Dracula

Dracula is a horror novel written by the Irish writer Bram Stoker. Bram Stoker published the novel in England in 1897. The character 'Dracula' may have been based in part on Sir Henry Irving (who was an actor and friend of Bram Stoker) and on Vlad III the Impaler (a Romanian king). The story is about a vampire called Dracula. A vampire is a kind of monster associated with death and the Devil.

Cover of the first edition.

Portrait of Bram Stoker.

Plot

A young solicitor (a type of lawyer) Jonathan Harker goes to Transylvania to sell a house in England to a nobleman named Dracula. After living in the castle for a week, he realizes that Dracula is a vampire. Dracula traps Harker in his castle with three other vampire women (who are called his brides) and goes to England, by hiding on a ship and killing the crew. When he gets to England, he bites a young woman called Lucy Westenra and turns her into a vampire. Lucy is then killed by Abraham van Helsing (a medical doctor) and the other characters in the book. Then Dracula bites Jonathan's wife Mina. Because of this, the other characters try to defeat Dracula, by chasing him back to Transylvania and killing him.

Ideas for the story

People have written about where Stoker got his ideas for the Dracula story. It has been said that Stoker's mother Charlotte telling him of the events of the terrible cholera plague in Sligo, Ireland may have given him some ideas. These included:^[1]

• Doctors trying to stop people dying and then being killed.^[1]
• Smells and mists associated with terrible things.^[1]
• Roman Catholic priests bravely fighting the terrible things.^[1]
• People being buried when they were not dead and some not dying.^[1]

The idea of blood may have come from Bram's early years when he was unhealthy and in bed all the time and doctors may have tried bleeding him to make him healthy.^[2]

Ideas for the person of Dracula may have been taken from Henry Irving. Stoker worked for Irving at the Lyceum Theatre in London for 30 years.^[3]

Most famous adaptations of Dracula

• 1922, Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror). First adaptation of the novel. Directed by F. W. Murnau. Max Schreck has the role of Count Orlok. The movie director could not get permission to use the actual story from Stoker's widow, who ordered many copies of the movie to be destroyed after its release.
• 1931, Dracula. Horror, directed by Tod Browning and starring Béla Lugosi as Dracula.
• 1958, Horror of Dracula. Horror, stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula.
• 1979, Dracula. Horror, stars Frank Langella as Dracula.
• 1979, Love at First Bite. Comedy, stars George Hamilton as Count Vladimir Dracula.
• 1992, Bram Stoker's Dracula. Horror, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gary Oldman as Dracula.
• Dracula: Dead and Loving it. Comedy, directed by Mel Brooks and starring Leslie Nielsen as Count Dracula.
• Van Helsing is a 2004 movie that has Hugh Jackman as the title character (Gabriel Van Helsing) and Richard Boxburgh as Count Vladislaus Dracula.
• 2014, Dracula Untold, directed by Gary Shore

Online texts

• http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45839
• Bram Stoker Online Full text and PDF versions of this novel.

References

1. McGarry, M. "11th August 1832 - Dracula and Sligo's cholera Epidemic". Archived from the original on 19 October 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
2. Barbara Belford (1996). Bram Stoker: a biography of the author of Dracula. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 19. ISBN 0-679-41832-6. OCLC 1148011051. OL 968151M. Wikidata Q114769307.
3. Bram Stoker; Charlotte Stoker; Walt Whitman; Winston Churchill (2003). Bram Stoker Dracula. London: Penguin Books. pp. xxv. ISBN 978-0-141-43984-6. OCLC 1348172452. OL 10416488M. Wikidata Q114771237.