Irish-born Abraham Stoker, known as Bram, of Britain wrote the gothic horror novel Dracula (1897).
The feminist Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornely Stoker at 15 Marino crescent, then as now called "the crescent," in Fairview, a coastal suburb of Dublin, Ireland, bore this third of seven children. The parents, members of church of Ireland, attended the parish church of Saint John the Baptist, located on Seafield road west in Clontarf with their baptized children.
Stoker, an invalid, started school at the age of seven years in 1854, when he made a complete and astounding recovery. Of this time, Stoker wrote, "I was naturally thoughtful, and the leisure of long illness gave opportunity for many thoughts which were fruitful according to their kind in later years."
After his recovery, he, a normal young man, even excelled as a university athlete at Trinity college, Dublin form 1864 to 1870 and graduated with honors in mathematics. He served as auditor of the college historical society and as president of the university philosophical society with his first paper on "Sensationalism in Fiction and Society."
In 1876, while employed as a civil servant in Dublin, Stoker wrote a non-fiction book (The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland, published 1879) and theatre reviews for The Dublin Mail, a newspaper partly owned by fellow horror writer J. Sheridan Le Fanu. His interest in theatre led to a lifelong friendship with the English actor Henry Irving. He also wrote stories, and in 1872 "The Crystal Cup" was published by the London Society, followed by "The Chain of Destiny" in four parts in The Shamrock.
In 1878 Stoker married Florence Balcombe, a celebrated beauty whose former suitor was Oscar Wilde. The couple moved to London, where Stoker became business manager (at first as acting-manager) of Irving's Lyceum Theatre, a post he held for 27 years. The collaboration with Irving was very important for Stoker and through him he became involved in London's high society, where he met, among other notables, James McNeil Whistler, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the course of Irving's tours, Stoker got the chance to travel around the world.
The Stokers had one son, Irving Noel, who was born on December 31, 1879.
People cremated the body of Bram Stoker and placed his ashes placed in a display urn at Golders green crematorium. After death of Irving Noel Stoker in 1961, people added his ashes to that urn. Despite the original plan to keep ashes of his parents together, after death, people scattered ashes of Florence Stoker at the gardens of rest.
Three and half stars because the historical information about Stoker in the beginning was so interesting. The first story in the book was ok. As my dad would say, it had potential. The second book was pretty good, but it had a lot of excessive detail that made it drag on a little too long. And in truth I haven't finished the third yet, but enjoying it so far. I figured finishing two stories and the historical portion could count this as complete. As my friend Stephanie says, there are too many good books in the world to read to waste time on mediocre ones.
The Lost Novels of Bram Stoker is a horror/fantasy student's and literature historian's delight. Beyond that...I don't believe modern audiences will take to these stories. The Jewel of Seven Stars, the lead story in the book, has a powerful and captivating first person POV. Definitely creates a sense of intimacy between narrator and reader, and it's not strong enough to carry through the entire novel because the story itself slows to a stop a little past halfway through. I got bored and wondered why. Simple enough - no conflict. Quite a stretch with no conflict, in fact. Previously there'd been just enough to keep me turning pages. I wondered where it all went. This is something I've seen before with even modern and recognizably gifted authors; they loose their focus, the story wanders, eventually they regain their focus and the story concludes elegantly. The three novels in this book - The Jewel of Seven Stars, The Lady of the Shroud, and The Lair of the White Worn - originally appeared as magazine serials and each story shows the mark of where Stoker had completed writing but not finished the novel. The novel got serialized, eventually it came time for him to submit something not yet written, he'd lost the flow of the story due to working on other projects, oh my god what am I to do? Improvise. In these cases, poorly. The same is true for the other two novels in this volume. One extra note regarding The Lair of the White Worm - boy, do I wish I knew what Stoker was on when he wrote that.
I think it's average. "The Lair of the White Worm" is not an intelligible book. A young, healthy girl died from the thoughts of another man, it makes no sense. Also, a single man doesn't succumb to the seduction of a beautiful sexy woman, Lady Arabella, also nonsense.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
(Audiobook) I didn't hate it or dislike. But wasn't excited by it. Decent stories. Just didn't connect with them. Wasn't all that interested in picking it up.
I really enjoyed this grouping of Stoker's novels. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had broken it up and not tried to read it all at once. The first story was thrilling, by the time I got to the last I was losing track of the details and which story was which. I was forgetting which characters belonged to which stories. Still as an author of spooky tales, Stoker had a gift.