[sufue]

On the way to other things, I noticed one of Open Road Media's public domain editions is free right now: the short story, The Vampyre, by John William Polidori. (Of course, there are also nice versions of this in MR's Patricia Clark Memorial Library, but if you want it natively in your Kindle or Kobo library, here's your chance for free.) And my experience of Open Road's public domain books is that they are generally pretty good, especially compared to what often ends up on Kindle or Kobo. So here are links...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N14SZSN
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-vampyre-22

Spoiler:

This classic vampire story has inspired generations of authors, from Bram Stoker to Charlaine Harris.

A young English gentleman of means, Aubrey is immediately intrigued by Lord Ruthven, the mysterious newcomer among society’s elite. His unknown origin and curious behavior tantalizes Aubrey’s imagination. But the young man soon discovers a sinister character hidden behind his new friend’s glamorous facade.

When the two are set upon by bandits while traveling together in Europe, Ruthven is fatally injured. Before drawing his last breath, he makes the odd request that Aubrey keep his death and crimes secret for a year and a day. But when Ruthven resurfaces in London—making overtures toward Aubrey’s sister—Aubrey realizes this immortal fiend is a vampyre.

John William Polidori’s The Vampyre is both a classic tale of gothic horror and the progenitor of the modern romantic vampire myth that has been fodder for artists ranging from Anne Rice to Alan Ball to Francis Ford Coppola. Originally published in 1819, many decades before Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and misattributed to Polidori’s friend Lord Byron, The Vampyre has kept readers up at night for nearly two hundred years.

Oh, and there are a couple of non-fiction Open Road public domain titles free right now too - see this post.