The Burial of the Rats

by Bram Stoker

The bones were still warm; but they were picked clean. They had even eaten their own dead

This spine-chilling collection from Dracula creator Bram Stoker showcases five haunting tales, including the newly discovered ‘Gibbet Hill’. From ‘Dracula’s Guest’, thought by many to be the original excised opening of Dracula itself, to the sinister ‘The Judge’s House,’ each gripping story will leave you breathless, perhaps afraid to turn out the lights. Dare you explore the darkness?

Genres: Horror, Classics, Short Stories, Gothic, Fiction, Fantasy

138 pages, Paperback

Published April 17, 2025

About the author

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.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Stoker

Reviews

[Georgina Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

So goth so scary. Need to read about flowers and sunshine for a little while now.

[Kane Perry · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

Nice collection of short stories. Forgot how much I like gothic horrors. In this set Dracula’s guest is obvs the fav but I really enjoyed The Judge’s House too.

[linnea — lnnvs · Rating 4 out of 5]

not gonna say for sure but like i think bram stoker had a favorite animal🐀perfectly spooky and unsettling, with my favorites being ‘dracula’s guest’ and ‘the judges house’, this is a quick and binge worthy collection that doesn’t shy away from the horrors. highly recommend for fans of dracula, gothic fiction or unsettling horror that packs a punch. i’d love to see especially ‘the judges house’ adapted, preferably by either tim burton or rober eggers in their respective styles but i’ll take what i can get to be honest!!

[amie · Rating 4 out of 5]

loves his rats does our Bram

[Sarah Kimberley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Burial Of The Rats: a collection of revolting and remarkable gothic short stories by Bram Stoker. Stories which all scuttle around in the dark and wait, patient and hungry, for the living to stumble through their own curiousity. You really are pulled into the filth festering in the underbelly of centuries past. Menacing vagrants, rats in bone heaps, iron maidens, yellow toothed hags and murderous cats 🐀🕯️🕸️

This will make you sick or give you absolute shivers! There’s no in between. The Burial Of The Rats is by far my favourite and by far the creepiest. Haunting bone-pickers and rag-stealers crawl out from the corners of post Revolution France, eking out a living. You can almost smell the rot of corpses surfacing from the writing. Stoker is the absolute master of dread and I loved every detail of this disturbing collection 🫀

“The bones were still warm; but they were picked clean”.

“ There, on the great old high-backed chair beside the fireplace sat the same enormous rat, steadily glaring at him with baleful eyes” 🕰️

[Fernanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5!! Things Victorians were afraid of: poverty, women, foreigners. Enjoyed all of these, especially The Judge’s House (5⭐️). Was so excited to read Gibbet Hill but it was my least favourite.

[Daniel Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cat used Scratch. It was super effective.

[Hattie Mccann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag. Some brilliantly classic gothic short stories (The Judge's House was spectacular) and others just shockingly horrible (The Squaw).

[Beele · Rating 5 out of 5]

PORTSMOUTH MENTIONED

[Sam Levy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The joys of being on a train with no WiFi OR signal.

A nice snappy compilation which contains most of the highlights of Stoker’s short stories - you get a Dracula prelude, a ghost story, folk horror with weird kids, a suitably horrible end to a real dickhead American tourist, and a tense chase sequence to finish off.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book I bought from the Penguin Archive 90th Anniversary collection.
Great set of gothic short stories. I particularly enjoyed The Judge's House and Dracula's Guest.

[Daze Woolley · Rating 2 out of 5]

great writer but damn was he just scared of the poor and foreign people

[frida · Rating 4 out of 5]

my favorite story in this one was the judge’s house. so eerie, building tension with the shadows and use of rats. bram stoker really does have an obsession with them

individual ratings:
- dracula’s guest: 4/5
- the judge’s house: 5/5
- gibbet hill: 2/5
- the squaw: 3/5
- the burial of the rats: 3/5

average rating: 3,4/5 but rounding up to 4. really good collection of short stories. perfect for a gothic winter 🐀🩶

[jack's broken heart · Rating 5 out of 5]

bram stoker had a thing for large rats, that's for sure.

and a little personal anecdote:
combined with 'let our whatever the fuck it was be buried with your rats' ft. a performative coffee stain? an easy 5/5

[kadee]

The bracken was of rich amber and faded yellow, and the myriads of grasses and wild flowers had donned their winter garb - the hues of decay.

“Lower the lid of the iron maiden onto me so I can know what it felt like” stand tf up

[Niall Beckwith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fantastic selection of horror shorts. Genuinely scary and got my heart going and pacing through each word at a fiery pace to find out what happened next!

Highly reccomend

Burial Of The Rats (short) - an Englishman being chased by cannibalistic Frenchmen, can’t write it

[Rachel Pinkney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite chilling. Bram Stoker obviously had a thing about rats.

[Ananya M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to give it a 4 but 3 is fair because I liked 3/5 stories😬
The Judge’s House, Gibbet Hill, and The Squaw- 5⭐️ sooo eerie and innovative

[Camilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The storm had passed; and, perhaps in sympathy with nature’s silence, my heart seemed to cease to beat.”

[Kathryn McCarrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this lovely little jaunt on a flight yesterday, and it was brilliant! A perfect little book on Bram which entails various stories around differing elements of horror which keep you entertained throughout. Would recommend and read again. These penguin archives clearly all seem to win 5 stars!

[Laura Martí · Rating 3 out of 5]

Correcto. Historias cortas con un par de highlights, la primera sobretodo

[franzi jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

the judge’s house clears

[Ida Linnea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Draculas guest - 4/5
The judges house - 5/5
Gibbet Hill - 2/5
The squaw - 4/5
The burial of the rats - 3/5

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creepy! Although Dracula will always be my fav of his.

[SlowBone · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.76

1.Dracula’s guest 3.5
2.The Judge’s House 4.0
3. Gibbet Hill 3.8
4. The squaw 3.5
5. The burial of the rats 4.0

[MRLY · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fine, but none of them particularly stood out. Wannabe M R James. Which is a shame because I love Dracula. But maybe he put all his skill into writing Dracula. So maybe fair.

[Siiri *⁠。♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five wonderful short stories that have finally made me decide to seek out more from Stoker. It was very easy to get lost in the stories and the writing was pleasant to follow. The Burial of the Rats is the perfect read for darkening autumn days!

[9 · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.25

the judge’s house creeped me out im still thinking about the Rope but u can skip the rest (the racism is loud in this collection)

[Vincent Browne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dracula makes an appearance at the end of one of these stories like it’s a Marvel movie post-credit scene.

[Emma-Louise Ekpo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stoker is unfortunately not a master at creating atmosphere. While these stories were entertaining, gothic and disturbing, I wasn’t left feeling disturbed.
While reading I wasn’t looking round my living room for fear of the shadows and terror didn’t rise in my chest as I got closer to the climax.

Stoker is a master with creativity but they just fall a bit flat. I’ve read better.

Still worth reading, but I think other writers create more atmospheric texts.