{\b Bram Stoker}.

{\b Date of Birth}.:  2 June 1840

{\b Date of Death}.: 11 January 1928 

{\b Works}.

Irish novelist, short-story writer and theatre critic, Bram [Abraham] 
Stoker is best-known for his hugely successful novel Dracula (1897).  His 
first novel, Under the Sunset (1882), was followed by others including 
The Snake's Pass (1890), The Shoulder of Shasta (1895) and Miss Betty 
(1898).  He also wrote and published a number of non-fictional works, 
including a Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (1906) and a book of 
Famous Impostors (1910) in which he claims that Queen Elizabeth the 
First was in fact a man.

{\b Featured Works}.

'Dracula'.

{\b General Comment}.

Stoker, whose father was a civil-servant and something of a social 
reformer, was born in Dublin.  As a child Abraham was an invalid and 
could not even stand fully upright, but he later went on to become an 
accomplished athlete and played football at Trinity College, Dublin. After 
leaving Trinity he became a barrister, and joined the civil service in 1867. 
At this time he wrote his first book, entitled The Duties of Clerks of Petty 
Sessions in Ireland (1879), and also became an unpaid drama critic for 
the Dublin Evening Mail.  His interest in theatre also led him to make the 
acquaintance of the actor Sir Henry Irving in 1876 and he shortly 
afterwards took on the post of Irving's personal-secretary and manager, 
which he would hold until the latter's death some years later.

To date none of Stoker's other literary works have been anywhere near as 
successful and enduring in their influence as his Dracula.  Indeed, the 
figure of Count Dracula himself still today casts a  wide shadow over the 
entire genre of literary horror, whether in book form or on celluloid, 
where his dark cloak has been donned by such illustrious actors as Klaus 
Kinski and Bela Lugosi. In large part, Stoker's Dracula was based upon 
Le Fanu's earlier short story Carmilla, but Stoker's novel is by no means 
a derivative work since the story it tells is in any case almost ageless and 
Stoker tells it by utilising some very effective narrative techniques; the 
novel is written in a mixed epistolary and journal form and uses 
contrasting narrative viewpoints to heighten the tension of the chilling 
and truly legendary plot Stoker respins.