Bram Stoker

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Bram Stoker (1906)

Abraham "Bram" Stoker (born November 8, 1847 in Clontarf near Dublin , †  April 20, 1912 in London , England , United Kingdom ) was an Irish writer . He was best known for his novel Dracula .

Life

Bram Stoker was born the third of seven children in Marino Crescent (then in Clontarf near Dublin , now Dublin- Fairview ). He was ill until he was seven and could neither stand nor walk alone. This traumatic experience is reflected in his literary work. Eternal sleep and the resurrection of the dead, the central theme of Dracula , were therefore of great importance to him.

Not only was his illness a mystery, but his recovery was a miracle to his doctors.

After that he even became an athlete and soccer star at Trinity College in Dublin, where he studied history , literature , mathematics and physics from 1864 to 1870 . He then became a civil servant at the Inspectorate of the Justice Administration in Dublin Castle (where his father also worked), but he was unsatisfied. During this time, Stoker wrote a handbook for chairmen in express court proceedings ("magistrates' courts" or "petty courts").

He worked as a journalist and theater critic, and wrote articles for Dublin University Magazine . His interest in the theater led to a lifelong friendship with actor Henry Irving .

In 1878 Stoker married Florence Balcombe, a Clontarf neighbor who was also courted by Oscar Wilde . He moved with her in the London district of Chelsea , where he served as manager of Irving's Lyceum Theater worked. Working for Irving, he was introduced to London's high society, where he met James McNeill Whistler and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , among others . In the wake of Irving, Stoker traveled the world. In addition, he improved his income as a book author. The son Irving Noel was born on New Year's Eve 1879 .

Stokers and his son's joint urn at Golders Green Crematorium in London

Bram Stoker did not live to see the great success of his novel Dracula . He died after several strokes in financially modest circumstances in London in 1912; some sources cite overwork as the cause of death. Stoker's body was cremated in Golders Green Crematorium , and the common urn for him and his son is still there today. His nephew Daniel Farson claimed in a biography that Stoker died of syphilis , but there is no evidence for this.

In honor of the author, the Association of American Horror Writers has presented the Bram Stoker Award annually in various categories since 1987 . Get him among others have Stephen King , Clive Barker , Dean Koontz , and Joyce Carol Oates .

Beliefs

Stoker grew up as a Protestant in the Church of Ireland . He supported the Liberal Party and was very interested in Irish politics. He supported a home rule for Ireland brought about by peaceful means . He remained a passionate monarchist who believed Ireland should stay in the British Empire because he saw the Empire as a force that brought good. He was an admirer of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone , whom he knew personally, and supported his plans for Ireland.

Stoker believed in progress and was interested in natural science and science-based medicine . Some of his novels are early examples of science fiction , such as The Lady of the Shroud . He was interested in occultism , especially mesmerism , but he despised fraud and believed in the superiority of the Scientific Method over superstition. He had friends with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn secret society , but there is no evidence that Stoker was ever a member himself. The same goes for the Masonic Organization and the Grand Lodge of Ireland .

Dracula

In 1890 Stoker met the Hungarian professor Arminius Vámbéry , who told him about the legend of the Romanian prince Vlad III. Drăculea (Dracula) told. From this character, Stoker developed the figure of the vampire Dracula. Stoker worked on this vampire novel for seven years until it was published on May 18, 1897.

John Polidori , Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and Bram Stoker can be considered the founding fathers of the modern vampire myth . While the former aroused general interest in the figure of the vampire, it was Bram Stoker who shaped the concrete image of the vampire.

“ Dracula is particularly effective because of his mixture of naturalistic portrayal and bigotry comfort. His characters shed many tears, but are as tough as James Bond in critical situations . "

- Jörg Drews, 2009.

Works

Novels

  • The Primrose Path (1875)
  • The Snake's Pass (1890)
  • The Watter's Mou ' (1895)
  • The Shoulder of Shasta (1895)
  • Dracula (1897), Archibald Constable and Company, Westminster
    • First complete German edition: Hanser (Bibliotheca Dracula), Munich 1967 (translated by Stasi Kull )
    • Translation v. Karl B. Leder: Kossodo (Horror mundi), Geneva and Hamburg 1967
  • Miss Betty (1898)
  • The Mystery of the Sea (1902)
  • The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903)
    • German The seven fingers of death , Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1981
  • The Man (or The Gates of Life ) (1905)
  • Lady Athlyne (1908)
  • The Lady of the Shroud (1909)
  • The Lair of the White Worm (1911), Foulsham, London
    • later as The Garden of Evil's published
    • German The snake's lock , Mohndruck, Gütersloh 1980
    • as film The Snake Woman's Bite (1988, UK)

Short stories

  • Under the Sunset (1881), fairy tales for children
  • Snowbound: The Record of a Theatrical Touring Party (1908)
  • The Judge's House
  • Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories (1914), Routledge & Sons, London (eight short stories, published posthumously by his widow Florence Stoker)
    • German Dracula's guest . Six horror stories, Diogenes, Zurich 1968
    • also in the house of Count Dracula . Stories, Hanser, Munich 1974

More stories

  • Bridal of Dead (alternative ending to The Jewel of Seven Stars )
  • Buried Treasures
  • The Chain of Destiny
  • The Crystal Cup
  • The dualists; or, The Death Doom of the Double Born
  • Lord Castleton Explains (Chapter Ten of The Fate of Fenella )
  • The Gombeen Man (Chapter three of The Snake's Pass )
  • In the Valley of the Shadow
  • The Man from Shorrox
  • Midnight Tales
  • The Red Stockade
  • The Seer (Chapters one and two of The Mystery of the Sea )
  • The Watter's Mou '

Non-fiction

  • The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland (1879)
  • A Glimpse of America (1886)
  • Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (1906)
  • Famous Impostors (1910)

Current German editions (selection)

literature

  • Barbara Belford: Bram Stoker. A Biography of the Author of "Dracula" . Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1996, ISBN 0-679-41832-6 .
  • Jörg Drews: Bram Stoker . In: Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Ed.): Kindlers Literatur Lexikon , Volume 15. 3rd edition, Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , pp. 614–617.
  • Daniel Farson: The Man Who Wrote Dracula, The Life Story of Bram Stoker . New York 1976.
  • Lisa Hopkins: Bram Stoker: a literary life . Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [et. a.], 2007, ISBN 978-1-4039-4647-8 .
  • Uli Jung: Dracula: film-analytical studies on the functionalization of a motif from Victorian popular literature (= international film history, 4). WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, Trier 1997, ISBN 3-88476-259-1 (dissertation University of Trier 1997).
  • Elke Klemens: Dracula and “his daughters”: the vampire as a symbol in the course of time (= relationships between Mannheim's contributions to linguistics and literary studies, 60). Narr, Tübingen 2004, ISBN 978-3-8233-6061-2 (Dissertation University of Mannheim 2003, 324 pages).
  • Carol Margaret Davison (Ed.): Bram Stoker's Dracula. Sucking Through the Century 1897-1997 . Dundurn Press, Toronto 1997, ISBN 1-55002-279-2 .
  • Paul Murray: From the shadow of Dracula: a life of Bram Stoker . Cape, London [et al.] 2004, ISBN 0-224-04462-1 .

Documentation

  • Dracula Lives - The Count's Legacy , ZDF, 2011

Web links

Commons : Bram Stoker  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Bram Stoker  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ainsworth, Sir John (Francis), (Jan. 4, 1912-30 April 1981), Inspector, Irish Manuscripts Commission, since 1943 . In: Who Was Who . Oxford University Press, December 1, 2007, doi : 10.1093 / ww / 9780199540884.013.u161385 .
  2. ^ Paul Murray: From the shadow of Dracula: a life of Bram Stoker . ISBN 978-1-5121-5090-2 .
  3. ^ Trevor Ravenscroft: The spear of destiny: the occult power behind the spear which pierced the side of Christ . 1st American pbk. ed. S. Weiser, York Beach, Me. 1982, ISBN 0-87728-547-0 .
  4. ↑ Bram Stoker . In: The Forgotten Writings of Bram Stoker . Palgrave Macmillan, 1912, ISBN 978-1-137-33084-0 , doi : 10.1057 / 9781137330840.0036 .
  5. ↑ Jörg Drews: Art. Bram Stoker . In: Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Ed.): Kindlers Literatur Lexikon , Volume 15. 3rd edition, Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , pp. 614–617, here 616.
  6. ↑ Max Büch: ZDF documentary about Dracula: In contrast, Twilight is a piece of cake. taz.de , April 12, 2011, accessed November 8, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Stoker, Bram
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stoker, Abraham (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish writer
DATE OF BIRTH November 8, 1847
PLACE OF BIRTH Clontarf near Dublin , Ireland
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 1912
Place of death London , England , UK