The Immortal Legend of Count Dracula
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Born in Dublin on November 8, 1847, Abraham Stoker was far from expected to produce a work which would go on to define an entire genre. Though he had no personal experience of Transylvania or its folkloric traditions, Stoker succeeded in creating Dracula, a novel which would eventually serve as “the vampire’s passport into the twentieth century and its manifestation once again as a socially relevant being,”1. In this section, we intend to explore how the author managed to accomplish his monumental feat and identify his upbringing, the research done while on vacation in Whitby, and some elements of fairy tale and folklore as the greatest influences on his classic.
Sickness and Early Life
Drawing from many biographical sources surrounding Stoker, it is apparent that the first major influence drawn upon for Dracula came early in the author’s life. During his childhood, young Bram was bedridden until the age of seven as a result of a famously unknown illness, a result of which was his introduction to the horror genre through stories told by his mother.2 Combining these stories and the experience of seclusion itself, Stoker himself admitted “the leisure… gave opportunity for many thoughts which were fruitful… in later years.”3 All of this pointing Bram towards an interest in Irish folklore, where he would fatefully discover “tales of bogeys and vampires.”4
Bram Stoker’s Former Home Dublin, Ireland
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Key location in which affected Bram Stoker's work.
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Whitby
In 1890, as Stoker began writing his novel,5 he ventured upon the port city of Whitby in North Yorkshire, England. He would spend the summer reading in the city’s library, and a large amount of his recorded research is cited from William Wilkinson’s An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. It is here where Bram discovers Voivode Dracula’s battles against Turkish troops, though he makes no specific note of Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Tepes and this book did not have details regarding the figure’s atrocities.6 Wilkinson also provided a footnote explaining the Wallachian meaning of Dracula (“devil”) and its usage as a title for “any person who rendered himself conspicuous by courage, cruel actions or cunning.”7 Despite the widespread belief that the Dracula character is strongly tied to Vlad the Impaler,8 there is insufficient evidence in Stoker’s original notes that this was the case. It remains far more likely that the name itself was the main basis for the Count.
Attributed: Bram Stoker's Dracula
Lasting Impressions
Though it is regarded as a classic in the present, Stoker’s work was not originally well-received when it was published in 1897.9 The original printing did not surpass 3000 copies, it took until 1899 to get it into the United States, and critical reviews dismissed it as “wanting in the constructive art as well as in the higher literary sense.”10 So how did this lackluster beginning transform into unquestionable success?
Some literary experts attribute part of Dracula’s lasting legacy to some fairy tale and folkloric elements present in the text. With regards to content, Stoker recorded various bits of research on vampire folklore from Romanian, Bulgarian, Slovak, Greek, and Serbian cultures.11 More importantly, parts of the storytelling utilize some characteristic structures from fairy tales. According to Eighteen-Bisang and Miller, the beginning of Dracula-- where it is remarked that Castle Dracula’s location is unknown to the world-- gives the same tone to the story as the traditional once upon a time would do in tales, “for it invites us to accompany the narrator to a realm that has no place and no time.”12 Overall, they conclude that, despite his literary shortcomings, Stoker “transcends [his] talents as a writer to speak to us today in the timeless language of myth.”13
“Had it not been for Stoker’s novel, the vampire we all recognize today may never have existed”14
Footnotes
