Bram Stoker: Resurrecting the Vampire, biography of bram stoker , bram stoker

                                                 

                                         Bram Stoker

              Bram Stoker: Resurrecting the Vampire

                            
The myth of the Vampire is as old as time itself, and many incarnationsof this demonic creature are found in almost every culture. And when we think about Vampires today, onenovel casts its shadow over legions of imitators -- Dracula, the Undead. One man -- a former civil servant, theatremanager, and part-time writer -- condensed into one single work of fiction all vampiriclore as we know it today.

This is the story of Bram Stoker, what camebefore and after Dracula, and what relationship in particular may have given him the inspirationhe needed to resurrect the vampire. Life Before DraculaAbraham ‘Bram’ Stoker was born in Clontarf, near Dublin, Ireland on November 8, 1847. He was the third out of seven children ina Protestant family. At that time, Ireland was of course stillpart of the United Kingdom, and both his father and later his eldest brother served as loyalCivil Servants to the Crown. Bram was a sickly child and spent most ofhis time house-bound, or even bedridden, until the age of seven.

His youthful imagination was influenced byreal life tales of death, disease, and misery. He was born during the terrible potato famine,and though his relatively wealthy family did not suffer directly, they undoubtedly wouldhave felt its societal effects. Bram also spent much time listening to thestories told by his mother Charlotte about the cholera epidemic of 1832, which claimedthousands of lives. Bram eventually overcame his poor health andgrew up to become a tall, athletic youth, crowned by a head of bright red hair. After secondary school, Bram enrolled at TrinityCollege in Dublin, where he made a reputation both as an excellent student and athlete. He won prizes in several track and field disciplines,and was also a keen rower and rugby player. Despite his size, he developed notable agility,performing on the rings and the trapeze. In 1870, he graduated with honours in scienceand mathematics, but he also studied oratory and history.

After graduating, he entered the Irish CivilService, where he served for ten years as Inspector of Petty Sessions. The ‘Petty Sessions’ were 600 magistrates’courts scattered all over Ireland, dealing with minor penal and civil cases. Stoker’s task was to oversee that they functionedcorrectly, a mammoth task for sure. Despite the heavy workload, the young CivilServant found the time to vent his passion for writing and succeeded in publishing someshort stories in the 1870s, such as "The Crystal Cup" in 1872 and his first horror tale "TheChain of Destiny", in 1875. During the same year, Stoker also penned hisfirst novel ‘The Primrose Path’, serialized in the magazine The Shamrock. This work is a melodrama about an honest carpenterfrom Dublin who moves to London to work at a run-down theatre. There are no horror or supernatural elementshere -- just a vivid description of how a good man can be brought down by the evilsof alcohol. Stoker’s writing extended into non-fictionby the end of the decade. After years of managing the Petty Sessions,Bram felt the need to write a sort of manual for the court clerks. So in 1879, he published ‘The Duties ofClerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland’. This book may sound dull to those who arenot passionate about law, but there is an interesting section about the treatment of‘dangerous lunatics’ in Court.

 Maybe an early inspiration for some of Dracula’scharacters, Renfield and Dr Seward? During his decade in the Civil Service, theenergetic Bram also indulged in a love for drama and theatre, inherited from his parents. His knowledge of the stage was sufficientenough that he landed a side gig as a theatre critic for the Dublin Mail. His writing extended to other genres, andhe published an article defending Walt Whitman’s collection of poems ‘Leaves of Grass’,which was considered controversial at the time. Bram would later meet and befriend Whitman,one of many literary giants to form a bond with Stoker. Their friendship started with a controversialletter … but more on this later. In 1876, Bram Stoker met for the first timethe famous actor Henry Irving. The actor had read some of Stoker’s favourablereviews of him and wanted to meet the critic. The two became close friends, starting a relationshipthat would change Stoker’s life.

Now we don’t know of any of Bram’s romanticrelationships until this point, but he would soon catch up. Bram became entangled in a love triangle witha girl called Florence Balcombe. The third vertex of the triangle? Well, none other than fellow Irish authorOscar Wilde. In 1878, Florence made up her mind: she choseBram over Oscar, and the two married on the 4th of December. But Stoker and Wilde remained good friends,with Bram being a regular in Oscar’s literary circle. Now, I may be looking too hard for clues,but isn’t there a similar situation in Dracula? When Mina’s friend Lucy is courted by DrSeward, Quincey Morris and Lord Holmwood – with the three remaining good friends despite theirromantic rivalry? That same year, Henry Irving invited Stokerto London with a job offer: becoming his manager. Bram eagerly accepted, running the affairsof both Irving and his theatre, the Lyceum.

Their working relationship continued untilIrving’s death in 1905. For the moment, let’s stick to the Stokers. In 1879, they welcomed their only child, IrvingNoel, named after his godfather, Henry Irving! The boy’s birth must have inspired Stoker,as three years later he published Under the Sunset, a collection of tales for children. In 1890, Stoker published his second full-lengthnovel, entitled The Snake's Pass. This is the only of Stoker’s works to beset in his native Ireland, and one can see the shadow of supernatural elements beginningto creep in, as we follow a young English gentleman in his quest for a treasure, supposedlyhidden by Saint Patrick after his battle with the King of Snakes. The novel also delivers subtle hints rebukingEnglish intrusion in Irish society; even as a former loyal Civil Servant, Stoker did nothide his support for Irish Home Rule and eventual independence from the United Kingdom.

It was only after The Snake’s Pass was publishedthat Bram Stoker began working on his immortal masterpiece, Dracula. I already hinted at a couple of possible real-lifeinspirations for the novel, but it’s time now to look at the man who may have possiblyinspired the Count himself: Stoker’s employer and friend, Henry Irving. True BromanceStoker first met Henry Irving in 1876, but his first written review of the thespian datesback to 1871. After seeing him perform in the play The TwoRoses, Stoker wrote a sharp critique of the performance that he would eventually denypenning in later writings. By ‘76, Irving was Britain's top actor,working as the leading star of English Drama. After a performance of Hamlet in Dublin, Irvingwas flattered by Stoker’s review and invited him to supper. Bram and Henry clicked immediately and madeplans to dine together again. During this second dinner, Irving performedhis piece de resistance, Thomas Hood’s poem ‘Dream of Eugene Aram’. The delivery was so electrifying that apparentlyBram exploded into violent hysterics. The writer was now enthralled by the performer. Bram later wrote:‘Then began the close friendship between us, which only terminated with his life – ifindeed friendship, like any other form of love, can ever terminate…From that hourbegan a friendship as profound, as close, as lasting as can be between two men.’ Their professional relationship, though, startedtwo years later, in 1878, when Irving took ownership of the Lyceum Theatre in Londonand invited Stoker to join him.

He would manage both the Theatre and Henry’scareer. On the 14th of December, ten days after marryingFlorence, Bram eagerly accepted the invitation and moved to London. This move suited both newlyweds: Bram waseager to establish fruitful connections for his literary career, while Florence was lookingforward to leaving a mark on London’s social scene. Bram threw himself with such energy and dedicationinto the new managerial work that it’s a wonder that he could do some creative writingon the side. In fact, he spent most of his time writingletters on Irving’s behalf, even up to sixty a day, sorting out the daily admin tasks requiredby the Theatre, or, less often, acting as tour manager for Irving himself. Stoker’s passion and skills did not go unnoticed:even newspapers of the time, usually more focused on the star actors, rather than theirentourage, celebrated Bram. The Chicago Daily News in 1888 wrote‘Mr Irving’s great success in this country has been due to a very considerable extentto the shrewd management of Bram Stoker.

We know of no manager more vigilant, moreindefatigable, more audacious than he…Irving is fortunate in having so able and so loyalan associate.’ While the English newspaper Northern Echowondered ‘… what Sir Henry would do without thisTrojan whose ubiquity is astounding.’ But how about the other side of this relationship? Di Irving appreciate Bram’s friendship andhard work? We know that two months before Bram had startedworking for Irving, the actor had sent a letter signed‘With love, in great haste, Henry.’ The following week, Irving signed again‘With love’. But by August 1879, eight months after Irvinghad hired Stoker, his letters were plainly signed with‘Yours sincerely’. This downgrade may be a reflection of moreformal relations between the two, now regulated by a boss-employee dynamic. But it’s sad to note that even on the workplace,Irving seemed to have little consideration for Stoker. While newspapers attributed much of the actor’ssuccess to Stoker’s management, the Lyceum Theatre programmes would list Bram only onpage four, well below other employees such as the Stage Manager or the Musical Director.

This lack of appreciation may have been inline with Irving’s personality, as described by Stoker’s biographer Barbara Belford. By all accounts, Henry Irving had a charming,even mesmerizing personality. Most of all, he had a huge ego -- this notonly made him a demanding employer, but someone who in general depleted the positive energyof those around him. Today we would describe him as having a ‘toxicpersonality’, probably with a narcissistic personality disorder. And yet Bram never said or wrote anythingnegative about Irving. In his later Reminiscences, he even praisedat great length the mind and body of the actor, writing that up to the age of sixty he was‘…compact of steel and whipcord. His energy and nervous power were such asonly came from a great brain; and the muscular force of that lean, lithe body must have beenextraordinary.’ Excerpts such as this one have led to speculationson whether Bram Stoker was a closeted gay man, in a marriage of convenience with Florence,but actually desperately in love with his actor friend and employer. The questions will remain unanswered, as thereis no certain proof of Stoker’s true sexual preferences. However, prior to the Irving years, one particularpiece of writing could be seen as proof of Stokers’ homosexuality or bisexuality.

On Valentine’s Day 1876, Bram wrote a letterto American poet Walt Whitman, himself rumoured to be a homosexual or bisexual. Stoker’s letter was to express his ecstaticadmiration at the collection of poems “Leaves of Grass”. The last paragraph reads:“How sweet a thing it is for a strong healthy man with a woman’s eye and a child’s wishesto feel that he can speak to a man who can be, if he wishes, father, and brother andwife to his soul. I don’t think you will laugh, Walt Whitman,nor despise me, but at all events I thank you for all the love and sympathy you havegiven me in common with my kind.” The phrase ‘a woman’s eye’ may be aclue, but again there is not concrete evidence. If Stoker was a closeted homosexual, thiswould only add to his anxiety and sense of inadequacy. Let’s not forget that homosexuality wasstill considered a crime in Victorian Britain. These feelings, at least according to onecritic, may have crept into Bram’s most famous novel. Let’s take a look at Dracula, how it cameto be, and how it can be interpreted. Dracula: OriginsBy the early 1890s, Bram was still working at the Lyceum Theatre.

His financial position should have been stable,in theory. In practice, we know that he had lost muchof his savings in two failed investments, one of them promoted by American novelistMark Twain. In those same years, he had started workingon the novel that would sort out his financial woes, but more importantly, make him an immortalauthor. Dracula, which was first published by ArchibaldConstable in 1897, is so well-known that I probably don’t need to recap the story. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s availablefor free at the link in the caption below. [Caption: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/345]What inspired the characters, plot, and themes of Dracula? On a literary level, the 19th Century hadalready offered some examples of vampire fiction. 1819’s ‘The Vampyre’ by John Polidorifirst introduces the trope of the vampire as a mysterious and charming aristocrat, witha mesmerizing personality, whose victims find difficult to resist. On a more graphic level, it was the 1845 gothicserial ‘Varney the Vampire’ that popularised the idea of vampires having fangs and leavingbite marks on their victim’s necks. Finally, Carmilla, by fellow Irish AuthorSheridan Le Fanu, attributed to vampires the power to metamorphose into animals and popularisedthe concept of a ‘vampire expert’ who knows the secrets to slay the undead. More subtly, Le Fanu introduced the conceptof vampirism as a metaphor for seduction, or even just for intercourse.

One of many interpretations of Dracula envisionsthis character as a sexual predator who fixates on female victims. Stoker combined all these elements with otheraspects of vampire lore, establishing the definitive collection of vampiric clichés,perpetuated by horror literature: the aversion to garlic, crucifixes, mirrors and roses;vulnerability to sunlight and wooden stakes; power over wolves, bats and even storms; theneed to rest in a coffin filled with dirt from the motherland. Everything that we know about vampires today,we owe it to Dracula. Besides pre-existing vampire fiction, Stokeracknowledged other sources of inspiration: the essay ‘Transylvanian Superstitions’by Emily Gerard, and the ‘Book of Werevolves’ by Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould. Gerard’s book in particular may have inspiredStoker to settle on Transylvania as the home of his Count. Finally, Irish folklore may have had a partin stirring Stoker’s tastes toward the supernatural. Bram himself reported growing up on traditionaltales told by his mother, of banshees, changelings, malicious pixies and shape-shifters who trickhumans into giving them their souls. In addition to literary predecessors, Stokerconjured plot points and character features from real life, and I have already mentioneda couple of events which may have ended up in his masterpiece. As per the protagonist, it is certain thatVlad Tepes Dracul, the military leader, was a key influence on the sanguinary nature ofDracula, the vampire.

 This is even acknowledged in the novel, whenDracula mentions his wars against the Ottoman invaders and the betrayal of his brother Radu. But a big stamp on Dracula’s appearanceand personality almost certainly came from Henry Irving. What did Henry look like? Here is Bram’s description:“His face was a strong – a very strong – aquiline, with high bridge of the thinnose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantilyround the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meetingover the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion”[Editing suggestion: show on screen this portrait of Irving]Matches the portrait, right? Well, I must confess I just tricked you. What I read, is a description of Dracula,straight from the novel. Barbara Belford again supports the idea thatIrving is Count Dracula: "Somewhere in the creative process, Draculabecame a sinister caricature of Irving as mesmerist and depleter, an artist drainingthose about him to feed his ego. It was a stunning but avenging tribute." Decoding DraculaStoker’s novel is a keystone of the horror genre not only because of its subject matter,but also because of its style.

The novel is written in an epistolary style,as a collection of letters, telegrams, journal entries, even transcripts of wax cylinderrecordings. A predecessor to today’s ‘found footage’horror flicks, if you like. This style wasn’t entirely new, as ‘Frankenstein’by Mary Shelley also relied on journal entries. But Stoker’s innovation was his abilityto multiply the perspectives on the supernatural events of the story, as well as to make thewritten records part of the story itself. As one piece of plot development, the undeadLord tries to destroy the very archived records that are driving the plot of the actual novel,as they could reveal too much about him. It’s a blend of storytelling and plot devicesthat was extremely ahead of its time.

The other factor that ensured the novel’spopularity and longevity is the variety of interpretations to which it lends itself. According to John Sutherland of ‘The IrishTimes’ Stoker was influenced by the “moral panic about immigration”that was experienced by Victorian society at the end of the 19th Century. After all, a Brexiteer could summarise theplot as ‘an illegal immigrant from Eastern Europe occupies several squats in London,hoping to prey on local women’. That probably wouldn’t do much for urbanproperty values. Critic Paul Murray, from Oxford University,sees the plot of Dracula as an allegory of male insecurity and the dangers of subservienceto another person. Could this be Irving, too? Murray also points out how modern commentatorssee in the novel “deviant and taboo forms of sexuality, includingrape, incest, adultery, oral sex, group sex, sex during menstruation, bestiality, paedophilia,venereal disease and voyeurism, among other things.” Among other things? What other things? You haven’t left anything out! This makes it sound as though Stoker usedvampirism as a thinly disguised portrayal of his sexual proclivities.

Now, Proffesor Pektas of Soderton UniversityCollege has a compelling opposing view. Stoker wrote Dracula shortly afterwards hisfriend Oscar Wilde had been tried and sentenced for homosexual acts, and this may have ledthe author to view sexuality as a painful source of evil:“Dracula shows Stoker’s suspicions and anxiety towards all forms of sexuality, especiallytowards those considered to be ‘perverse’…(the) sinful attractions of the Count suggest Stoker’sfears about his own sexuality.” Stepping away from sex for once, you can alsofind a Marxist allegory in this vampire tale, at least according to Franco Moretti of StanfordUniversity. He argues that the novel was about the crisisof liberal capitalism taking place within the 1890s, put in jeopardy by the rise ofmonopolies. Count Dracula then, as a solitary despot,represents monopoly capital who increases its power by feeding on, and enslaving, theproletariat. Karl Marx himself once wrote something thatseems to support this theory: “Capital is dead labour which, vampire-like,lives only by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks." Life After DraculaThe publication and early success of Dracula brought enormous attention to Bram Stoker:he had clearly had his break and he was going to exploit his most valuable intellectualproperty.

 Stoker immediately understood the Theatricalpotential of his novel, but before he set off to work on an adaptation, he decided tostage a public reading at the Lyceum -- a common tactic to secure copyright for stagepurposes. Bram offered to give Henry Irving the leadrole. It would have been perfect casting! Irving refused, but he did attend the reading. What did he think of it? ‘Dreadful!’ That was the start of a rift between the twofriends. The gap widened when Irving’s son Laurencejoined the Lyceum company in 1898 as a director and playwright. As is only natural, Henry started paying moreattention to his son’s own advice that Stoker’s. Bram realised he was being sidelined and lamentednot being able to see Henry as often as before. The following year, Irving ignored Stoker’sadvice NOT to sell the Lyceum to a limited company. Three years after that, in 1902, the companydeclared bankruptcy and the Lyceum had to be shut down. On the October 13, 1905, Henry Irving sufferedan onstage stroke and died that day. His will did not make any mention of the manwho had been his loyal friend and manager for almost 30 years. Shortly afterwards, Stoker also had a stroke,but he partially recovered and went on to write a biography about Henry: ‘PersonalReminiscences of Henry Irving’.

 Beyond the Irving biography, Bram had notneglected his fiction writing, alternating horror with romance. His novels of mystery and horror include TheJewel of Seven Stars (1903), a tale of adventure and romance set in Egypt, and The Lair ofthe White Worm (1911). This is perhaps his most famous novel besidesDracula, as it was popularised by Ken Russell’s film adaptation of 1988, starring a young,pre-Rom Com, Hugh Grant. Lair of the White Worm bears some similarityto Dracula, as victims are found with bite marks on their necks and the main antagonistsare scheming aristocrats with supernatural powers. But here, the ultimate foe is a giant wormwith glowing eyes, ultimately defeated – spoiler alert – with a load of good old dynamite! Overall, the plot of the novel is muddledby unnecessary characters and dead-end sub-plots, which may have been a consequence of Stoker’sdeclining health. He never fully recovered after the 1906 stroke;in fact, Stoker continued to suffer from more strokes as he aged, until a final one claimedhis life on April 20, 1912. ...that is,according to his obituary, at least. According to Daniel Farson, Stoker's grandnephew,the death certificate reports as cause of death ‘Locomotor Ataxy’, also known inthe early 20th Century as ‘general paralysis of the insane’, a condition associated withsyphilis. Stoker’s definitive cause of death is stillopen to speculation, as it is the case with other aspects of his life. What was the true nature of his relationshipwith Henry Irving? And with Walt Whitman? Or even with Oscar Wilde? What hidden messages lurk between the linesof his work? Maybe we will never know, but that isn’tnecessarily a bad thing. The man left us something more meaningfulto focus on: A masterpiece called Dracula, a mirror disguised as novel that can showus what we fear, or desire, most of all.