When talking about Irish authors, a lot of names comes to mind like Oscar Wilde, but another name that comes to mind is Bram Stoker, the man who wrote ‘Dracula.’ So learn about who Stoker was and his his works.
A Short Biography of Bram Stoker:
Abraham Stoker was born on November 8th, 1847 in Dublin, Ireland. His father was a civil servant and his mother was a charity worker and writer. Stoker had been a sickly child and spent most of his time in bed. His mother influenced his writings since she would tell him horror stories. In 1864, he went to college at Trinity College Dublin.
In 1875, he wrote his first novel which was called, ‘The Primrose Path.’ On December 6th, 1878, Stoker married actress Florence Balcombe and on 1879 he wrote his first short collection which was called, ‘The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland.’ Also in 1879, he moved with his wife to England and they had a son named Noel. Stoker’s first book of fiction was called ‘Under the Sunset’ and was published on 1881. He died on 1912, at age 64. So that is just a little bit about the author of ‘Dracula.’
Stoker’s Works
Talking about his works is funny because we always think of ‘Dracula’ but he wrote many more things before his death. When counting his works, he wrote four nonfiction books, twelve novels, three short story collections and roughly around seventeen uncollected short stories. For those who don’t know he wrote four books before writing “Dracula.” I think that ‘Dracula’ is most memorable because it was shocking for its time. Almost everyone knows who the character Dracula is. If it wasn’t for Stoker’s novel than vampires could have went a completely different path in books and films.
‘The Lair of the White Worm,’ is another important classic and also popular. It even has its own films about it. The book is partly based on the legend of the Lambton Worm. It’s just as weird and interesting as ‘Dracula.’
Now when talking about his short stories, one collection that is quite popular is, ‘Dracula’s Guest and other Weird Stories’ which was published two years after his death. Like I said before the short story ‘Dracula’s Guest’ is just terrifying as the book ‘Dracula’. The story was about Jonathan Harker who almost gets killed by wolf while he is trying to get to the castle of Dracula.
For those who are interested in reading more about his stories from this collection, they’re free from bramstoker.org:
Dracula’s Guest
The Judge’s House
The Squaw
The Secret of the Growing Gold
A Gipsy Prophecy
The Coming of Abel Behenna
The Burial of the Rats
A Dream of Red Hands
Crooken Hands
Ending Thought:
As a fan I’m still trying to find and read all of his novels and I advise other fans to learn more about his works too. He has a career that deserves to be not forgotten. His creativity and love for mysterious things helped him create a legend and that is why he’s my favorite author from Ireland.
Source:
Bramstoker.org