Dracula - Bram Stoker

When my school set me the difficult task of reading Dracula, by Bram Stoker, in two weeks, I thought I would jump at the opportunity to give you my opinion of it. Two weeks? That’s not too difficult you may cry! However, since my copy was over 300 pages long with very small writing (and other reviews have spoken about 500-page copies), plus the fact that it was written in the 19th century, it suddenly became more demanding. When you think of Dracula, you may think of Nosferatu, or Christopher Lee’s camp portrayals in the Hammer films, or the 1931 film by Bela Lugosi. Over time, the image of Dracula has become cemented in popular culture, and even little kids will ...

In every age there comes a clamour for a certain type of story. This may be romance, it may be horror, it may even transcend any normal boundaries and venture into fantasy. Just occasionally it may be all three. Abraham (Bram) Stoker (1847 ? 1912) was born in Dublin. The son of a civil servant he overcame an incapacitating childhood illness to become a civil servant himself in later life. An accomplished writer, he had a number of books published (examples being The Snake's Pass 1890 and The Lair of The White Worm 1911) of which Dracula is by far the most famous. In an era that demanded more and more crime, ghost and horror stories, the ...

The figure of the vampire has become a modern cultural icon. We all have at some time seen the different versions that have appeared over the years, whether it’s the classic Universal studios 1930’s ‘Dracula’ played by Bela Lugosi, the 60’s Hammer studios version by Christopher Lee, the 70’s ‘Nosferatu’ starring Klaus Kinski or the up to date MTV pop video style vampires of Buffy, Angel and Blade. Despite more modern competition Dracula is still the undoubted king of vampire stories but how did it all start? The answer lies with ‘Dracula’ a horror novel written by Bram Stoker in 1897, although using ancient ...