GaryJJSpate (talk | contribs) Create Dracula (book), linked from Bram Stoker and London |
GaryJJSpate (talk | contribs) Add Where to buy section with Amazon affiliate link, matching Dracula: The Un-Dead |
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* [[Carmel: A Vampire Tale (book)|Carmel: A Vampire Tale]] | * [[Carmel: A Vampire Tale (book)|Carmel: A Vampire Tale]] | ||
* [[The Highgate Vampire]] | * [[The Highgate Vampire]] | ||
== Where to buy == | |||
* [https://amzn.to/4fTqcZ0 Buy on Amazon] | |||
== References == | == References == | ||
Revision as of 14:24, 5 August 2026
Dracula is an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, told through an epistolary structure of letters, diary entries, telegrams and newspaper clippings. The novel introduced Count Dracula and established many of the conventions later associated with vampire fiction, becoming one of the most enduring and widely adapted works in Western horror literature.[1]
Plot
English solicitor Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to assist Count Dracula with the purchase of a London property, and gradually discovers his host is a vampire, becoming his prisoner in the castle. Dracula travels to England aboard the ship Demeter, whose crew all die during the voyage, and settles near Whitby, where he preys upon Lucy Westenra, who dies and is herself transformed into a vampire. Dr. John Seward, Arthur Holmwood, Quincey Morris, and Dutch physician Abraham Van Helsing join forces with Jonathan and his wife Mina Harker to track and ultimately destroy Dracula, who is killed near his castle in Transylvania at the novel's close.[1]
Publication and background
Stoker began researching and taking notes for the novel in 1890, drawing on Whitby's coastal setting from a personal holiday, the historical figure Vlad the Impaler for aspects of Dracula's ancestry, and earlier vampire fiction such as Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 novella Carmilla.[2] Dracula was published on 26 May 1897 by Archibald Constable and Company and received a mixed early critical reception, with some reviewers warning of its "unnecessary number of hideous incidents" and advising it be kept from children and "nervous adults".[3]
Reception and legacy
Although its initial sales were relatively modest, Dracula has never been out of print and grew steadily in cultural influence through decades of stage and screen adaptation.[1] The unauthorised 1922 German film Nosferatu prompted a copyright lawsuit from Stoker's widow, Florence, who won a court order for all prints to be destroyed, though some copies survived; the 1931 Universal Pictures film starring Bela Lugosi is generally credited with cementing many of the character's most familiar visual conventions in popular culture.[1] Several tropes now widely associated with vampire fiction — including fatal vulnerability to direct sunlight — originated in later film adaptations such as Nosferatu rather than in Stoker's original text.
Legacy on The Vault
Dracula is the foundational text behind numerous subjects documented elsewhere on The Vault, including the official 2009 sequel novel Dracula: The Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt, and is referenced across pages connected to vampire folklore and investigation, including The Highgate Vampire and the Vampire Research Society.
See also
Where to buy
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Dracula."Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ↑ "On This Day: Bram Stoker, the Irish author of 'Dracula,' dies in 1912."IrishCentral.
- ↑ "Bram Stoker Biography."Notable Biographies.