ABSTRACT
In 1897 – the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee – the London firm Archibald Constable and Company published the novel Dracula. Its author, Bram Stoker, had been born in Dublin in 1847 and, after studying mathematics at Trinity College, he worked as a civil servant. During his free time he started writing theatre reviews for local newspapers. One of these caught the attention of Henry Irving, later considered to be the greatest actor of the day, and in 1878 Stoker moved to London to work for Irving as manager of the Lyceum Theatre. He remained with the Lyceum until its closure in 1902. While working in London he also turned to writing novels and short stories with horror and romantic themes. In 1890 he embarked on a much larger work of vampire-based horror fiction. Dracula received mixed reviews after its publication, but over time achieved a fame which none of Stoker’s other novels ever enjoyed: it came to be regarded as the definitive work of Gothic horror fiction, giving rise to one of the most enduring literary myths of the twentieth century (Leatherdale 1993). It was to bring Stoker worldwide fame, although not during the author’s lifetime.
