The Creation of Dracula, Bram Stoker

One of the most important figures in modern literature. famous novelist Bram Stoker was in fact, Irish. Better known as the father of the famous undead, Dracula.

Born on the 8th of November of 1847 in Dublin, he was raised in a big family consisting of him, his parents and seven siblings. He wasn’t the healthiest child because he was bedridden till the age of 7 from an unknown illness. But this did not stop his ambition hence he said that “Gave him the opportunity for many thoughts”. So maybe his inspiration for Dracula began there.

Once he grew he became more interested in the Arts, especially in theatre. That would land him a role as a critic for the Dublin Evening Mail, althrough these were not very popular they were very high quality and attracted a minor interest in him. He would write short stories as well and one would get published in London by the London Society in 1872. This would actually be one of the reasons why he chose to move to London as his stories would get more popular with time.

As he got married to her wife in 1878 they would move together into London as he got the acting manager position on the Lyceum Theatre. This would be an important pivotal point in his life and career as it gave him access to the high society in London. This made Stoker an incredibly busy man but wouldn’t stop him from writing and traveling.

It was on one of these travels that he would land on the coastal town of Whitby, which he would later claim the town was part of the inspirational process for Dracula. Although he never visited Eastern Europe or Romania he would heavily inspire himself on their culture gathering information from the London Library, but the claims that he inspired himself on the Wallachian Vlad Tepes III Dracula have been only hinted with the only real proof been that he borrowed his name and some pieces of information.

The writing of Dracula would start in Scotland at the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel where you can still see his signatures on a conserved guest book. He would write the novel as a series of fictional diary entries, letters, ship`s logs, telegrams and newspaper clippings, which made the story more realistic. The most interesting part is that the original title of the stories was not Dracula but “THE UN-DEAD” as it was later discovered.

But the story would keep as a series of loose nonlinear stories until Stoker died in 1912 in London, when his widow picked up the remains and what was left into the first Dracula book collecting all stories that have been written about the Count streamlining them.

So if you want to immerse yourself in the mystery of Dracula, we would definitely recommend to iVisit the multiple sites around Dublin which vary from his home on 30 Kildare Street to the Castle Dracula Experience on Clontarf.