Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula Summary and Reviews

Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula
by Barbara Belford

Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula
List Price: $30.00
Our Price: $18.00
You Save: $12.00 (40%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.90 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Barbara Belford
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Format: Illustrated
Published: 1996-04-09
ISBN: 0679418326
Number of pages: 381
Publisher: Knopf

Book Reviews of Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula

Book Review: Insight into Bram Stoker & His Life at the Lyceum.
Summary: 4 Stars

Barbara Belford's "Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula" is considered to be the most scholarly and thorough of the 3 Bram Stoker biographies that have been published. But Mr. Stoker was a reticent person about whose personal life, opinions, and character there is precious little known. Whether out of humility or caution, he usually took care not to reveal himself. So what we know of Stoker comes primarily from his public life, which was thankfully shared with several grander, more loquacious personalities. Perhaps due to the scarcity of information about her subject, Barbara Belford gives Stoker's friends, colleagues, and the London theater community a lot of attention, especially Henry Irving, the great actor whose fame was dwarfed only by his ego, and whom Bram Stoker dedicated 27 years of his life to serving. Indeed, this biography of Stoker would serve well as a history of Irving's famous Lyceum Theatre for the decades that Stoker served as its acting manager.

The book starts by describing Stoker's childhood in Dublin, the third child born to a middle class Anglo-Irish family in 1847 during the potato famine, and his apparent debilitation until the age of 7. He grew up to be a civil servant like his father, and pursued personal interests as an unpaid drama critic for the "Evening Mail", through which Stoker met Henry Irving. After marrying the lovely Florence Balcombe, whom Oscar Wilde also courted, the Stokers moved to London where Bram's efficient management would help make the 1500-seat Lyceum Theatre fashionable and profitable. Since the Lyceum dominated Stoker's life, it dominates his biography, but Belford also discusses his trips to America on tour with the Lyceum company, his effusive admiration for Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln, and his novels and stories.

The upshot of "Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Man Who Wrote Dracula" is that Bram Stoker was a modest, hardworking man, exceedingly courteous even by Victorian standards, whose tireless work for Henry Irving was acknowledged by many but unappreciated and unrewarded by Irving himself. Stoker's genial but reserved manner harbored passionate, worshipful emotions toward his heroes, invariably men of power with larger-than-life personalities. Belford draws an occasional parallel between persons in Bram Stoker's own life and characters in "Dracula". Most notably, she sees a "sinister caricature" of Henry Irving in the vampire Count. Actress Ellen Terry seems to be reflected in Mina, and Stoker's wife Florence may have lent some of her character to Lucy. None of this is a stretch as long as one recognizes that "Dracula"'s characters don't have a single source, but many.

This biography includes a lot of good information for fans of Bram Stoker's work, but a couple of stylistic problems nagged at me. One is Belford's confusing tendency to refer to people by first or last name only, at the beginning of a chapter, instead of starting off with a full name. Another is the repeated use of the phrase "Unholy Trinity" to describe the business partnership between Henry Irving, Bram Stoker, and stage manager H.J. Loveday, which I found melodramatic. But Belford's book succeeds in creating a picture of Bram Stoker's personality without reading too much into his actions or words.

Biographies & Memoirs Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Bram Stoker: Beyond Dracula
Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula ImageBram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula
by Barbara Belford
Knopf; Published: 1996-04-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.00
Price in other shops: $30.00
Dracula's Crypt: Bram Stoker, Irishness, and the Question of Blood ImageDracula's Crypt: Bram Stoker, Irishness, and the Question of Blood
by Joseph Valente
University of Illinois Press; Published: 2001-10-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $24.70
Price in other shops: $29.95
Bram Stoker and the Man Who Was Dracula ImageBram Stoker and the Man Who Was Dracula
by Barbara Belford
Da Capo Press; Published: 2002-02-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops: $20.00
Bram Stoker's Dracula ImageBram Stoker's Dracula
Release date: 1997-10-07; DVD
Price in other shops: $27.95
Dracula (Signet Classics) ImageDracula (Signet Classics)
by Bram Stoker
Signet Classics; Published: 1986-08-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.49
Price in other shops: $4.95
Bram Stoker's The Mummy ImageBram Stoker's The Mummy
Release date: 1998-12-29; DVD
Best price: $6.44
Price in other shops: $19.98
Awakening, The [VHS] ImageAwakening, The [VHS]
Warner Home Video; Release date: 1993-12-13; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.50
Blood From the Mummy's Tomb ImageBlood From the Mummy's Tomb
Release date: 2001-08-07; DVD
Best price: $26.99
The Jewel of Seven Stars (Pocket Classics) ImageThe Jewel of Seven Stars (Pocket Classics)
by Bram Stoker
Sutton Publishing; Published: 1996-02-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $34.83
The Lair of the White Worm ImageThe Lair of the White Worm
LIONS GATE ENTERTAINMENT; Release date: 2003-08-19; DVD
Best price: $7.42
Price in other shops: $14.98
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
I Am Legend ImageI Am Legend
by Richard Matheson
Tor Books; Published: 2007-10-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.93
Price in other shops: $14.95
Dracula (Norton Critical Editions) ImageDracula (Norton Critical Editions)
by Bram Stoker
W.W. Norton & Co.; Published: 1996-12-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires ImageIn Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires
by Raymond T. McNally, Radu Florescu
Mariner Books; Published: 1994-10-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.53
Price in other shops: $16.00
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective ImageThe Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective
by Kate Summerscale
Walker & Company; Published: 2009-02-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.48
Price in other shops: $16.00
The New Annotated Dracula ImageThe New Annotated Dracula
by Bram Stoker
W.W. Norton & Co.; Published: 2008-10-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $22.05
Price in other shops: $39.95
Dracula (Enriched Classics Series) ImageDracula (Enriched Classics Series)
by Bram Stoker
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2003-09-30; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.73
Price in other shops: $5.99
Bram Stoker and the Man Who Was Dracula ImageBram Stoker and the Man Who Was Dracula
by Barbara Belford
Da Capo Press; Published: 2002-02-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.94
Price in other shops: $20.00