Bram Stoker is a world famous Irish writer who lived in the late 19th century. First of all, he was remembered for creating the most popular villain to date - Dracula. With Stoker's light hand, vampires got not only on the pages of books, but also on television screens. And today we simply cannot imagine cinema without these charming villains.
short biography
Bram Stoker was born in Dublin on November 8, 1847. Of the seven children of the four Stoker, Bram was born third. The father of the future writer was Abraham, his mother was Charlotte. Both of them were Protestants, so all their children were often in the parish of the Church of Ireland in Klontarf.
As a child, Bram was a rather painful child, and until the age of 7 he could not even walk. It is believed that these sad events were reflected in his character - Dracula, like the writer himself, is forced to sleep for a long time. But Stocker was able to overcome the disease. And when he entered the university, he even went in for football and athletics.
The writer graduated with honors from the Faculty of Mathematics at Trinity College. Then I got a job in a regular state institution. In parallel, he began to earn money as a journalist and theater critic in a newspaper in Dublin.
In the same years, Stocker met with Henry Irving, the famous English actor. And in 1878 during one of the friendly meetings, Irving invited the writer to head the Lyceum Theater, located in London. Stocker agreed and moved to the capital of Britain. The next 27 years, the writer acted as the manager of the actor. And when Irving died in 1905, this seriously shocked Stocker. A blow occurred to him and he spent a day unconscious.
In London, he got useful contacts Bram Stoker. The writer's books were not yet popular, until the release of "Dracula" a few years remained. Nevertheless, his friendship with Irving helped him break into high society and make useful friends, including Conan Doyle and Ju Whistler. Stocker's wife was Florence Belkham, whom Oscar Wilde loved.
In 1897, Dracula was published, which brought the writer no fame.
The writer died on April 20, 1912 in London. The cause of death was progressive paralysis.
Create Dracula
The novel "Dracula" by Bram Stoker, without exaggeration, can be called a bestseller of his time. The work was written under the influence of J. Le Fanu, author of a novel about vampires "Carmilla", published in 1872. Stocker worked on his novel for a long 8 years, studying legends and folklore about vampires.
The main antagonist of the work is the vampire Count Dracula. According to the most common version, the prototype of the character was the ruler of the medieval Wallachia, the lord Vlad III Tsepet. This ruler was famous for his bad temper and passion for bloody reprisals, for which he received the nickname Dracu, which can be translated as a dragon or devil. However, there are also studies that assert that you should not correlate the character of the novel with Tepes. Nevertheless, Bram Stoker himself makes a reservation in his work and informs the reader that he really took Prince Wallachia as prototypes for his monster. Indeed, first accepting this historical figure as a vampire due to a mistranslation.
Extraordinary success
Bram Stoker has remained for centuries as the creator of the most famous vampire. And indeed, this book is one of the most adaptable. The first film about Dracula was released back in 1921, and a year later a more famous film adaptation appeared - “Nosferatu. Symphony of horror. " All films made based on the book are difficult to even count.
Today, Dracula is already in cartoons and anime, appears on the pages of manga and comics, becomes the hero of computer games. It is difficult to say in what form of art this hero was not exploited.
Bram Stoker: books
Few people know, but Stocker is not only the author of Dracula. Here are some of them:
- “The Curse of the Mummy, or the Stone of Seven Stars” (1907) - in the center of the story is the daughter of the Egyptian scientist Margaret, who is involved in mystical events, the reason for which is hidden for centuries.
- Lady in the Shroud is a 1909 novel.
- The Lair of the White Worm is Stocker's latest work, published in 1911.
The works of Bram Stoker, as you can see, are devoted to various monsters and mysterious events. Today we would rank his books as a horror genre.