For 125 years, Dracula has been thrilling and inspiring generations of readers. This is the classic vampire novel, reprinted along with Dracula’s Guest, once included in the manuscript of Dracula, plus an extended ending to the novel that was deleted from the final typescript.
‘Significant to Dracula’s initial and enduring appeal are centuries-old myths of the vampire, which Bram presented as fact. While religion is the official gatekeeper for the afterlife, myth and folklore have always provided options to explain the otherwise unexplainable, and tales of the undead have abided as long as the dead themselves.’ From the introduction by Dacre Stoker
On a trip abroad to visit the wealthy and secretive man who has been buying properties in the UK, Jonathan Harker finds himself trapped within the confines of Castle Dracula, unable to escape and prey to whatever dread nightmare stalks its corridors. Meanwhile in England, Jonathan’s fiancee, Mina, waits for news, not realising that soon, her life, and that of her best friend Lucy, will be under threat, as Count Dracula arrives. Only the eccentric Dr Van Helsing stands between Dracula and his prey.
Contains a new afterword by USA Today bestselling author Samantha Lee Howe looking at the interpretations and influence of Dracula in modern film and television adaptations.
‘The recollections of this weird and ghostly tale will doubtless haunt us for some time to come.’ The Daily Mail, 1 June 1897
‘Dracula is THE vampire and the novel is THE vampire novel.’ The Guardian, 4 February 2014
‘Horrid and creepy to the last degree. It is also excellent, and one of the best things in the supernatural line that we have been lucky enough to hit upon.’ Pall Mall Gazette, 1 June 1897
327pp. 6×9 format paperback book.
Cover art and design copyright 2022 by Lynne Hansen, www.LynneHansenArt.com.
ISBN: 978-1-84583-201-8
Published 23 April 2022
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abraham (Bram) Stoker, named for his father, was born on 8 November 1847 in Clontarf, on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland. He was the third of seven children born to Charlotte Thornley Stoker (1818-1901) and Abraham Coates Stoker (1799-1876), a civil servant who worked as a clerk in Dublin Castle from age sixteen until his retirement in 1865.
Bram was born during the worst point in Ireland’s period of famine, the year known as ‘Black 47’, when death from sickness, starvation and emigration caused Ireland’s population to shrink over 30%. Though his siblings were healthy, Bram’s own health seemed to mirror the health of Ireland’s poor. Bedridden for the first seven years of his life, Bram recovered from his undiagnosed ailment to become a champion athlete at Trinity College Dublin. While a student at Trinity, Bram began working as a clerk of Petty Sessions in Dublin Castle and as an unpaid writer of theatre reviews for the Dublin Evening News.
Bram’s 1876 review of English actor Henry Irving’s Dublin performance of Hamlet led to a meeting with Irving, and the start of a friendship and professional relationship that would last through thick and thin – until Irving’s death in 1905. In 1878, with a successful acting career and Ellen Terry as his leading lady, Irving took over management of London’s Lyceum Theatre and in the fall, asked Bram to come to London as his personal secretary and the theatre’s business manager. At that point in his own career, Bram had climbed the ladder at Dublin Castle to become Inspector of Petty Sessions. Yet before the end of the year, he gladly extricated himself from his responsibilities, married one of Dublin’s most beautiful young ladies, and moved to London, where the Stoker’s only child, Irving Noel Thornley Stoker was born.
Although his primary occupation was theatre manager, during the nearly three decades Bram worked for Henry Irving, he continued to write in his scant spare time, publishing non-fiction; numerous short stories (including two collections); and twelve novels, including Dracula. As was the fashion of the day, much of his work was also published in serial form – in newspapers and periodicals in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, often as translations.
Today, there is no question that Dracula is Bram’s most important work – never out of print, translated into every major foreign language and still the inspiration for endless literary, film and commercial adaptations. When published, Dracula was well-received in the United Kingdom and the United States – certainly successful by all accounts, but during his life-time, Dracula was not Bram’s most popular work. Bram’s biographical account, Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (a two volume set) was a best-seller when published in 1906, hailed as the most complete and most intimate account of Irving’s life and career. The autobiographical aspects chronicled in Personal Reminiscences offer a rare look at Bram Stoker’s own life, which due to modesty or the false assumption that his life would not be of interest, he otherwise neglected to record.
Bram Stoker suffered ill health for the last few years of his life, cared for by his wife, Florence, until his death in London, April 20, 1912. His cremated remains rest in an urn at Golders Green Crematorium in London with his son Noel, with Florence’s ashes scattered in nearby gardens.
Dacre Stoker is the great grand-nephew of Bram Stoker and the international best-selling co-author of Dracula the Un-Dead (2009), the Stoker family endorsed sequel to Dracula. Dacre is also the co-editor (with Elizabeth Miller) of The Lost Journal of Bram Stoker: The Dublin Years (2012). Released in October of 2018, Dracul, a prequel to Dracula, co-authored with J D Barker, was the UK’s # 1 Bestselling Hardcover Novel in Horror and Supernatural in 2018; and a top 5 finalist for the Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement in a Novel. Film rights for Dracul have been optioned by Paramount Studios.
Dacre’s recent work includes the novel, Dracula’s Bedlam (2021) written with Chris McAuley and John Peel; and The Virgin’s Embrace (2021) with Chris McAuley – which is a graphic novel adaptation of Bram Stoker’s short story ‘The Squaw’ (1893). Additionally, Dacre has written short stories with Leverett Butts: ‘Last Days’, appeared in Weird Tales magazine (January 2021), ‘The Tired Captain’, featured in FX Sherlock Holmes Anthology, ‘Enter the Dragon’ in Classic Monsters Unleashed Anthology (January 2022) and ‘The Lost Warrior’, in the 2022 anthology Dracula Unfanged. Dacre has also collaborated with Scottish writer Mike Shepherd on Slains Castle’s Secret History (Wild Wolf, 2022) a novel of historical fiction written in narrative nonfiction style.
A native of Montreal, Canada, Dacre taught Physical Education and Sciences for twenty-two years, in both Canada and the US. He participated in the sport of Modern Pentathlon as an athlete and a coach at the international and Olympic levels for Canada for 12 years. He is also an avid player and coach of the unique game of Real Tennis. In May of 2016, the World Championships of Court Tennis was won by Camden Riviere, an athlete Dacre had coached for the past four years.
Dacre has consulted and appeared in several recent film documentaries about vampires in literature and popular culture, including: The Real Vampire Files (2010, History Channel), The Tillinghast Nightmare, (2014, Historical Haunts), Secrets of the Dead (2015, PBS), Mysteries at the Museum, (2017, Travel Channel) Legend Hunter (2019, Travel Channel). He currently hosts tours to Dublin, Ireland, Whitby, England, and Cruden Bay, Scotland, focusing on the places Bram Stoker lived, was educated, worked, researched, and wrote Dracula. Dacre also leads groups to Transylvania to explore both the life and times of the historic Vlad Dracula III and locations where Bram set his famous novel.
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