British Culture - User contributions [en]

Bram Stoker

2011-01-13T21:29:01Z

Gadgad22:

'''Abraham (Bram) Stoker''' was born in Clontarf, Dublin on 8 November 1847. His father, Abraham Stoker, was a clerk with the British civil service in Ireland. His mother, Charlotte Thonley, was an active social reformer. Bram was the third of seven children. He was a sickly, bedridden child who was often entertained by his mother with stories from her native Sligo, which included supernatural tales and narratives of death and disease.

In 1864 he entered Trinity College in Dublin. Stoker was a strong young man who outdid at athletics. He also received awards for debating and oratory, and became President of the Philosophical Society.

In 1870 he followed his father's footsteps and worked in the Irish civil service. After seven years he was promoted Inspector of Petty Sessions and eventually in 1879 he published his first reference for civil servants. He also wrote theatre reviews and short fiction texts for a local newspaper. His review of ''Hamlet'' led to a meeting with the actor, Henry Irving, which would change the course of his life.

In 1878 he married the nineteen year old Florence Lemon Balcombe and accepted a position as the manager of Irving's new Lyceum Theatre in London. His association with Irving continued until the actor's death in 1905. Through Irving he got in to contact with many leading figures such as: Alfred Lord Tennyson, Richard F. Burton, Henry Morton Stanley, Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill, and William Gladstone.

He began his most famous work ''Dracula'' in early 1890 and worked on it for over seven years. Although Stoker wrote other novels, short stories and some dramatic criticism, he is chiefly remembered for writing the incontestable Gothic novel ''Dracula''. The novel was written against a backdrop of social upheaval. The turn of the century brought changes that challenged the role of Victorian England and middle-class value: mass immigration, challenges to traditional gender roles, conflicts between religion and new science, and anxieties about reversion and criminality.

Henry Irving's death left a void in Stoker's life and his health gradually declined. He died on 20 April 1912 and was cremated at Golders Green in London.

References:

Eighteen-Bisang, Robert. ''Bram Stoker's notes for Dracula'', Philadelphia: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2008.

Senf, Carol A., ''Science and social science in Bram Stoker's fiction'', Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002.

Bram Stoker

2011-01-13T21:28:34Z

Gadgad22:

'''Abraham (Bram) Stoker''' was born in Clontarf, Dublin on 8 November 1847. His father, Abraham Stoker, was a clerk with the British civil service in Ireland. His mother, Charlotte Thonley, was an active social reformer. Bram was the third of seven children. He was a sickly, bedridden child who was often entertained by his mother with stories from her native Sligo, which included supernatural tales and narratives of death and disease.

In 1864 he entered Trinity College in Dublin. Stoker was a strong young man who outdid at athletics. He also received awards for debating and oratory, and became President of the Philosophical Society.

In 1870 he followed his father's footsteps and worked in the Irish civil service. After seven years he was promoted Inspector of Petty Sessions and eventually in 1879 he published his first reference for civil servants. He also wrote theatre reviews and short fiction texts for a local newspaper. His review of ''Hamlet'' led to a meeting with the actor, Henry Irving, which would change the course of his life.

In 1878 he married the nineteen year old Florence Lemon Balcombe and accepted a position as the manager of Irving's new Lyceum Theatre in London. His association with Irving continued until the actor's death in 1905. Through Irving he got in to contact with many leading figures such as: Alfred Lord Tennyson, Richard F. Burton, Henry Morton Stanley, Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill, and William Gladstone.

He began his most famous work ''Dracula'' in early 1890 and worked on it for over seven years. Although Stoker wrote other novels, short stories and some dramatic criticism, he is chiefly remembered for writing the incontestable Gothic novel ''Dracula''. The novel was written against a backdrop of social upheaval. The turn of the century brought changes that challenged the role of Victorian England and middle-class value: mass immigration, challenges to traditional gender roles, conflicts between religion and new science, and anxieties about reversion and criminality.

Henry Irving's death left a void in Stoker's life and his health gradually declined. He died on 20 April 1912 and was cremated at Golders Green in London.

References:
Eighteen-Bisang, Robert. ''Bram Stoker's notes for Dracula'', Philadelphia: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2008.

Senf, Carol A., ''Science and social science in Bram Stoker's fiction'', Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002.

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

2010-12-19T13:43:11Z

Gadgad22: Created page with ''''== Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood ==''' Founded in 1848 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and William Holman Hunt, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was awakened by …'

'''== Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood =='''

Founded in 1848 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and William Holman Hunt, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was awakened by a youthful rebellious spirit against the strict academic tyranny of the time. Its effort was to breathe new life into art, by refusing obedience to certain conventions and established aesthetics of the Royal Academy. The late 1830s and the 1840s were years of instability and depression and at a turbulent time when revolutions raged in Europe, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood started a change in British culture.

Allegiance to nature was one of the main doctrines, thus Pre-Raphaelites attempted to depict the characteristic difference of their subject instead of "ideal beauty". Their techniques were also bound with socio-political concerns. The Pre-Raphaelite revolution involved not only a resistance to established aesthetic concepts but also the disapproval of social and gender hierarchies as well.

Three decades after the Pre-Rapaelite Brotherhood caused an uproar in Victorian Society, Oscar Wilde described its importance in British culture: "The Pre-Raphaelites were a number of young poets and painters who banded together in London... to revolutionize English Poetry and painting. They had three things which the English public never forgive - youth, power and enthusiasm... Their detractors blinded the public, but simply confirmed the artists in their convictions. To disagree with three-fourths of all England on all points is one of the first elements of sanity... This Pre-Rahaelite revolution was not only of ideas, but of creations. "

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood had a brief life: by the beginning of 1853 it stopped to exist. Its literary organ ''The Germ'' was still more short-lived: January 1st to the close of April 1850.

'''== References =='''

Andres, Sophia: The Pre-Raphaelites Art of Victorian Novel - Narrative Challenges to Visual Gendered Boundaries. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2005.

Angeli, Helen Rossetti: Dante Gabriel Rossetti: His Friends and Enemies. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1977.