Bram Stoker

Bram Stoker: biography

During his childhood, Stoker developed an unknown illness that left him unable to stand or walk until the age of seven. Throughout this time, his mother, Charlotte Stoker, kept him entertained with true stories of the cholera epidemic in the northwest of Ireland which took place during her own childhood. Many of these stories involved mass graves and grim tales of people nearly being buried alive.

Despite the health issues he experienced as a child, Stoker was highly athletic in his later youth. He played football at Trinity College in Dublin, from where he also graduated with a degree in mathematics in 1870. In 1897, Stoker was described by the Houston Daily Post as

Following graduation, Stoker worked in the civil service at Dublin Castle. During this time he also volunteered as an unpaid drama critic for the Dublin Evening Mail and wrote stories for magazines including 'Crystal Cup' which was published by the London Society in 1872, and 'The Chain of Destiny' which was published in four parts in The Shamrock in 1875.

Whilst volunteering as a drama critic, Stoker made the acquaintance of actor Sir Henry Irving who was an English actor. From 1878 until Irving’s death in 1905, Stoker acted as Irving’s manager. In 1878, Bram Stoker and his wife, Florence, moved to London where Stoker would go on to work for 27 years as Henry Irving's acting manager and the business manager of Irving's Lyceum Theatre.

Stoker's time as manager for Henry Irving opened many doors for him. Through Irving, Stoker became involved in London's high society and, among other famous authors and figures, Stoker met the British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who is best known for creating the character Sherlock Holmes. Stoker also had the opportunity to travel the world as part of Irving's tours.

During this period in Stoker's life, he also ventured into writing fiction novels and, in 1890, published the romantic thriller set in bleak Western Ireland, The Snake’s Pass. Seven years later, in 1897, Stoker published the work that gained him global fame: Dracula.

Following Irving’s death in October 1905, Stoker published Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving in 1906. Other than continuing to write and publish novels, Stoker also managed productions at the Prince of Wales Theatre.

Only a few months after Henry Irving’s death, Stoker had a debilitating stroke. Following his stroke, Stoker mostly retired, however, he continued to write and publish works of Gothic Romance until the end of his life, including The Lady of the Shroud (1909) and The Lair of the White Worm (1911).

During the final years of his life, Stoker had a private and financially unstable existence, and he received financial aid from the Royal Literary Society. Five days after the sinking of the Titanic, Bram Stoker died on 20 April 1912. Stoker’s death went largely unnoticed by papers that were crammed full of survivor accounts and the obituaries of wealthy society members from the sinking of the Titanic. The Times in London did contain an obituary for Stoker, but only on page 15.

The root of Stoker’s death is debated, but many believe that one of the causes was syphilis, for which there was no cure at the time.

Bram Stoker's legacy

During his life, Stoker’s fame was not for his contribution to literature. Although he wrote a total of 12 novels, The Times' obituary for Stoker focused on his role as manager to Henry Irving and his contribution to the success of the Lyceum Theatre, and the only piece of Stoker's work mentioned in the obituary was Reminiscences of Henry Irving.

However, today Stoker is most known for being part of the Gothic Romance literary movement, producing works of Gothic and Romantic fiction. Dracula’s enormous cultural impact came much later, through its reproduction in TV, film and literature. From Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series to Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, Vampires remain a central feature of film and literature today – and Dracula is one of the blueprints.

Bram Stoker: books

The books that were written by Bram Stoker are as follows:

The Snakes Pass (1890)

The Snakes Pass is one of Stoker’s first Gothic Romance novels. The novel is set in West Ireland, and it follows the story of Arthur Severn who encounters a man named Jerry Scanlan at a local bar in Carnacliff. Scanlan tells Severn the story of Shleenanaher, a place where the King of Snakes remained after he was driven out of Ireland by Saint Patrick.

Arthur Severn is told a number of stories, including that of an evil villain in the town known as Black Murdock. As the novel progresses, a romance develops between Severn and the character of Norah Joyce, whose father lost his land to Black Murdock after taking out a loan from him. After many trials and tribulations, the novel’s protagonists take back Phelim, Joyce’s land, and Arthur Severn and Norah Joyce are eventually married.

Before it was published as a novel, the story was serialised in a number of publications, including The People (London, England), The Newcastle Courant (Newcastle Upon Tyne, England), and the Weekly Mail (Cardiff, Wales).

Dracula (1897)

Dracula is a piece of epistolary fiction, which means that it was written in the form of diaries and journals.

Fig. 2 - Dracula was inspired by Vlad the Impaler's thirst for blood.

The diary entries and letters provide a variety of perspectives throughout the book, allowing the story to be told through the eyes of Jonathan Harker, Wilhelmina ('Mina') Harker (née Murray), Dr John ('Jack') Seward, and Lucy Westenra.

The novel tells the tale of a Transylvanian vampire, Count Dracula, who makes his way to England where he feeds on the blood of the innocent. Led by Dr Abraham Van Helsing, Johnathan Harker and his friends overpower and destroy Dracula.

The legacy of Dracula was supported by Florence Stoker, who published her husband's collection of short stories, Dracula's Guest, posthumously in 1914.

Furthermore, Dracula's reproduction in other literary works, television, and film, has led to its continued fame. The very first cinematic adaptation of Dracula, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, was a silent film released in 1922.

In January 2020, the BBC released a three-episode TV series of Dracula that was very loosely based on Stoker’s novel. In 1992, Francis Ford Coppola directed his own film version of Dracula, starring Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, and Keanu Reeves.

In 2009, over 100 years after the novel’s publication, Bram Stoker's grandnephew Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt produced Dracula: The Un-Dead, a sequel to the original novel set in London in 1912. The novel is based on Stoker's own notes from the original Dracula, and even includes Bram Stoker as a character!

The Lady of the Shroud (1909)

The Lady of the Shroud also takes the form of an epistolary novel. The novel follows Rupert Saint Leger, who inherits his uncle’s estate on the condition that he must live for a year in a castle in the Land of the Blue Mountains on the Dalmatian coast.

The novel centres on the theme of the supernatural. After being visited by a woman wearing a wet shroud, seeking warmth, Leger allows her to dry off by the fire, however, she flees the next morning. Over the course of the woman’s visits, Leger finds himself falling in love with her (and also thinking that she is a Vampire!)

This novel follows a heroic arc, in which Rupert Leger, the hero of the story, saves the woman (whose name he learns is Teuta) and her father from a party of Turkish troops. It is revealed that Teuta is the daughter of the local Voivode and was falsely declared dead (and then a Vampire) after she fell into a trance.

After Rupert’s heroic rescue, the two are married, and Teuta reveals their marriage to her father, who accepts Rupert into the family.

The Lair of the White Worm (1911)

The Lair of the White Worm was published one year before Stoker’s death and is perhaps one of his most ‘unhinged’ novels. Unlike Stoker’s earlier works, this novel is a horror story with no romantic aspects.

The novel follows the journey of Adam Salton, an Australian who goes to meet his great-uncle, Richard Salton, in England after being contacted by him in 1860. Richard announces that, as Adam is his only living relative, he wishes to make Adam the heir to his estate called Lesser Hill.

After travelling there, Adam finds himself at the centre of a series of mysterious events. The novel’s story is partly based on 'The Lambton Worm', the legend from North East England of a giant white worm with the ability to transform into a woman.

Key themes in Bram Stoker’s works

The key themes in Bram Stoker's works are weather, the supernatural, and real-life locations.

The weather

Dark weather is a common aspect of Gothic Literature. This technique is known as pathetic fallacy and intends to create a certain mood from descriptions of the weather. In the case of Stoker’s writing, bleak landscapes are utilised to create an eerie mood.

The supernatural

From Cathy’s ghost in Wuthering Heights to Frankenstein’s inhuman creation (Adam) in Frankenstein, the supernatural is a fundamental part of Gothic literature that is also present in all of Stoker’s works of fiction.

Real-life locations

Many of the settings for Stoker’s writing were influenced by real locations he visited throughout his life.

Stoker took lengthy holidays to Cruden Bay in Scotland between 1893 and 1910. These holidays provided the time for Stoker to write his novels and the location acted as inspiration for some of his writing. Both The Watter's Mou' (1895) and The Mystery of the Sea (1902) were set in Cruden Bay.

Fig. 3 - Slains Castle in Cruden Bay.

Bram Stoker: facts

Here are some facts about Bram Stoker's life and works.

• Bram Stoker was the third eldest of seven children.
• The park adjacent to Bram Stoker's childhood home, 15 Marino Crescent, Clontarf, is best known as 'Bram Stoker Park'.
• Bram Stoker remains the only student at Trinity College Dublin to have held the positions of auditor of the College Historical Society and president of the University Philosophical Society.
• Bram Stoker became acquainted with Oscar Wilde during his time as a student at Trinity College, and he proposed Wilde for membership of the university's Philosophical Society before proposing to Florence Balcombe, whose suitor had previously been Oscar Wilde!
• While managing Henry Irving, Stoker visited the White House twice and met William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt while he was there.
• Stoker's original typescript of Dracula was believed to have been lost until it was found in a barn in northwestern Pennsylvania. The title of this script was 'THE UN-DEAD.'
• Stoker was a member of The London Library and conducted much of the research for Dracula there. In 2019, Creation Theatre Company put on a production of Dracula in the library.

Famous Bram Stoker quotes

The following are quotes from Bram Stoker's most well-known works.

The novel's protagonist, Jonathan Harker, speaks this because he experiences a sense of unease and uncertainty during his stay at Count Dracula's castle in Transylvania. Harker is grappling with a growing sense of dread as he realizes that his host is not what he seems, and he is struggling to make sense of the strange occurrences he has witnessed.

This quote is spoken by Mina Harker, Jonathan's fiancée, as she expresses her longing to be reunited with him and escape the confines of their everyday lives. The idea of building castles in the air suggests a desire for imagination and escape from reality, which is a recurring theme in the novel.

Van Helsing serves as the novel's chief vampire hunter. Van Helsing is emphasizing the importance of knowledge and reason in confronting the supernatural threat of Dracula and warns his fellow hunters not to rely on their memories or emotions when dealing with the vampire.

This quote describes the appearance of the novel's titular character, the Lady of the Shroud, who is said to be beautiful but deathly pale. The image of her pallor reinforces her association with death and the supernatural and adds to the eerie atmosphere of the novel.

Adam Salton is presented as a typical young man with human flaws and weaknesses. The statement suggests that even in the face of supernatural danger, humans are still subject to the limitations of their own nature, including a reluctance to confront difficult or awkward situations.

¹ 'Points about People.' The Houston Daily Post, Houston, Texas, 6 March 1897, published in The Bram Stoker Estate.