Bram Stoker: Biography and Creativity

Bram Stoker is a world-famous Irish writer who lived in the late 19th century. First of all, he was remembered for having created the most popular villain today - Dracula. With the light hand of Stoker, vampires got not only on pages of books, but also on television screens. And today we simply can not imagine cinema without these charming villains.

short biography

Born Bram Stoker in Dublin, November 8, 1847. Of the seven children of the four Stocker, Bram was born the third. The father of the future writer was Abraham, his mother Charlotte. Both of them were Protestants, therefore all their children often visited the parish of the Church of Ireland in Clontarf.

As a child, Bram was a rather painful child, and up to 7 years he could not even walk. It is believed that these sad events were reflected in his character - Dracula, like the writer himself, has to sleep a lot. But Stoker managed to overcome the disease. And when he entered the university, he even did football and athletics.

The writer graduated with honors from the Faculty of Mathematics of Trinity College. Then I got a job in an ordinary state institution. In parallel, he began to work as a journalist and theater critic in a newspaper in Dublin.

In the same years Stocker met Henry Irving, the famous English actor. And in 1878 during one of his friendly meetings, Irving suggested the writer to head the theater "Litseum", located in London. Stocker agreed and moved to the capital of Britain. The next 27 years, the writer acted as an actor's manager. And when Irving died in 1905, this seriously shocked Stoker. He suffered a blow and spent 24 hours unconscious.

In London he got useful acquaintances Bram Stoker. Books writer was not yet popular, until the release of "Dracula" remained several years. Nevertheless, friendship with Irving helped him to break into a higher society and to acquire useful acquaintances, among them Conan Doyle, Jue Whistler. Stoker's wife was Florence Balkham, whom Oscar Wilde loved.

In 1897, published "Dracula", which brought the writer no glory.

The writer died on April 20, 1912 in London. The cause of death was progressive paralysis.

Creating Dracula

The novel "Dracula" Bram Stoker without exaggeration can be called a bestseller of his time. The work was written under the influence of J. Le Fan, the author of the novel about the vampires "Carmilla", published in 1872. Stocker worked on his novel for 8 long 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 medieval Wallachia, Vlad. III Tsepe. This ruler was famous for his bad temper and passion for bloody reprisals, for which he was nicknamed Dracu, which can be translated as a dragon or devil. However, there are also studies that claim that it is not necessary to relate the character of the novel to Tsepesh. Nevertheless, Bram Stoker himself in his work makes a reservation and informs the reader that he really took Prince Valachia as a prototype for his monster. Indeed, first taking this historical personality for a vampire because of a wrong translation.

Extraordinary success

Bram Stoker has remained in the centuries, as the creator of the most famous vampire. And indeed, this book is one of the most screenable. The first film about Dracula came out in 1921, and a year later appeared a more famous screen version - "Nosferatu. Symphony of horror ». All the films made based on the book, it is difficult even to count.

Today, Dracula is already in the cartoons and anime, appears on the pages of manga and comics, becomes a hero of computer games. It is difficult to say in which 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 the Seven Stars" (1907) - in the center of the narrative is the daughter of the Egyptologist Egyptologist Margaret, who turns out to be involved in mystical events, the cause of which is hidden in the depths of centuries.
• "Lady in the shroud" - a novel in 1909.
• "The Lair of the White Worm" - the last work of Stoker, was published in 1911.

The works of Bram Stoker, as you can see, are dedicated to various monsters and mysterious events. Today we would rank his books in the horror genre.