Bram Stoker
1847–1912
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Bram Stoker was an Irish writer who spent most of his working life as the business manager of the actor Henry Irving at London's Lyceum Theatre. By day he ran one of Victorian England's great theatres; by night he researched folklore, writing letters and visiting libraries to build his vampire's mythology.
Dracula, published in 1897, tells its story through letters, diaries and newspaper clippings — a Transylvanian count preying on Victorian England, opposed by a band of determined modern men and women. The novel drew on Eastern European folklore and on contemporary anxieties about disease, immigration and the "New Woman".
Dracula was only a modest success in Stoker's lifetime; he died in 1912, never knowing his count would become one of the most adapted characters in film history. Today the novel stands as the defining work of Victorian Gothic horror.
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