Bram Stoker and the Creation of Dracula

September 29, 2019 Comments Off

Anthony Davis is the next of our Literary Footprints 2019 guides to preview of one of his walks. In this post, he offers an insight into the life of Bram Stoker and offers some suggestions how he came to write his great novel, Dracula. Anthony’s new walk Bram Stoker and the Creation of Dracula – illustrated by some original books and ephemera from the buildings on the walk – is one of the three walks Anthony is doing for our 2019 Literary Festival, you can find full booking details for all of them on Anthony’s walks page.

Bram Stoker was a Dubliner, almost an exact contemporary of Oscar Wilde who was his friend – and his rival for the love and hand of Florence, the girl that Bram married. Like Oscar, he came to London to seek his fortune. He found it not in his writing however, but as assistant to Sir Henry Irving, the first professional actor to be knighted and the owner of the Lyceum Theatre for a quarter of a century. For Bram, writing was a way of making some extra money in the spare time that working for the demanding and difficult Irving allowed him. Irving was a hypnotic character and took over Bram’s life – he is recognisably the model for Count Dracula just as the beautiful and charming Ellen Terry, the third in the Lyceum triumvirate, is probably the inspiration for the book’s heroine, Mina.

Bram’s life centred on his work at the Lyceum, and Dracula shows plenty of influence from the theatre (for instance, it is divided into acts and scenes like a play) as well as from famous contemporaries connected with the West End, many of whom Bram knew well. One was Conan Doyle, who wrote his own vampire story alongside his more famous Holmes and Professor Challenger stories. Another was Wilkie Collins, whose novels were published just up the road from the Lyceum.

Bram’s story is fascinating and dramatic. The walk takes us past the site of a real life murder of one of Bram’s friends, just a few yards from the theatre, and past the door of a ‘secret’ dining club where he and his friends would go.

During the walk we also see the place where Bram was reputedly first told the story of central European vampires by the eccentric Arnim Vambery, a Hungarian traveller in the Ottoman Empire who worked for the British Secret Service.

But over it all looms the sinister influence of Irving and of the Count.

Follow the link for the full list of our Literary Footprints 2019 walks . If you’re feeling particularly curious (and energetic!) you can go on as many as you want by taking advantage of our great value season ticket which for only £49 allows you one free place on every Literary Footprints walk throughout October 2019!