Bram the man
BRAM STOKER, born in Clontarf, Co. Dublin in 1847, died on April 20, 1912. His Gothic novel Dracula, featuring an extravagantly-fanged count from Transylvania, heralded in the era of the vampire fiction.
The novel, which has never been out of print, spawned numerous films, comics, books and television shows, and even influenced fashion.
Fangs for the memories — Jonathan Goddard as Dracula in a Mark Bruce Company dance adaptation
Storyline of Dracula ——
A Transylvanian vampire, weary of the scarcity of succulent necks back home, travels to England to terrorise innocent people, suck their blood and turn ’em into vampires. Don't try this one at home, folks.
Main protagonist (aside from Dracula himself) ——
Surprisingly enough, an estate agent — possibly the most exiting role an estate agent occupies in literature. Young Jonathan Harker, in Romania on behalf of Dracula’s law firm (and so strictly speaking a solicitor with estate-agently powers), escorts the Count on his journey to England.
Setting ——
Essentially an Irish fiction played out in Whitby, London and Transylvania. The first, and probably only time, these three areas had been thought of in the same sentence.
All we have to fear is fear itself — oh, and those scary things that are likely to jump out behind you during the night
Historical basis for Dracula ——
The 15th century Vlad Dracul, alias Vlad the Impaler, a bloodthirsty tyrant was Stoker's model.
Bad Vlad regularly impaled his enemies on stakes and dined on their blood, with nary a thought of circulatory infection.
Vlad wasn’t what you’d call a people person. Once asked by his parishioners in Wallachia if he could perhaps do something for the poor at Christmastide, Vlad herded them into a large barn with the promise of a sumptuous feast — and set fire to the place. Those who managed to escape were, somewhat predictably, impaled. As poet Patrick Kavanagh so succinctly put it (in another context) Christmas brings the bollix out in everybody.
Literary form ——
Hardcore prawn — Bram Stoker said he dreamt the plot of Dracula in Whitby after dining on a seafood meal.
Dracula is written in an epistolary form: the story unfolds through a series of fictional diary entries, telegrams, letters, ship's logs, and newspaper clippings. To increase the fear factor, Count Dracula is never heard from himself; this became a common template for subsequent horror movies — we only get odd glimpses of the chief protagonist.
Plot development ——
Jonathan Harker takes a weekend break in Transylvania, where the hills are stalked by wolves and bears. His lodgings leave something to be desired. The front door is locked, three sharp-fanged women stalk the corridors and his host sleeps in a coffin with fresh blood dripping from his lips.
The English connection ——
The plot moves to Whitby, a town whose only previous brush with fame was the Synod of Whitby in 664 AD when Celtic and British bishops hammered out the date of Easter. But the extravagantly-fanged Count had little time for Easter bunnies, or indeed the risen Christ.
Meanwhile, back in Whitby ——
The gaunt, Gothic edifice of Whitby Abbey
Harker's fiancée Mina Murray is on holiday with her friend Lucy Westenra in Whitby. A schooner, with a dead man lashed to the wheel, appears out of the waves. As the ship crashes onto the shore, a huge black dog leaps from the deck and disappears in the direction of the local graveyard — with less than hilarious consequences
Real mystery of Stoker’s story ——
How a decent, middle-class, ordinary Dubliner, who never visited the magnificently spooky forests of Transylvania, was able to turn an obscure historical figure into the world’s favourite fiend.
It seems he used three sources for research:
(1) an expert on Wallachian folklore called Emily Gerard (Wallachia is an area some 500 miles from Transylvania)
(2) Whitby Public Library
(3) a Baedeker travel guide
From these unlikely literary caryatids he fashioned one of the great novels in the English canon.
If you were the only ghoul in the world — Goth and Grebo happenings take place in Whitby throughout the year, reaching a crescendo at Halloween
Stoker’s qualifications for writing Dracula ——
He took an honours degree in pure mathematics at Trinity College Dublin, although appears to have been lukewarm about the subject.
Least likely to say ——
"What part of [a (to the power n) + b (to the power n) = c (to the power n) for any integer value greater than 2] do you not understand?"
Much more likely to say ——
"Blood's thicker than water — and far tastier."
Other qualifications for writing the greatest horror-genre story ever ——
He passed his Civil Service exam in Dublin with an A plus merit.
Sheridan Le Fanu — a major influence on Stoker. Many of the early big hitters in the horror genre were Irish including Le Fanu and Charles Maturin
A marginal existence ——
Perhaps Stoker was the eternal outsider: he was from a lower middle class Protestant background — his father was a clerk in Dublin Castle, so he probably never felt entirely Irish, and certainly not aristocratic Anglo-Irish, the Raj in the Rain.
But when he came to England, of course, he was once again an outsider as an Irish immigrant. Perhaps this position allowed him to write eloquently about the ultimate outsider — one of the Undead.
The role of Bram’s mother ——
A banshee keening and wailing — the one sound you probably don't want to hear. Pound to a penny it's unlikely to be uplifting news
Charlotte Stoker claimed to have heard banshees calling and spirits keening on the night of her mother’s death. Just your average Irish mammy, then.
Influences within Dracula ——
Irish mythology and history largely made up the supernatural cauldron from which Stoker’s Dracula sprang. Bram’s mum (from Sligo) would regale the youngster with stories about the 1832 cholera epidemic in the west of Ireland, rumoured to have originated in an unknown place in central Europe.
One stranger who strayed into Co. Sligo, and thought to be infected with the disease, was buried alive. Other local victims of the plague were rumoured to have disappeared from their coffins, presumably risen from the dead. Mrs Stoker also told her somewhat impressionable son grisly accounts of the Famine, when starving people would drink blood from the veins of cattle.
Early Irish inspiration ——
The recurring theme of the ‘undead’ is particularly associated with the Celtic festival of Samhain — now known as Halloween, a bacchanalian knees-up stretching back well into pre-Celtic times.
The castle dimension ——
A window at Leap Castle, Co. Offaly, one of the most haunted castles in the world. Muscular Norman castles, variously haunted, dot the Irish countryside — undoubtedly an inspiration to Stoker
The descriptions of Dracula’s castle resonates with Ireland's crumbling Norman fortifications. Stoker never visited Transylvania, so built his picture from what was available locally. And there was plenty of it.
Did Bram enjoy a pun? ——
‘Droch fhola’ (pronounced ‘drak’ola’) means bad or evil blood in Irish. It was the custom in some areas of Ireland to drive stakes through the hearts of the those who had died with ‘bad blood’ — suicide victims for instance. It was for their own good, really. It helped prevent them returning to haunt relatives; and few people want to be a burden on their families. Significantly, there was a cemetery plot near the Stokers’ home in Marino Crescent for burying suicides. It’s possible Bram Stoker was indulging in a bit of punning with ‘droch fhola’.
Derry demonic dimension ——
Bram would have known about a 5th century chieftain from Derry, Abhartach, who drank tainted blood. After becoming one of the undead, he rose from his grave and demanded bowls of blood from his subjects.
Culinary consideration ——
Stoker said that he dreamed the plot in Whitby after dining on a meal of crustaceans.
Subliminal message of Dracula ——
Unspeakable things can happen to ordinary human beings.
Sub-text to subliminal message ——
One should never allow oneself to be totally dominated, as Stoker was by the actor Henry Irving. The Dublin writer was in thrall to the English stage actor.
Stoker moved to London and became Irving’s business manager at the Lyceum Theatre — a job he carried out from the age of 31 until his death at the age of 64.
Stoker tailored the mannerisms of Dracula for Irving, in the hope he would play the villain on stage. But Irving never did, always regarding himself somewhat above that kind of thing.
Mrs Stoker, aka Florence Balcombe, from Co. Down, whose former suitor was Oscar Wilde. But no hard feelings — on the contrary, Stoker helped Wilde financially during the latter’s exile in France.
Another theory about Dracula ——
Stoker’s portrayal of Dracula as a loathsome, promiscuous monster, a bit of a count in other words, is merely an allegory for the English establishment who reviled his fellow Dubliner and friend, Oscar Wilde.
Myths such as the blood-sucking Dracula occur with some regularity throughout the world. This, it is argued, is a result of Neanderthals being on the planet at the same time as Homo sapiens. And also, of course, the fact that real blood-sucking bats do exist. As well as real spooky things.
Further possible Wildean influence ——
Stoker was also a friend of William Wilde, Oscar Wilde’s father. Wilde snr. was convicted for molesting a woman he had anaesthetised, and this was very much seen not as a shameful episode, but merely adding to Wilde’s notoriety. This could have been incorporated in Stoker’s mind into the idea of Dracula.
Further point to get you stroking your chin and saying, "Hmmm." ——
Some critics believe that Dracula expressed the middle class fear of foreign invasion, the predatory New Woman — just beginning to emerge in the late 19th century — and perhaps syphilis
Castle Bran in Transylvania — often touted as Castle Dracula, although there's no evidence that Bram Stoker even knew of its existence. Nonetheless, the Romanian Tourist Board will forever be grateful to the quiet civil servant from Dublin who gave them the ultimate horror story. Castle Bran, with a tenuous link to various Vlads, is today Romania's top tourist attraction.
Bram Stoker’s verdict on his literary magnum opus ——
Sadly, Bram never lived to see any significant recognition for Dracula. He always believed his enduring work would be Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving.
But Dracula has never been out of print and is up there with other best-sellers such as The Bible, The Quotations of Chairman Mao, the Harry Potter books and The Da Vinci Code.
Sequels ——
With a dash of Gaelic and garlic added to a Gothic tale, Stoker transformed local literary elements into universal folk mythology
None to speak of, although it is rumoured that Stoker’s work Duties Of Clerks Of Petty Sessions was avidly read by civil servants throughout Ireland. Essentially, Stoker was a mild-mannered, Dublin civil servant who wrote 18 or 19 very forgettable books, and one astounding, gripping world best-seller
Filmography ——
Dracula has been the basis for up to1000 films.
Christopher Lee played Dracula eight times. Others include Bela Lugosi, Klaus Kinski and Gary Oldman. The latter was probably chosen because Hollywood wanted some new blood in the role.
Niche films over the years include Love At First Bite, Once Bitten, Blackula, Dracula Blows His Cool and Transylvania 6—5000. The latter stars Geena Davis as a ‘nymphomaniac vampire’.
Pay your respects
Bram Stoker was cremated and his ashes placed in an urn at Golder’s Green Crematorium in north-west London. To visit his remains visitors must be escorted to the room the urn is housed in, for fear of . . . . well, who knows?
How to find out more about Bram Stoker in Dublin ———
There are surprisingly few Bram Stoker resources in Dublin. The Dublin Writer’s Museum www.writersmuseum.comtouches on his life.
The Castle Dracula Experience www.castledracula.ie concentrates on the macabre as well as the academic.