Dracula

Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic novel, told through letters and diaries, follows a group of friends who hunt Count Dracula across Europe.

Author

Bram Stoker

First published

1897

Setting

Late Victorian England

Genre

Gothic horror

Read it if you like

Gothic atmosphere, letters and diaries, and a monster with manners.

On screen and stage

Nosferatu (1922), Dracula (1931) and many since

Overview

The solicitor Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to help a nobleman, Count Dracula, buy a house in England, and realises he is a prisoner. Dracula then sails to Whitby and begins to prey on Lucy Westenra and later Mina Harker. A circle that includes Dr Seward, Professor Van Helsing, Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris sets out to stop him. The book is told through journals, letters, telegrams and newspaper clippings.

Themes

• Fear of the foreign
• Modernity versus superstition
• Sexuality and restraint
• Friendship and teamwork

Background

Stoker, an Irish theatre manager, spent years researching folklore and travel accounts before publishing the book in 1897. It appeared in the late Victorian period, when anxieties about science, empire and reverse colonisation shaped popular fiction.

Why it endures

Dracula established much of what we expect from vampires: aristocratic menace, hypnotic influence and vulnerability to garlic and stakes. Its documents-only structure still feels inventive.

Quotes