First, that it was his masterwork largely because he spent seven years on it, and that the book is renowned for the endless care Stoker took in its crafting. For example, it is an undisputed fact that Stoker spent at least seven years working on Dracula, from conception to publication, but this leads to a number of unsupported assumptions. Some Dracula creation myths are easier to believe because they contain partial truths, although they quickly begin to enable improbabilities and impossibilities. An unusually evocative piece of storytelling, Dracula has always excited more storytelling-both in endlessly embellished dramatizations and in the similarly ornamented accounts of its own birth process.
While the nightmare aspect may well have some validity-Stoker’s notes at least suggest that the story might have had its genesis in a disturbing vision or reverie-it exemplifies the way truth, falsehood, and speculation have always conspired to distort Dracula scholarship. But that hasn’t stopped the midnight snack of dressed crab from being served up as a matter of fact by countless people on countless occasions. According to his son, Stoker always claimed the inspiration for the book came from a nightmare induced by “a too-generous helping of dressed crab at supper”-a dab of blarney the writer enjoyed dishing out when asked, but no one took seriously (it may sound too much like Ebenezer Scrooge, famously dismissing Marley’s ghost as “an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese”). If you’re in the mood for more gothic classics, check out The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde performed by Pappa Essiedu and Frankenstein performed by Jamie Bell.There are many stories about how Bram Stoker came to write Dracula, but only some of them are true. The story is brought to life in this Audible production by a group of actors that you might recognise from TV and film: Himesh Patel ( Yesterday), Patricia Allison ( Sex Education), Daisy Edgar-Jones ( Normal People), Theo James (Divergent series) and Jason Watkins ( The Crown).
And then some strange things start happening back in England: an apparently unmanned ship is wrecked off the coast of Whitby, a young woman discovers strange puncture marks on her neck and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the 'Master' and his imminent arrival.įirst published in 1897, Dracula is an epistolary novel, meaning that the narrative is related through letters, diary entries and newspaper articles. When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a house in London, he soon discovers some strange and shocking things about his new client.
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