Bram Stoker

1847-1912. Irish Author.

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 book [?] for civil servants. He also wrote theatre reviews and short stories 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 into 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 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, 2008.

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