Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Happy Birthday, Bram Stoker

What hath Bram Stoker wrought? Is Dracula the single most influential book on writing today? When I look at all the vampire novels on the stands (and there must be dozens of new ones every month, if not more), I think it must be.

Bram Stoker - Biography and Works: "Abraham 'Bram' Stoker (1847-1912), Irish writer, best known for his vampire novel Dracula(1897).

Bram Stoker was born near Dublin on November 8, 1847, the third of seven children. An unidentified illness kept him virtually bedridden until age seven. Although he remained shy and bookish, in his adolescence Bram Stoker was anything but sickly. Perhaps to make amends for his earlier frailty, he was by this time developing into a fine athlete. At Trinity College, Dublin, he would conquer his shyness and be named University Athlete."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Morning, Bill

Hmmm, my copy of Stoker's Dracula is sitting on a chair somewhere. Sounds like I need to read it again. Started but didn't finish.

As to the Lugosi movie of same, nobody can play Renfield like Dick Foran.

Unknown said...

Dracula could never be published if it were written today. It begins a bit too slowly. But it does pick up speed.

Anonymous said...

Many things could never be published today, but that's just a reflection of the publishing world -- not on the work. Dracula is still a very effective novel. By coincidence, I'm just finishing The Jewel of the Seven Stars by Stoker; it started off great but (with 40 pages to go)is really dragging towards the end. I'm a great fan of Stoker's short stories; his juvenile collection Under the Sunset is on my to-be-read-soon pile.

-- Jerry House

Unknown said...

Another suggestion for reading is Stoker's Notes for Dracula, recently published in the US and the UK by McFarland.