord Ruthven. Despite repeated denials by Byron and Polidori, the authorship often went unclarified. The story was an immediate popular success, partly because of the Byron attribution and partly because it exploited the gothic horror predilections of the public. Polidori transformed the vampire from a character in folklore into the form we recognize today - an aristocratic fiend who preys among high society.