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Dracula by Bram Stoker (1847-1912) About the author  Bram
(Abraham) Stoker was born in Dublin, Ireland, the third of seven children.
He was a sickly child, bedridden until the age of seven, and his mother,
a charity worker and writer, entertained him with horror stories. After
graduating in Mathematics at Trinity College Dublin, he became a civil
servant. He also worked as a free lance journalist, a drama critic
and editor of the "Evening Mail". In 1876 he met Sir Henry Irving,
a famous actor. Stoker accepted a job as a personal secretary to Irving
and went to England in 1878. Before leaving Ireland he published his
first book "The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland".
While working for Irving he met an aspiring actress named Florence
Balcombe. They were married and had one son, Noel, born in 1879. In
England he also began writing a series of novels and short stories
the first of which was "The Snake's Pass". Although best known
for "Dracula", Stoker wrote eighteen books before he died of
exhaustion in 1912 at the age of 64.About the book  Stoker
began his notes for the story of Dracula in 1890, seven years before
publication. He chose Whitby, a popular shipping port where he often
went on holiday, as his English location. A ruined cathedral overlooking
the ocean there served as the inspiration for Carfax Abbey. The choice
of Transylvania and the name Dracula (Stoker's original choice was "Count
Wampyr") came much later though, almost as an afterthought before publication. As
he researched, Stoker was drawn inextricably to the cradle of the vampire
myth in Europe, the Balkans. Prince Vlad Tepes (nicknamed "Dracula",
Hungarian for "Son of the Dragon") features quite prominently in Balkan
history, both for his role as defender of the Christian faith against
the Turks, and for his legendary cruelty.On publication in 1897, "Dracula" sold fairly well in England, but not well enough to make Stoker rich. It sold much better in America, but because of careless copyrighting, Stoker received nothing from American sales. It was only after his death and a court case against the producers of the film "Nosferatu" that the book started to achieve worldwide fame. You can read individual chapters here:
or download the whole book to read off-line:
Other Books of the Month in English:  The
100 Greatest Books of the 20th Century65 Quotations
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