Dracula
![]() The cover of the first edition | |
Author | Bram Stoker |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Horror, Gothic |
Publisher | Archibald Constable and Company (UK) |
Publication date | 26 May 1897 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
OCLC | 1447002 |
Dracula is an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.[1]
Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England so he may find new blood and spread the undead curse, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing.
Dracula has been assigned to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature. Although Stoker did not invent the vampire, he defined its modern form, and the novel has spawned numerous theatrical, film and television interpretations.
Plot summary
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/Stoker_Dracula_Notes_Personal.jpg/220px-Stoker_Dracula_Notes_Personal.jpg)
The story is told in epistolary format, as a series of letters, diary entries, and ships' log entries, whose narrators are the novel's protagonists, and occasionally supplemented with newspaper clippings relating events not directly witnessed. The events portrayed in the novel take place chronologically and largely in England and Transylvania during the 1890s and all transpire within the same year between the 3rd of May and the 6th of November. A short note is located at the end of the final chapter written 7 years after the events outlined in the novel.
The tale begins with Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, visiting Count Dracula in the Carpathian Mountains on the border of Transylvania, Bukovina, and Moldavia, to provide legal support for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer. At first enticed by Dracula's gracious manners, Harker soon realizes that he is Dracula's prisoner. Wandering the Count's castle against Dracula's admonition, Harker encounters three female vampires, called "the sisters", from whom he is rescued by Dracula. After the preparations are made, Dracula leaves Transylvania and abandons Harker to the sisters. Harker barely escapes from the castle with his life.
Not long afterward, a Russian ship, the Demeter, having weighed anchor at Varna, runs aground on the shores of Whitby. The captain's log narrates the gradual disappearance of the entire crew, until the captain alone remained, himself bound to the helm to maintain course. An animal resembling "a large dog" is seen leaping ashore. The ship's cargo is described as silver sand and 50 boxes of "mould", or earth, from Transylvania. It is later learned that Dracula successfully purchased multiple estates under the alias 'Count De Ville' throughout London and devised to distribute the 50 boxes to each of them utilizing transportation services as well as moving them himself. He does this to secure for himself "lairs" and the 50 boxes of earth would be used as his graves which would grant safety and rest during times of feeding and replenishing his strength.
Soon Dracula is recorded stalking Lucy Westenra, who happens to live in Whitby. As time passes she begins suffering from episodes of sleepwalking and dementia. Lucy receives three marriage proposals from Dr. John Seward, Quincey Morris, and Arthur Holmwood (The son of Lord Godalming who later obtains the title himself[2]). Lucy accepts Holmwood's proposal while turning down Seward and Morris, but all remain friends. Dracula communicates with Seward's patient Renfield, an insane man who wishes to consume insects, spiders, birds, and rats to absorb their "life force", and therefore assimilate to Dracula himself. Renfield is able to detect Dracula's presence and supplies clues accordingly.
When Lucy begins to waste away suspiciously, Seward invites his old teacher, Abraham Van Helsing, who immediately determines the true cause of Lucy's condition. He refuses to disclose it but diagnoses her with acute blood-loss. Helsing prescribes numerous blood transfusions to which Dr. Seward, Helsing, Quincy and Arthur all contribute over time. Helsing also prescribes flowers to be placed throughout her room and weaves a necklace of withered Garlic Blossoms for her to wear as well. She however continues to waste away - appearing to lose blood every night. While both doctors are absent, Lucy and her mother are attacked by a wolf; Mrs. Westenra, who has a heart condition, dies of fright. Van Helsing attempts to protect her with garlic but fate thwarts him each night, whether Lucy's mother removes the garlic from her room, or Lucy herself does so in her restless sleep. The doctors have found two small puncture marks about her neck, which Dr Seward is at a loss to understand. Helsing then places a crucifix around her neck, but soon after she is discovered dead with the crucifix missing. Helsing discovers that one of the nurses stole it the night before.
Following Lucy's death, the newspapers report children being stalked in the night by, in their words, a "bloofer lady" (i.e., "beautiful lady").[3] Van Helsing, knowing Lucy has become a vampire, confides in Seward, Lord Godalming, and Morris. The suitors and Van Helsing track her down and, after a confrontation with her, stake her heart, behead her, and fill her mouth with garlic. Around the same time, Jonathan Harker arrives from Budapest, where Mina marries him after his escape, and he and Mina join the coalition against Dracula.
All of the individuals directly affected by Dracula's cruelty team up and vow to destroy him and rid the Earth of his evil. To do so, they all stay at Dr. Seward's residence, holding nightly meetings and providing reports based on each of their various tasks. Mina discovers that each of their journals and letters collectively contain clues to which they can track him down. She tasks herself with collecting them, researching newspaper clippings, fitting the most relevant entries into chronological order and typing out copies to distribute to each of the party which they are to study. Jonathan Harker travels throughout London to track down the shipments of boxed graves and the estates which Dracula has purchased in order to store them. Van Helsing conducts research along with Dr. Seward to analyze the behavior of their patient Renfield who they learn is directly influenced by Dracula. They also research historical events, folklore, and superstitions from various cultures to create an understanding of Dracula's powers and weaknesses. Van Helsing also establishes a criminal profile on Dracula in order to better understand his actions and predict his movements. Arthur Holmwood's fortune assists in funding the entire operation and expenses. As they learn the various properties Dracula had purchased, the male protagonists team up to raid each property and are several times confronted by Dracula. As they discover each of the boxed graves scattered throughout London, they pry them open to place and seal wafers of sacramental bread within. This act renders the boxes of earth completely useless to Dracula as he is unable to open, enter or further transport them.
After Dracula learns of the group's plot against him, he attacks Mina on three occasions, and feeds Mina his own blood to control her. This curses Mina with vampirism and changes her but does not completely turn her into a vampire. Van Helsing attempts to bless Mina through prayer and by placing a wafer of sacrament against her forehead, although it burns her upon contact leaving a wretched scar. Under this curse, Mina oscillates from consciousness to a semi-trance during which she perceives Dracula's surroundings and actions. Van Helsing is able to use hypnotism at the hour of dawn and put her into this trance to further track his movements. Mina, afraid of Dracula's link with her, urges the team not to tell her their plans out of fear that Dracula will be listening. After the protagonists discover and sterilize 49 boxes found throughout his lairs in London, they learn that Dracula has fled with the missing 50th box back to his castle in Transylvania. They pursue him under the guidance of Mina. They split up into teams once they reach Europe; Van Helsing and Mina team up to locate the castle of Dracula while the others attempt to ambush the boat Dracula is using to reach his home. Van Helsing raids the castle and destroys the vampire "sisters". Upon discovering Dracula being transported by Gypsies, Harker shears Dracula through the throat with a kukri while the mortally wounded Quincey stabs the Count in the heart with a Bowie knife. Dracula crumbles to dust, and Mina is freed from her curse of vampirism.
The book closes with a note left by Jonathan Harker seven years after the events of the novel, detailing his married life with Mina and the birth of their son, whom they name after all four members of the party, but address as "Quincey". Quincey is depicted sitting on the knee of Van Helsing as they recount their adventure.
"Dracula's Guest"
In 1914, two years after Stoker's death, the short story "Dracula's Guest" was posthumously published. It was, according to most contemporary critics, the deleted first (or second) chapter from the original manuscript[4] and the one which gave the volume its name,[5]: 325 but which the original publishers deemed unnecessary to the overall story.
"Dracula's Guest" follows an unnamed Englishman traveller as he wanders around Munich before leaving for Transylvania. It is Walpurgis Night, and in spite of the coachman's warnings, the young Englishman foolishly leaves his hotel and wanders through a dense forest alone. Along the way he feels he is being watched by a tall and thin stranger (possibly Count Dracula).
The short story climaxes in an old graveyard, where in a marble tomb (with a large iron stake driven into it), the Englishman encounters a sleeping female vampire called Countess Dolingen. This malevolent and beautiful vampire awakens from her marble bier to conjure a snowstorm before being struck by lightning and returning to her eternal prison. However, the Englishman's troubles are not quite over, as he is dragged away by an unseen force and rendered unconscious. He awakes to find a "gigantic" wolf lying on his chest and licking at his throat; however, the wolf merely keeps him warm and protects him until help arrives.
When the Englishman is finally taken back to his hotel, a telegram awaits him from his expectant host Dracula, with a warning about "dangers from snow and wolves and night".
Deleted ending
An excerpt from the original final chapter was removed, in which Dracula's castle falls apart as he dies, hiding the fact that vampires were ever there.[6]
As we looked there came a terrible convulsion of the earth so that we seemed to rock to and fro and fell to our knees. At the same moment with a roar which seemed to shake the very heavens the whole castle and the rock and even the hill on which it stood seemed to rise into the air and scatter in fragments while a mighty cloud of black and yellow smoke volume on volume in rolling grandeur was shot upwards with inconceivable rapidity.
Then there was a stillness in nature as the echoes of that thunderous report seemed to come as with the hollow boom of a thunder-clap - the long reverberating roll which seems as though the floors of heaven shook. Then down in a mighty ruin falling whence they rose came the fragments that had been tossed skywards in the cataclysm.
From where we stood it seemed as though the one fierce volcano burst had satisfied the need of nature and that the castle and the structure of the hill had sunk again into the void. We were so appalled with the suddenness and the grandeur that we forgot to think of ourselves.
— Deleted excerpt from the original Dracula manuscript[7]
Characters
- Jonathan Harker: A solicitor sent to do business with Count Dracula; Mina's fiancé and prisoner in Dracula's castle.
- Count Dracula: A Transylvanian noble who has purchased a house in London.
- Wilhelmina "Mina" Harker (née Murray): A schoolteacher and Jonathan Harker's fiancée.
- Lucy Westenra: A 19-year-old aristocrat; Mina's best friend; Arthur's fiancée and Dracula's first victim.
- Arthur Holmwood: Lucy's suitor and later fiancé.
- John Seward: A doctor; one of Lucy's suitors and a former student of Van Helsing.
- Abraham Van Helsing: A Dutch doctor, lawyer and professor; John Seward's teacher.
- Quincey Morris: An American cowboy and explorer; and one of Lucy's suitors.
- Renfield: A patient at Seward's insane asylum who has come under the influence of Dracula.
- "Weird Sisters": Three siren-like vampire women who serve Dracula. In some of the plays, films etc. that came after the novel they are referred to as the Brides of Dracula.
Background
Between 1879 and 1898, Stoker was a business manager for the world-famous Lyceum Theatre in London, where he supplemented his income by writing a large number of sensational novels, his most famous being the vampire tale Dracula published on 26 May 1897.[5]: 269 Parts of it are set around the town of Whitby, where he spent summer holidays. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, authors such as H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, and H. G. Wells wrote many tales in which fantastic creatures threatened the British Empire. Invasion literature was at a peak, and Stoker's formula of an invasion of England by continental European influences was by 1897 very familiar to readers of fantastic adventure stories. Victorian readers enjoyed it as a good adventure story like many others, but it would not reach its iconic legendary status until later in the 20th century when film versions began to appear.[8]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Henry_Irving_portrait.jpg/175px-Henry_Irving_portrait.jpg)
Before writing Dracula, Stoker spent seven years researching European folklore and stories of vampires, being most influenced by Emily Gerard's 1885 essay, "Transylvania Superstitions". Later he would also claim that he had a nightmare, caused by eating too much crab meat covered with mayonnaise sauce, about a "vampire king" rising from his grave.
Despite being the most widely known vampire novel, Dracula was not the first. It was preceded and partly inspired by Sheridan Le Fanu's 1871 "Carmilla", about a lesbian vampire who preys on a lonely young woman, and by Varney the Vampire, a lengthy penny dreadful serial from the mid-Victorian period by James Malcolm Rymer. The image of a vampire portrayed as an aristocratic man, like the character of Dracula, was created by John Polidori in "The Vampyre" (1819), during the summer spent with Frankenstein creator Mary Shelley, her husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron in 1816. The Lyceum Theatre, where Stoker worked between 1878 and 1898, was headed by the actor-manager Henry Irving, who was Stoker's real-life inspiration for Dracula's mannerisms and who Stoker hoped would play Dracula in a stage version.[9] Although Irving never did agree to do a stage version, Dracula's dramatic sweeping gestures and gentlemanly mannerisms drew their living embodiment from Irving.[9]
The Dead Un-Dead was one of Stoker's original titles for Dracula, and up until a few weeks before publication, the manuscript was titled simply The Un-Dead. Stoker's notes for Dracula show that the name of the count was originally "Count Wampyr", but while doing research, Stoker became intrigued by the name "Dracula", after reading William Wilkinson's book Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia with Political Observations Relative to Them (London 1820),[10] which he found in the Whitby Library, and consulted a number of times during visits to Whitby in the 1890s.[11] The name Dracula was the patronym (Drăculea) of the descendants of Vlad II of Wallachia, who took the name "Dracul" after being invested in the Order of the Dragon in 1431. In the Romanian language, the word dracul (Romanian drac "dragon" + -ul "the") can mean either "the dragon" or, especially in the present day, "the devil".[12]
Dracula was copyrighted in the United States in 1899 with the publication by Doubleday & McClure of New York.[13] It was only when Universal Studio's purchased the rights that it came to light that Bram Stoker had not complied with a portion of US copyright law, placing the novel into the public domain.[14] In the United Kingdom and other countries following the Berne Convention on copyrights, the novel was under copyright until April 1962, fifty years after Stoker's death.[15] When F. W. Murnau's unauthorized film adaptation Nosferatu was released in 1922, the popularity of the novel increased considerably, owing to the controversy caused when Stoker's widow tried to have the film removed from public circulation.[16] Florence Stoker sued the film company and won, however the company was bankrupt and Stoker only recovered her legal fees and an order by the court for all copies of the film to be destroyed. Some copies survived and found their way into theatres. Eventually Florence Stoker would simply give up the fight against public displays of the film.[14]
Reaction and scholarly criticism
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/Dracamer99.jpg/220px-Dracamer99.jpg)
When it was first published, in 1897, Dracula was not an immediate bestseller, although reviewers were unstinting in their praise. The contemporary Daily Mail ranked Stoker's powers above those of Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe as well as Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.[17]
According to literary historians Nina Auerbach and David J. Skal in the Norton Critical Edition, the novel has become more significant for modern readers than it was for contemporary Victorian readers, most of whom enjoyed it just as a good adventure story; it reached its broad iconic legendary classic status only later in the 20th century when the movie versions appeared.[18] A. Asbjørn Jøn has also noted that Dracula has had a significant impact on the image of the vampire in popular culture, folklore and legend.[19][20]
It did not make much money for Stoker; the last year of his life he was so poor that he had to petition for a compassionate grant from the Royal Literary Fund,[21] and in 1913 his widow was forced to sell his notes and outlines of the novel at a Sotheby's auction, where they were purchased for a little over 2 pounds.[22] But when F. W. Murnau's unauthorized adaptation of the story in the form of Nosferatu was released in theatres in 1922, Stoker's widow took affront, and during the legal battle that followed, the novel's popularity started to grow. Nosferatu was followed by a highly successful stage adaptation, touring the UK for three years before arriving in the US where Stoker's creation caught Hollywood's attention, and after the American 1931 movie version was released, the book has never been out of print.[23] However, some Victorian fans were ahead of the time, describing it as "the sensation of the season" and "the most blood-curdling novel of the paralysed century".[24] Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote to Stoker in a letter, "I write to tell you how very much I have enjoyed reading Dracula. I think it is the very best story of diablerie which I have read for many years."[25] The Daily Mail review of 1 June 1897 proclaimed it a classic of Gothic horror, "In seeking a parallel to this weird, powerful, and horrorful story our mind reverts to such tales as The Mysteries of Udolpho, Frankenstein, The Fall of the House of Usher ... but Dracula is even more appalling in its gloomy fascination than any one of these."[26]
Similarly good reviews appeared when the book was published in the U.S. in 1899. The first American edition was published by Doubleday & McClure in New York.
In the last several decades, literary and cultural scholars have offered diverse analyses of Stoker's novel and the character of Count Dracula. C.F. Bentley reads Dracula as an embodiment of the Freudian id.[27] Carol A. Senf reads the novel as a response to the powerful New Woman,[28] while Christopher Craft sees Dracula as embodying latent homosexuality.[29] Stephen D. Arata interprets the events of the novel as anxiety over colonialism and racial mixing,[30] and Talia Schaffer construes the novel as an indictment of Oscar Wilde.[31] Franco Moretti reads Dracula as a figure of monopoly capitalism,[32] though Hollis Robbins suggests that Dracula's inability to participate in social conventions and to forge business partnerships undermines his power.[33][34] Richard Noll reads Dracula within the context of 19th century alienism (psychiatry) and asylum medicine.[35] D. Bruno Starrs understands the novel to be a pro-Catholic pamphlet promoting proselytization.[36]
Historical and geographical references
Although Dracula is a work of fiction, it does contain some historical references. The historical connections with the novel and how much Stoker knew about the history are a matter of conjecture and debate.
Following the publication of In Search of Dracula by Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally in 1972, the supposed connections between the historical Transylvanian-born Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia and Bram Stoker's fictional Dracula attracted popular attention. During his main reign (1456–1462), "Vlad the Impaler" is said to have killed from 40,000 to 100,000 European civilians (political rivals, criminals, and anyone he considered "useless to humanity"), mainly by impaling. The sources depicting these events are records by Saxon settlers in neighbouring Transylvania, who had frequent clashes with Vlad III. Vlad III is revered as a folk hero by Romanians for driving off the invading Ottoman Turks, of which his impaled victims are said to have included as many as 100,000.[37]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/af/Vlad_Tepes_002.jpg/200px-Vlad_Tepes_002.jpg)
Historically, the name "Dracula" is derived from a Chivalric order called the Order of the Dragon, founded by Sigismund of Luxembourg (then king of Hungary) to uphold Christianity and defend the Empire against the Ottoman Turks. Vlad II Dracul, father of Vlad III, was admitted to the order around 1431, after which Vlad II wore the emblem of the order and later, as ruler of Wallachia, his coinage bore the dragon symbol, from which the name "Dracula" is derived. People of Wallachia only knew voievod (king) Vlad III as Vlad Țepeș (the Impaler). The name "Dracula" became popular in Romania after publication of Stoker's book. Contrary to popular belief, the name Dracula does not translate to "son of the devil" in Romanian, which would be "pui de drac".
Stoker came across the name Dracula in his reading on Romanian history, and chose this to replace the name (Count Wampyr) originally intended for his villain. Some Dracula scholars, led by Elizabeth Miller, argue that Stoker knew little of the historic Vlad III except for the name "Dracula", whereas in the novel, Stoker mentions the Dracula who fought against the Turks, and was later betrayed by his brother, historical facts which unequivocally point to Vlad III:
Who was it but one of my own race who as Voivode crossed the Danube and beat the Turk on his own ground? This was a Dracula indeed! Woe was it that his own unworthy brother, when he had fallen, sold his people to the Turk and brought the shame of slavery on them! Was it not this Dracula, indeed, who inspired that other of his race who in a later age again and again brought his forces over the great river into Turkey-land; who, when he was beaten back, came again, and again, though he had to come alone from the bloody field where his troops were being slaughtered, since he knew that he alone could ultimately triumph! (Chapter 3, pp 19)
The Count's identity is later speculated on by Professor Van Helsing:
He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. (Chapter 18, p 145)
Many of Stoker's biographers and literary critics have found strong similarities to the earlier Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu's classic of the vampire genre, Carmilla. In writing Dracula, Stoker may also have drawn on stories about the sídhe,[citation needed] some of which feature blood-drinking women. The folkloric figure of Abhartach has also been suggested as a source.[38]
In 1983, McNally additionally suggested that Stoker was influenced by the history of Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who tortured and killed between 36 and 700 young women.[39] It was later commonly believed that she committed these crimes to bathe in their blood, believing that this preserved her youth.[40]
In her book The Essential Dracula, Clare Haword-Maden opined the castle of Count Dracula was inspired by Slains Castle, at which Bram Stoker was a guest of the 19th Earl of Erroll.[41] According to Miller, he first visited Cruden Bay in 1893, three years after work on Dracula had begun. Haining and Tremaine maintain that during this visit, Stoker was especially impressed by Slains Castle's interior and the surrounding landscape. Miller and Leatherdale question the stringency of this connection.[42] Possibly, Stoker was not inspired by a real edifice at all, but by Jules Verne's novel The Carpathian Castle (1892) or Anne Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794).[43] A third possibility is that he copied information about a castle at Vécs from one of his sources on Transylvania, the book by Major E.C. Johnson.[44] A further option is that Stoker saw an illustration of Castle Bran (Törzburg) in the book on Transylvania by Charles Boner, or read about it in the books by Mazuchelli or Crosse.[45] Many of the scenes in Whitby and London are based on real places that Stoker frequently visited, although in some cases he distorts the geography for the sake of the story. One scholar has suggested that Stoker chose Whitby as the site of Dracula's first appearance in England because of the Synod of Whitby, given the novel's preoccupation with timekeeping and calendar disputes.[33]
Daniel Farson, Leonard Wolf, and Peter Haining have suggested that Stoker received much historical information from Ármin Vámbéry, a Hungarian professor he met at least twice. Miller argues "there is nothing to indicate that the conversation included Vlad, vampires, or even Transylvania" and that, "furthermore, there is no record of any other correspondence between Stoker and Vámbéry, nor is Vámbéry mentioned in Stoker's notes for Dracula."[46]
Adaptations
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/Bela_Lugosi_as_Dracula%2C_anonymous_photograph_from_1931%2C_Universal_Studios.jpg/220px-Bela_Lugosi_as_Dracula%2C_anonymous_photograph_from_1931%2C_Universal_Studios.jpg)
The story of Dracula has been the basis for numerous films and plays. Stoker himself wrote the first theatrical adaptation, which was presented at the Lyceum Theatre under the title Dracula, or The Undead shortly before the novel's publication and performed only once. The first motion picture to feature Dracula, Dracula's Death was produced in Hungary in 1921. The film, now lost, however, was not an adaptation of Stoker's novel, and featured an original story. The following year, German director F. W. Murnau directed Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens. Prana Film, the production company, had been unable to obtain permission to adapt the story from Florence Stoker, Bram's widow, so screenwriter Henrik Galeen was told to alter numerous details to avoid legal trouble. Galeen transplanted the action of the story from 1890s England to 1830s Germany and reworked several characters, dropping some (such as Lucy and all three of her suitors), and renaming others (Dracula became Orlok, Jonathan Harker became Thomas Hutter, Mina became Ellen, and so on). This attempt to avoid prosecution failed, however: Florence Stoker sued Prana Film, and all prints of the film were ordered destroyed. Although the film did survive the court-ordered purge, subsequent rereleases have typically undone some of the changes, most notably restoring the original character names (a practice also followed by Werner Herzog in his 1979 remake of Murnau's film, Nosferatu the Vampyre).
Following Nosferatu, Florence Stoker licensed the story to playwright Hamilton Deane, whose 1924 stage play adaptation toured England for several years before settling down in London. In 1927, American stage producer Horace Liveright hired John L. Balderston to revise Deane's script in advance of its American premiere. Balderston significantly compressed the story, most notably consolidation or removing several characters. The Deane play and its Balderston revisions introduced an expanded role and backstory for Renfield, who now replaced Jonathan Harker as Dracula's solicitor in the first part of the story, combined Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra into a single character (named Lucy), and omitted both Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris entirely. When the play premiered in New York, it was with Bela Lugosi in the title role, and with Edward van Sloan as Abraham Van Helsing, a role both actors (as well as Herbert Bunston as Dr. Seward) would reprise for the English-language version of the 1931 Universal Studios film production. One of the most commercially successful adaptations of the story to date, the 1931 film (and the Deane/Balderston play that preceded it) set the standard for film and television adaptations of the story, with the aforementioned alterations to the novel becoming standard for later adaptations for decades to come. Universal Studios continued to feature the character of Dracula in many of their horror films from the 1930s and 1940s.
In 1958, Hammer Film Productions followed the success of its The Curse of Frankenstein from the previous year with Dracula, released in the United States as The Horror of Dracula, directed by Terence Fisher. Fisher's production, which featured Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, diverged considerably from both the original novel and from the Deane/Balderston adaptation. It was an international hit for Hammer Film, however, and both Lee and Cushing would reprise their roles multiple times over the next decade and half, concluding with The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (which Cushing but not Lee) in 1974. Christopher Lee would also take on the role of Dracula in Count Dracula, a 1970 Spanish-Italian-German coproduction notable for its adherence to the plot of the original novel (for instance, it was the first film version of the story to include the character of Quincey Morris). Playing the part of Renfield in that version was Klaus Kinski, who would later play Dracula himself in 1979's Nosferatu the Vampyre.
Later popular film adaptations include John Badham's 1979 Dracula, starring Frank Langella and inspired by the 1977 Broadway revival of the Deane/Hamilton play, and Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, starring Gary Oldman. The character of Count Dracula has remained popular over the years, and many films have used the character as a villain, while others have named him in their titles, including Dracula's Daughter and The Brides of Dracula. As of 2009, an estimated 217 films feature Dracula in a major role,[47] a number second only to Sherlock Holmes (223 films).[48] A large number of these appearances are not adaptations of Stoker's novel, but merely feature the character in an unrelated story.
See also
- Vampire literature
- Church of Saint Mary, Whitby
- List of contemporary epistolary novels
- Bloodline (Cary novel)
- The Book of Renfield#The Book of Renfield: A Gospel of Dracula A diary written by Renfield
- Dracula sequence Stories from Dracula's point of view
- Clinical vampirism
Notes and references
- ^ First published as a hardcover in 1897 by Archibald Constable and Co. See http://www.bramstoker.org/novels.html Bibliography of Stoker's novels at Bram Stoker Online.
- ^ Stoker, Bram. Dracula (PDF). Chapter 6, Mina Murray's Journal, 26 July. p. 105.
Mr. Holmwood, he is the Hon. Arthur Holmwood, only son of Lord Godalming
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ Leonard Wolf (2004). The Essential Dracula, Chapter 13, Note 31. "Bloofer lady" is explained as baby-talk for "beautiful lady".
- ^ James Craig Holte. Dracula Film Adaptations. p. 27. Retrieved 4 June 2010.
- ^ a b Barbara Belford (2002). Bram Stoker and the Man Who Was Dracula. ISBN 0-306-81098-0. Retrieved 4 June 2010.
- ^ Symon, Evan V. (14 January 2013). "10 Deleted Chapters that Transformed Famous Books". listverse.com.
- ^ Miller, Elizabeth. "Original (deleted) ending of Bram Stoker's Dracula". dracula.cc. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
- ^ Nina Auerbach and David Skal, editors. Dracula. Norton Critical Edition. 1997. ISBN 0-393-97012-4. Preface, first paragraph.
- ^ a b Lewis S Warren, Buffalo Bill Meets Dracula: William F. Cody, Bram Stoker, and the Frontiers of Racial Decay, American Historical Review, Vol. 107, No. 4, October 2002, paragraph 18 Template:Wayback
- ^ An account of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia - William Wilkinson, Longman, 1820 (Google Free eBook)
- ^ Radu R. Florescu and Raymond T. McNally Dracula, Prince of Many Faces. Little Brown. 1989. ISBN 0316286567. pp. 229–31.
- ^ Raymond T. McNally and Radu R. Florescu In Search of Dracula, The History of Dracula and Vampires (Completely Revised). Houghton Mifflin. 1994. ISBN 0-395-65783-0. pp. 8-9.
- ^ Wood, Margaret. "Copyright and Dracula". Library of Congress. Library of Congress. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
- ^ a b Dacre Stoker; Ian Holt (13 October 2009). Dracula The Un-Dead. Penguin Publishing Group. pp. 312–313. ISBN 978-0-525-95129-2.
- ^ Lugosi v. Universal Pictures, 70 Cal.App.3d 552 (1977), note 4.
- ^ Stoker, Bram. "—Article at the BBC Cult website". BBC. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
- ^ Cited in Paul Murray's "From the Shadow of Dracula: A Life of Bram Stoker" 2004. pp. 363-4.
- ^ Nina Auerbach and David Skal, editors. Dracula. Norton Critical Edition. 1997. ISBN 0-393-97012-4. Preface, first paragraph.
- ^ Jøn, A. Asbjørn (2003). "Vampire Evolution". mETAphor (3): 19–23. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
- ^ Jøn, A. Asbjørn (2001). "From Nosteratu to Von Carstein: shifts in the portrayal of vampires". Australian Folklore: A Yearly Journal of Folklore Studies (16). University of New England: 97–106. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
- ^ "Bram Stoker - Stoker, Irving & Count Vlad". Today in Literature. 20 April 1912. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
- ^ "Bram Stoker's "Dracula" by Gothic Candlelight". Irishphiladelphia.com. 10 June 2011. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
- ^ Stoker, Bram. "Cult Vampires - Extract from Dracula by Bram Stoker". BBC. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
- ^ Richard Dalby "Bram Stoker", in Jack Sullivan (ed) The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, 1986, Viking, pp. 404-6, 405.
- ^ Klinger, page xxxii
- ^ Cited in Nina Auerbach and David Skal, editors, Dracula, Norton Critical Edition, 1997, pp. 363-4.
- ^ C.F. Bentley's. The Monster in the Bedroom: Sexual Symbolism in Bram Stoker's Dracula
- ^ Senf, Carol A. The Vampire in Nineteenth-Century English Literature. Bowling Green: Popular Press,
- ^ Christopher Craft (1984). "Kiss Me with Those Red Lips": Gender and Inversion in Bram Stoker's Dracula
- ^ Arata, Stephen D. The Occidental Tourist: Dracula and the Anxiety of Reverse Colonization, Victorian Studies 33.4 (1990).
- ^ Schaffer, Talia (1994). A Wilde Desire Took Me: the Homoerotic History of Dracula
- ^ Franco Moretti, "The Dialectic of Fear," New Left Review 136 (1982): 67-85
- ^ a b "Killing Time: Dracula and Social Discoordination" in Economics of the Undead Eds. Glen Whitman and James Dow (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), chapter 23
- ^ Bram Stoker's Notes for Dracula: A Facsimile Edition by Robert Eighteen-Bisang & Elizabeth Miller (McFarland, 2008)
- ^ Noll, Richard. "Vampires Werewolves and Demons: Twentieth Century Case Reports in the Psychiatric Literature (1991) | Richard Noll". Academia.edu. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
- ^ Starrs, D. Bruno. "Keeping the faith: Catholicism in Dracula and its adaptations," Journal of Dracula Studies 6 (2004). http://blooferland.com/drc/index.php?title=Journal_of_Dracula_Studies#Number_6_.282004.29
- ^ Andreescu, Stefan (1999). Vlad the Impaler (Dracula). The Romanian Cultural Foundation Publishing House. ISBN 973-577-197-7.
- ^ Curran, Bob (Summer 2000). "Was Dracula an Irishman?". History Ireland. 8 (2).
- ^ McNally, Raymund. Dracula was a Woman. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983
- ^ Dennis Bathory-Kitsz. "Báthory Erzsébet - Elizabeth Bathory: Bram Stoker, Elizabeth Bathory, and Dracula (Elizabeth Miller)". Bathory.org. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
- ^ Haword-Maden, Clare. The Essential Dracula. London: Bison Books, 1992
- ^ Haining, Peter and Tremayne, Peter. The Un-Dead: The Legend of Bram Stoker and Dracila. London: Constable 1997, quoted by Miller, Elizabeth. Dracula - Sense & Nonsense, 2nd ed. Westcliff-on-Sea, UK: Desert Island Books, 2006, p. 19. See also Leatherdale, Clive. Dracula Unearthed. Westcliff-on-Sea, UK: Desert Island Books, 1998, p. 13
- ^ Elizabeth Miller, Dracula: Sense & Nonsense. 2nd ed. Westcliff-on-Sea, UK: Desert Island Books, 2006, p. 141
- ^ Major E.C. Johnson, On the Track of the Crescent: Erratic Notes from the Piraeus to Pesth. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1885. p. 256-257, quoted by Marius Crișan, The Models for Castle Dracula in Stoker's Sources on Transylvania, Journal of Dracula Studies Nr 10 (2008); also referred to by Miller, 2006, p. 141
- ^ Charles Boner, Transylvania: Its Products and Its People. London: Longmans, 1865. Referred to by Marius Crișan, The Models for Castle Dracula in Stoker's Sources on Transylvania, Journal of Dracula Studies Nr 10 (2008). As indicated by Crişan, Crosse's book . Round About the Carpathians and Mazuchelli's Magyarland describe Törzburg as well.
- ^ Elizabeth Miller, Filing for Divorce Count Dracula vs Vlad Tepes Dracula: The Shade and the Shadow, ed. Elizabeth Miller (Westcliff-on-Sea: Desert Island Books, 1998; cf. Miller, Elizabeth. Dracula - Sense & Nonsense, 2nd ed. Westcliff-on-Sea, UK: Desert Island Books, 2006, p. 25-27)
- ^ Template:Imdb character
- ^ Template:Imdb character
Bibliography
- Dalby, Richard and Hughes, William. Bram Stoker: A Bibliography (Westcliff-on-Sea: Desert Island Books, 2005)
- Frayling, Christopher. Vampyres: Lord Byron to Count Dracula (1992) ISBN 0-571-16792-6
- Eighteen-Bisang, Robert and Miller, Elizabeth. Bram Stoker's Notes for Dracula: A Facsimile Edition Toronto: McFarland, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7864-3410-7
- Hughes, William. Beyond Dracula: Bram Stoker's Fiction and its Cultural Contexts (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000)
- McNally, Raymond T. & Florescu, Radu. In Search of Dracula. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994. ISBN 0-395-65783-0
- Miller, Elizabeth. Dracula: Sense & Nonsense. 2nd ed. Desert Island Books, 2006. ISBN 1-905328-15-X
- Schaffer, Talia. A Wilde Desire Took Me: the Homoerotic History of Dracula, in: ELH - Volume 61, Number 2 (1994), pp. 381–425.
- Senf, Carol. Science and Social Science in Bram Stoker's Fiction (Greenwood, 2002).
- Senf, Carol. Dracula: Between Tradition and Modernism (Twayne, 1998).
- Spencer, Kathleen. Purity and Danger: Dracula, the Urban Gothic, and the Late Victorian Degeneracy Crisis, in: ELH - Volume 59, Number 1 (1992), pp. 197–225.
- Wolf, Leonard. The Essential Dracula. ibooks, inc., 2004. ISBN 0-7434-9803-8
- Klinger, Leslie S. The New Annotated Dracula. W.W. Norton & Co., 2008. ISBN 0-393-06450-6
- Waters, Colin Gothic Whitby . History Press, 2009 - ISBN 0-7524-5291-6
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/38px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png)
- Dracula at Project Gutenberg, text version of 1897 edition.
- Dracula from the CELT Project, HTML version of 1897 edition. TEI/XML
- Dracula, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1897. Scanned first edition from Internet Archive.
Dracula public domain audiobook at LibriVox
- Bram Stoker, Dracula and Whitby BBC article
- The Myth of Transylvania, Romanian Website dealing with the Dracula myth and the Western perception of Romania.
- Journal of Dracula Studies
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