Bram Stoker

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Bram Stoker

Abraham "Bram" Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish

Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
novelist and short story

Short story

The short story refers to a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, usually in narrative format. This format or medium tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books....
writer

Writer

A writer is anyone who creates a written work, although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms....
, best known today for his 1897 horror

Horror fiction

Horror fiction is fiction in any medium intended to scare, unsettle, or horrify the audience. Historically, the cause of the "horror" experience has often been the intrusion of a supernatural element into everyday human experience....
novel Dracula
Dracula

Dracula is an 1897 in literature novel by Irish people author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula.Dracula has been attributed to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature....
. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant

Personal assistant

A personal assistant, or personal aide, is someone who assists in daily business and personal tasks.For example, a businessman or businesswoman may have a personal assistant to help with time and diary management, scheduling of meetings, correspondence and note taking....
of actor Henry Irving

Henry Irving

Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era. He was the first actor to be awarded a knighthood....
and business manager

Business manager

In a general context, a business manager is a person who manages the work of others in order to run a business efficiently. He or she should have working smarts of the following areas, and may be a specialist in one or more: sales, marketing, and public relations; research, operations analysis, data processing, mathematics, statistics, and econ...
of the Lyceum Theatre in London, which Irving owned.

as born in 1847 at 15 The Crescent, Marino, now located in Fairview

Fairview, Dublin

Fairview is a formerly coastal district on the Northside of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, in the jurisdiction of Dublin City Council. Much of the area forms Fairview Park, on land reclaimed from the sea....
, Dublin

Dublin

Dublin is both the largest city and capital of Republic of Ireland. It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the centre of the Dublin Region....
. His parents were Abraham Stoker (1799–1876) and the feminist

Feminism

Feminism is the belief that women should have equal political, social, sexual, intellectual and economic rights to men. It involves various movements, Theory, and philosophies, all concerned with issues of gender difference, that advocate equality for women and that campaign for women's rights and interests....
Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornely (1818–1901).

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Quotations

Listen to them - children of the night. What music they make.

Dracula referring to the howling of the wolves to Jonathan Harker.

No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be.

Jonathan Harker

I am Dracula, and I bid you welcome, Mr. Harker, to my house. Come in, the night air is chill, and you must need to eat and rest.

Dracula to Jonathan Harker

We are in Transylvania, and Transylvania is not England. Our ways are not your ways, and there shall be to you many strange things.

Dracula to Jonathan Harker

Nothing is too small. I counsel you, put down in record even your doubts and surmises. Hereafter it may be of interest to you to see how true you guess. We learn from failure, not from success!

Professor Van Helsing to Dr. Seward

Oh, friend John, it is a strange world, a sad world, a world full of miseries, and woes, and troubles. And yet when King Laugh come, he make them all dance to the tune he play.

Professor Van Helsing to Dr. Seward

Encyclopedia

Abraham "Bram" Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish

Ireland

Short story

Writer

Horror fiction

Personal assistant

Henry Irving

Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era. He was the first actor to be awarded a knighthood....
and business manager

Business manager

Early life

He was born in 1847 at 15 The Crescent, Marino, now located in Fairview

Fairview, Dublin

Dublin

Feminism

Church of Ireland Parish of Clontarf

The Parish of St. John the Baptist, the Church of Ireland Parish of Clontarf, Dublin, Dublin is a religious community located on the north shore of Dublin Bay, bounded by the Parishes of North Strand to the west, Coolock to the north and Raheny to the east ....
parish and attended the parish church (St. John the Baptist located on Seafield Road West) with their children, who were baptised there.

Stoker was bed-ridden until he started school at the age of seven, when he made a complete recovery. Of this time, Stoker wrote, "I was naturally thoughtful, and the leisure of long illness gave opportunity for many thoughts which were fruitful according to their kind in later years."

After his recovery, he became a normal young man, even excelling as an athlete (he was named University Athlete) at Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin , corporately designated as the Provost, Fellows and Scholars of the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I of England as the "mother of a university", and is the only constituent residential college of the University of Dublin....
, which he attended from 1864 to 1870. He graduated with honours in mathematics. He was auditor of the College Historical Society

College Historical Society (Trinity College, Dublin)

The College Historical Society was founded in Trinity College, Dublin in 1770 and traces its creation to the historical society founded by the philosopher Edmund Burke in Dublin in 1747....
and president of the University Philosophical Society

University Philosophical Society (Trinity College, Dublin)

The University Philosophical Society, commonly known as The Phil, is a student paper-reading and debate society in Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland....
, where his first paper was on "Sensationalism in Fiction and Society".

Early career

In 1876, while employed as a civil servant in Dublin, Stoker wrote a non-fiction book (The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland, published 1879) and became the theatre critic for the newspaper Dublin Evening Mail
Dublin Evening Mail

The Dublin Evening Mail was between 1823 and 1962 one of Dublin's evening newspapers....
. In December 1876, he gave a favourable review of the actor Henry Irving

Henry Irving

Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era. He was the first actor to be awarded a knighthood....
's performance as Hamlet
Hamlet

Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601. The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle King Claudius, who has murdered King Hamlet, the King, and then taken the throne and married Gertrude ....
at the Theatre Royal

Theatre Royal, Dublin

At one stage in the history of the theatre in UK and Ireland, the designation Theatre Royal or Royal Theatre was an indication that the theatre was granted a Royal Letters Patent without which theatrical performances were illegal....
in Dublin. Irving read the review and invited Stoker for dinner at the Shelbourne Hotel

Shelbourne Hotel

The Shelbourne Hotel is a famous hotel situated in a landmark building on the north side of St Stephen's Green, in Dublin, Ireland. Currently operated by Marriott International, the hotel has 265 rooms in total and reopened in March 2006 after undergoing an eighteen-month refurbishment....
, where he was staying. After that they became friends. He also wrote stories, and in 1872 "The Crystal Cup" was published by the London Society, followed by "The Chain of Destiny" in four parts in The Shamrock.

Lyceum Theatre and later career

In 1878 Stoker married Florence Balcombe

Florence Balcombe

Florence Balcombe was the wife of Bram Stoker, whom she married in 1878. She had previously been courted by the author and playwright Oscar Wilde....
, a celebrated beauty whose former suitor was Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish people playwright, Irish poetry and author of numerous short stories and one novel. Known for his biting wit, he became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era in London, and one of the greatest Celebrity of his day....
. The couple moved to London, where Stoker became acting-manager and then business manager of Irving's Lyceum Theatre, London, a post he held for 27 years. On 31 December 1879, Bram and Florence's only child was born, a son that they christened Irving Noel Thornley Stoker. The collaboration with Irving was very important for Stoker and through him he became involved in London's high society

Upper class

The upper class is a concept in sociology that refers to the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class often have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area....
, where he met, among other notables, James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, Deputy Lieutenant was a Scotland author most noted for his stories about the Detective fiction Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger....
(to whom he was distantly related). Working for Irving, the most famous actor of his time, and managing one of the most successful and busy theatres in London made Stoker a notable if very busy man. He was absolutely dedicated to Irving and his memoirs of Irving show how he idolised him. In London Stoker also met Hall Caine

Hall Caine

Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine Order of the Companions of Honour, Order of the British Empire , usually known as Hall Caine, was a United Kingdom author....
who became one of his closest friends and he dedicated Dracula to him.

In the course of Irving's tours, Stoker got the chance to travel around the world though he never visited Eastern Europe, scene of part of his most famous novel. Stoker particularly enjoyed visits to the United States and Irving was very popular there and with Irving he was invited twice to the White House and knew both William McKinley

William McKinley

William McKinley, Jr. was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, and the last veteran of the American Civil War to be elected....
and Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt , also known as T.R., and to the public as Teddy, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States....
. Stoker was a great admirer of the country setting two of his novels there and using Americans as characters most notable being Quincey Morris

Quincey Morris

Quincey P. Morris is a fictional character in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula....
. He also got a chance to meet one of his literary idols Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman

Walter Whitman was an United States Poetry of the United States, essayist, journalism, and humanism. He was a part of the transition between Transcendentalism and literary realism, incorporating both views in his works....
.

Stoker supplemented his income by writing novels; the best known being the vampire tale Dracula
Dracula

Dracula is an 1897 in literature novel by Irish people author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula.Dracula has been attributed to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature....
which was published in 1897. Before writing Dracula, Stoker spent several years researching European folklore and stories of vampires. Dracula is an epistolary novel

Epistolary novel

An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is Letter s, although diary, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used....
, written as collection of diary entries, telegrams, and letters from the characters, as well as fictional clippings from the Whitby

Whitby

Whitby is a town and civil parish in the Scarborough district of North Yorkshire on the north-east coast of England. Nowadays it is a fishing port and tourist destination....
and London newspapers. Stoker's inspirations for the story, in addition to Whitby, may have included a visit to Slains Castle

Slains Castle

New Slains Castle is a ruined castle near Cruden Bay in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, overlooking the North Sea.The remains stand perched atop tall, sea-facing cliffs, constructed around an existing tower house built in 1597 by the Francis Hay, 9th Earl of Erroll....
in Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire is one of the 32 unitary authority council areas in Scotland.In this present day Aberdeenshire does not include Aberdeen City which is a Council Area in its own right....
, and a visit to the crypts of St. Michan's Church

St. Michan's Church

St. Michan's Church Church Street, Dublin 7. .Built on the site of an early Denmark chapel , the current structure dates largely from a reconstruction in 1686, but is still the only parish church on the north side of the Liffey surviving from a Viking foundation....
in Dublin.

Death

After suffering a number of strokes Bram Stoker died at No 26 St George's Square

St George's Square

St George's Square is a long narrow garden square in Pimlico, London, SW1. Pimlico's development was started in 1835 by the landowner, the Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster, and the building was supervised by Thomas Cubitt who also designed the gardens....
in 1912. Some biographers attribute the cause of death to tertiary syphilis. He was cremated

Cremation

Cremation is the process of reducing human remains to basic Chemical element in the form of bone fragments through flame, heat, and vaporization....
and his ashes placed in a display urn at Golders Green Crematorium

Golders Green Crematorium

Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest Cremation in United Kingdom. It is owned by the London Cremation Co plc, and opened in 1902, designed by the architect Sir Ernest George....
. After Irving Noel Stoker's death in 1961, his ashes were added to that urn. The original plan had been to keep his parents' ashes together, but after Florence Stoker's death her ashes were scattered at the Gardens of Rest.

Beliefs and Philosophy

Stoker was brought up as a Protestant in the Church of Ireland

Church of Ireland

The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion, operating across the island of Ireland. Like other Anglican churches, it considers itself to be both Catholicism and Protestant Reformation....
. Stoker was a strong supporter of the Liberal

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the early 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party to form a new party which would become known as the Liberal Democrats....
party and was what he called a "philosophical Home Ruler" believing in Home Rule for Ireland brought about by peaceful means but as an ardent monarchist he believed that Ireland should remain within the British Empire which he believed was a force for good. He was a great admirer of Prime Minister William Gladstone whom he knew personally and admired his plans for Ireland.

Stoker had a strong interest in science and medicine and a belief in progress. Some of his novels like The Lady of the Shroud
The Lady of the Shroud

The Lady of the Shroud is a novel by Bram Stoker, written in 1909. Like Dracula it is set in Eastern Europe, although Stoker never visited Romania or Albania himself....
(1909) can be seen as science fiction. Like many people of his time Stoker believed in the concept of scientific racism

Scientific racism

Scientific racism denotes the use of scientific, or ostensibly scientific, findings and methods to support or validate Racism attitudes and worldviews....
drawing on his belief in Phrenology

Phrenology

Phrenology is a defunct field of study, once considered a science, in which the personality traits of a person were determined by "reading" bumps and fissures in the skull....
and these fears form elements in novels like Dracula. This is also reflected in his interest in early theories of criminology

Criminology

Criminology is the social science approach to the study of crime as an individual and social phenomenon. Criminological research areas include the incidence and forms of crime as well as its causes and consequences....
he read both Cesare Lombroso

Cesare Lombroso

Cesare Lombroso, born Ezechia Marco Lombroso was a Jewish-Italy criminology and founder of the Italian school of criminology. Lombroso rejected the established Classical school, which held that crime was a characteristic trait of human nature....
and Max Nordau

Max Nordau

Max Simon Nordau , born Simon Maximilian S?dfeld, S?dfeld Simon Miksa in Pest , Hungary, was a Zionism leader, physician, author, and social critic....
and used them in Dracula. Stoker was also sexist by modern standards and strongly opposed to the idea of the New Woman

New Woman

The New Woman was a feminism ideal that emerged in the final decades of the 19th century in Europe and North America....
and several of his novels use this as a theme with the danger of assertive woman represented by a Femme fatale

Femme fatale

A femme fatale is an alluring and Seduction woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations....
.

Stoker had an interest in the occult especially mesmerism, but was also wary of occult fraud and believed strongly that superstition should be replaced by more scientific ideas. In the mid 1890s, Stoker is rumoured to have become a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a Magic order of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, practicing a form of theurgy and spiritual development....
, though there is no concrete evidence to support this claim. One of Stoker's closest friends was J.W. Brodie-Innis, a major figure in the Order, and Stoker himself hired Pamela Coleman Smith, as an artist at the Lyceum Theater.

Posthumous

The short story collection Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories was published in 1914 by Stoker's widow Florence Stoker. The first film adaptation of Dracula was named Nosferatu. It was directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, better known as F. W. Murnau , was one of the most influential Germany film directors of the silent film. A figure in the expressionism movement in German cinema during the 1920s, some of Murnau's films from the silent era have been Lost film, but most still survive....
and starred Max Schreck

Max Schreck

Maximilian "Max" Schreck was a Germany actor. He is most often remembered today for his lead role in the film Nosferatu....
as Count Orlock. Nosferatu was produced while Florence Stoker, Bram Stoker's widow and literary executrix, was still alive. Represented by the attorneys of the British Incorporated Society of Authors, she eventually sued the filmmakers. Her chief legal complaint was that she had been neither asked for permission for the adaptation nor paid any royalty. The case dragged on for some years, with Mrs. Stoker demanding the destruction of the negative and all prints of the film. The suit was finally resolved in the widow's favour in July 1925. Some copies of the film survived, however and the film has become well known.

Bibliography

Novels

* The Primrose Path
The Primrose Path

The Primrose Path is a 1875 in literature novel by Bram Stoker. It was originally written for The Shamrock, an obscure Ireland magazine in 1875, 22 years before the publication of Dracula....
(1875)

The Snake's Pass
The Snake's Pass

The Snake's Pass is a novel by Bram Stoker, first published in 1890. It is about a troubled romance between an English landlord and an untutored Celtic peasant....
(1890)
The Watter's Mou' (1895)
The Shoulder of Shasta (1895)
Dracula
Dracula

Dracula is an 1897 in literature novel by Irish people author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula.Dracula has been attributed to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature....
(1897)
Miss Betty (1898)
The Mystery of the Sea (1902)
The Jewel of Seven Stars
The Jewel of Seven Stars

The Jewel of Seven Stars is a horror novel by Bram Stoker first published in 1903. The story is about an Archaeology plot to revive Queen Tera, an ancient Egyptian mummy....
(1903)
The Man (aka: The Gates of Life) (1905)
Lady Athlyne (1908)
The Lady of the Shroud
The Lady of the Shroud

The Lady of the Shroud is a novel by Bram Stoker, written in 1909. Like Dracula it is set in Eastern Europe, although Stoker never visited Romania or Albania himself....
(1909)
The Lair of the White Worm (1911)

Short story collections

Under the Sunset
Under the Sunset

Under the Sunset is a collection of Short story by Bram Stoker, first published in 1881.Its significance in the development of fantasy was recognized by its republication by the Newcastle Publishing Company as the seventeenth volume of the celebrated Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library series in October, 1978....
(1881), comprising eight fairy tales for children
Snowbound: The Record of a Theatrical Touring Party
Snowbound: The Record of a Theatrical Touring Party

Snowbound: The Record of a Theatrical Touring Party is a collection of short stories by Bram Stoker the author of Dracula.The stories in this collection are:...
(1908)
Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories (1914), published posthumously by Florence Stoker

Uncollected stories

"Bridal of Dead" (alternate ending to The Jewel of Seven Stars
The Jewel of Seven Stars

The Jewel of Seven Stars is a horror novel by Bram Stoker first published in 1903. The story is about an Archaeology plot to revive Queen Tera, an ancient Egyptian mummy....
)
"Buried Treasures"
"The Chain of Destiny"
"The Crystal Cup"
"The Dualitists; or, The Death Doom of the Double Born"
"Lord Castleton Explains" (chapter 10 of The Fate of Fenella
The Fate of Fenella

The Fate of Fenella was an experiment in consecutive novel writing inspired by J. S. Wood. The novel first appeared serially in Wood's weekly magazine, Gentlewoman in 1891 and 1892, before appearing in book form in May 1892....
)
"The Gombeen Man" (chapter 3 of The Snake's Pass
The Snake's Pass

The Snake's Pass is a novel by Bram Stoker, first published in 1890. It is about a troubled romance between an English landlord and an untutored Celtic peasant....
)
"In the Valley of the Shadow"
"The Man from Shorrox"
"Midnight Tales"
"The Red Stockade"
"The Seer" (chapters 1 and 2 of The Mystery of the Sea)

Non-fiction

The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland (1879)
A Glimpse of America (1886)
Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (1906)
Famous Impostors (1910)
Bram Stoker's Notes for Dracula: A Facsimile Edition (2008) Bram Stoker Annotated and Transcribed by Robert Eighteen-Bisang and Elizabeth Miller, Foreword by Michael Barsanti. Jefferson NC & London: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-3410-7

Critical Works on Stoker

William Hughes
William Hughes (professor)

William Hughes is Professor of Gothic Studies at Bath Spa University, UK....
, Beyond Dracula (Palgrave, 2000) ISBN 0312231369

External links

Gothic and Stoker Studies at Bath Spa University

Online texts

full text.