* Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1847.
* Was a sickly child – spent the first seven years of his life in bed. Didn’t know the cause, was just very weak.
* His mother would spend most of the day with him and would tell him stories. The themes he liked the most were horror stories about the cholera epidemic. There was no cure for cholera at the time and so many people were dying that there weren’t enough doctors/undertakers to properly care for them. Sometimes people would be buried before they were officially dead. Premature burial does still occur sometimes when death cannot properly be decided.
* When people committed suicide they were buried not in sacred cemetery grounds but at crossroads with a stake through their chest. This was because those who committed suicide were thought to become vampires after death.
* Stoker was home schooled until the age of twelve. Afterwards he attended public high school, followed by Trinity College – received his bachelor’s degree in the 1870’s. He was not very studious, enjoyed theater instead. Wanted to be a theater critic.
* Eventually did become a theater critic for the Dublin Evening Mail. He befriended the editor, Sheridan Lefanu, who had published a short story about a lesbian female vampire named Carmilla. This was about 20 years before Stoker published his novel, so it is likely that Lefanu influenced him.
* In the late 1800’s Stoker gave consistently brilliant reviews of a famous British actor named Henry Irving. Some believe that Stoker used Irving as a base for Dracula’s movements and appearance.
* Stoker eventually became Irving’s secretary as well as the manager of Irving’s theater (the Lycium.) Some speculate that Stoker and Irving’s relationship may have crossed certain boundaries.
* Every Friday night, Irving would have Stoker invite prominent members of society to a rare roast beef dinner. It was an honor to be invited.
* In 1890, one of the guests present was a Hungarian adventurer named Arminius Vambery. Vambery had just written about Vlad Tepesh and told Stoker stories about him.
* Stoker and Irving toured 8 countries outside London including U.S. and France
* The reflection of the American in Stoker’s novel is based off of a man named Wild Bill from a wild west show that he and Irving attended in Staten Island.
*Whenever Stoker was in Paris, he visited the morgue
* Stoker wrote 18 novels in total.
* When he was writing Dracula around 1888, Jack the Ripper was on the loose. These events probably influenced Stoker.
* Stoker presented Dracula in a contemporary setting to those who would have been reading at the time in order to help them suspend their disbelief.
* Stoker's son attributed his father's nightmares (& imagining of Dracula) to dressed crab before dinner.
Additional info from this lecture:
* In the play Vampyre the concept of the “vampire trap door” was introduced. The actor’s cape would have a large collar that covered the back of his head. When the actor turned his back to the crowd and walked down the steps under the trap door, his cape would appear to shrink until finally he would disappear completely.
* The film Dracula (1931) broke the Hollywood taboo of supernatural, horror themes.
* The film is stagy, badly paced, and poorly edited. The Spanish version was filmed at the same time and is considered to be much better. It was filmed in a darker setting and is much more aesthetically pleasing.
* The film was adapted for a different audience than the original readers of the novel.
*Thanks Jacqueline Nelson*
* Was a sickly child – spent the first seven years of his life in bed. Didn’t know the cause, was just very weak.
* His mother would spend most of the day with him and would tell him stories. The themes he liked the most were horror stories about the cholera epidemic. There was no cure for cholera at the time and so many people were dying that there weren’t enough doctors/undertakers to properly care for them. Sometimes people would be buried before they were officially dead. Premature burial does still occur sometimes when death cannot properly be decided.
* When people committed suicide they were buried not in sacred cemetery grounds but at crossroads with a stake through their chest. This was because those who committed suicide were thought to become vampires after death.
* Stoker was home schooled until the age of twelve. Afterwards he attended public high school, followed by Trinity College – received his bachelor’s degree in the 1870’s. He was not very studious, enjoyed theater instead. Wanted to be a theater critic.
* Eventually did become a theater critic for the Dublin Evening Mail. He befriended the editor, Sheridan Lefanu, who had published a short story about a lesbian female vampire named Carmilla. This was about 20 years before Stoker published his novel, so it is likely that Lefanu influenced him.
* In the late 1800’s Stoker gave consistently brilliant reviews of a famous British actor named Henry Irving. Some believe that Stoker used Irving as a base for Dracula’s movements and appearance.
* Stoker eventually became Irving’s secretary as well as the manager of Irving’s theater (the Lycium.) Some speculate that Stoker and Irving’s relationship may have crossed certain boundaries.
* Every Friday night, Irving would have Stoker invite prominent members of society to a rare roast beef dinner. It was an honor to be invited.
* In 1890, one of the guests present was a Hungarian adventurer named Arminius Vambery. Vambery had just written about Vlad Tepesh and told Stoker stories about him.
* Stoker and Irving toured 8 countries outside London including U.S. and France
* The reflection of the American in Stoker’s novel is based off of a man named Wild Bill from a wild west show that he and Irving attended in Staten Island.
*Whenever Stoker was in Paris, he visited the morgue
* Stoker wrote 18 novels in total.
* When he was writing Dracula around 1888, Jack the Ripper was on the loose. These events probably influenced Stoker.
* Stoker presented Dracula in a contemporary setting to those who would have been reading at the time in order to help them suspend their disbelief.
* Stoker's son attributed his father's nightmares (& imagining of Dracula) to dressed crab before dinner.
Additional info from this lecture:
* In the play Vampyre the concept of the “vampire trap door” was introduced. The actor’s cape would have a large collar that covered the back of his head. When the actor turned his back to the crowd and walked down the steps under the trap door, his cape would appear to shrink until finally he would disappear completely.
* The film Dracula (1931) broke the Hollywood taboo of supernatural, horror themes.
* The film is stagy, badly paced, and poorly edited. The Spanish version was filmed at the same time and is considered to be much better. It was filmed in a darker setting and is much more aesthetically pleasing.
* The film was adapted for a different audience than the original readers of the novel.
*Thanks Jacqueline Nelson*
