Bram Stoker Books

"The Man Who Wrote Dracula" was the second biography written about the author of the legendary work of gothic horror "Dracula", after Henry Ludlam's 1962 book "A Biography of Dracula". This biography was written in 1975 by Daniel Farson, Bram Stoker's great-nephew, whose grandfather was Bram's younger brother Tom. It has the advantage of being privy to family gossip and anecdotes, but doesn't demonstrate the scholarship of the more recent "Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula" by Barbara Belford. In fact, "The Man Who Wrote Dracula" is given to careless use of words and unsubstantiated innuendo, but includes some details of Bram Stoker's professional life not found in Belford's book.

"The Man Who Wrote Dracula" is poorly organized into 3 parts. Part One gets off to an inauspicious start by suggesting, on the first page, that Bram Stoker's debilitating childhood illness may have been psychological, which is low on the list of possibilities. It covers Stoker's time in Ireland, from his birth to his civil service career and moonlighting as a drama critic. Then it moves to London as Stoker takes the job that would define his life: acting manager of the Lyceum Theatre and assistant to the actor Henry Irving. It continues through the best years of his life at the Lyceum. Farson only gets around to talking about Stoker's writing in the last chapter, even though he had been a published author for years at that point.

Part Two concerns the origins and reception of "Dracula". There are chapters on vampire folklore, modern vampire superstitions, explanations of vampire beliefs, literary antecedents, the 15th century Wallachian prince from whom the novel took its name -Vlad "Dracula" Tepes, and Farson analyzes some of the more far-fetched interpretations of "Dracula". I have to commend Farson for stating, in reference to Vlad Tepes, that "Stoker seized on the name of Dracula, together with a vague impression of the background, and that was all". It was around the time this book was published that the theory that Count Dracula was based on the historical Vlad Tepes was becoming popular.

Part Three returns to Stoker's life, starting in 1895, when Farson claims that Stoker started writing Dracula. Stoker actually began the novel 5 years earlier, but his working notes had not been discovered until after this book was published. We follow Stoker through difficult days at the Lyceum, fraught with financial difficulties, to life after Henry Irving, to Bram Stoker's death. Farson includes more details and commentary about Stoker's advocacy of censorship of the arts than I have read elsewhere, which is interesting. His speculation -which Farson states as fact- about the cause of Stoker's death has been the cause of much debate. Farson claims that Stoker died of syphilis, because his death certificate lists "locomotor ataxia" among the causes of death. Locomotor ataxia is, indeed, syphilitic spinal sclerosis, but Stoker had several strokes in the months before his death, whose symptoms could easily have been confused with those of locomotor ataxia by an imperceptive doctor.

"The Man Who Wrote Dracula" seems carelessly written. Although it contains some interesting anecdotes, it doesn't usually mention their source. Still, "Dracula" scholars will want to read this biography and glean what they can. But it would make a confusing and underinformed introduction to Bram Stoker's life. Read Barbara Belford's 1996 biography first.

`The Primrose Path' is part of unique collection `Dracula Library' from Desert Island Books. The book by Bram Stoker was originally written for the Shamrock, obscure Irish magazine in 1875, twenty-two years before the publication of `Dracula'

But this comparatively short novel (or novella I should call it) is not a horror. It is a little moralistic tale about one Jerry O'Sullivan, honest Dublin theatrical carpenter, who moves to London, seeking a better job. Against the better judgment of the people surrounding him, Jerry decides to go to the metropolis with his faithful wife Katey. O'Sullivan is hired as head carpenter in a squalid theater in London, but after several misfortunes he is strongly tempted by alcohol.

You find few Gothic factors in this story about the hero's moral downfall. The story is more like a tract about drinking, but it is most impressive when it describes the small world of backstage of the theater, the place with which Bram Stoker was fascinated all through his life. The tale is also interesting because it anticipates the life of Bram Stoker himself, who later went to London and became the business manager for Henry Irving. Otherwise, the story is unremarkable. The dinner party scenes, which aim for Dickensian humor of eccentric characters, all fall flat, and the tragic results of Jerry's life looks less like a psychological study than a melodramatic stage.

The book also has Stoker's short story `Buried Treasures' published at the same period of his life. The short story is about exactly what the title suggests, treasures in a sunken ship. The tale is readable, but is nothing special except the vivid descriptions of the seaside and the stormy weather.

`The Primrose Path' shows unexpectedly moral side of the writer of `Dracula' who is still trying to find his own voice and style. Keep that in mind, and read the book as such.

In 1895, less than two years before the publication of `Dracula' Bram Stoker wrote this now forgotten novella about a romance set against the background of the mountains in the West Coast, USA. It is almost unbelievable that Stoker, the creator of THE Count, wrote a love story set in America, but it is true.

The name of the book refers to Mount Shasta, located in northern California. Rich English heiress Esse is told by her doctor that she should spend the coming summer on this high mountainside to recover her health, and is sent to the cottage with her mother. Esse, after some adventures including the fight with wild bears, falls for Grizzly Dick, American guide and bear-hunter.

This short novel starts slowly with picturesque descriptions of the Californian mountains, but the book's story gets really faster and more interesting in the melodramatic latter half, where romance becomes more complicated because of the changed location and some misunderstanding.

Though Bram Stoker himself visited San Francisco as business manager of acclaimed actor Henry Irving in 1893, he most probably has never climbed Mount Shasta. Considering that, the scenery of the book in the first half is colorful and credible. The romance part is decently done, if slightly hasty, and one episode about the bears is gripping. (Esse, like Mina Harker, is not a heroine who would easily faint.)

Probably, if it were not for the name of Stoker, `Shoulder of Shasta' which has never been published in America until 2000, would have remained as obscure item in big public libraries that few would notice. As it is, the book, written in more straightforward narrative than that of `Dracula,' would offer a good chance to understand Stoker, who is usually remembered as the writer of supernatural novels like `The Jewel of Seven Stars' and of course, `Dracula.'

`The Shoulder of Shasta' from Desert Island Books gives concise but informative introduction and helpful annotation by Alan Johnson.

This sounds like fun: some ancient massive reptile still slinks about the British countryside, seeking blood! Well, Stoker's paper-thin characterizations and clock-work plotting ruin an amusing premise. Turgidly written and nonsensically blocked out (characters seem like marionettes who move without reason from scene to scene), this is useful only as a look at Stoker's odd thinking toward the end of his life. As Victorian romance, it's barely passable, but it's a sad last effort from Stoker.

See the movie! As usual with Ken Russell's films, it's cheerfully vulgar and over-the-top. And Amanda Donohoe makes a lovely "White Worm."

You must remember several biographical things about the book's author Bram Stoker and his last novel `The Lair of the White Worm' before reading it. By the time he wrote the book in 1911, Henry Irving, renowned actor for whom Stoker worked as business manager, had died in 1905. Stoker himself had suffered a stroke which nearly killed him, and in 1912 he died, about one year after the publication of `White Worm.' There are shadows of death hanging over the book, which shows the clear sign of deteriorating health of the writer.

`The Lair of the White Worm' can be rephrased as `The Lady is a White Snake.' The book is about Adam, one young man coming back from Sydney, who finds that an enormous white snake dwells in the cave (in the basement of a mansion near the house where Adam lives with his grand-uncle). Moreover, the evil snake can transform into a noblewoman Lady Arabella, who is beautiful, cold, seductive, and calculating.

The story is muddled at best, and the outrageous behaviors of the characters are all beyond belief. We meet Mr. Caswall, who is obsessed with the idea of flying a kite up in the sky. There are several sequences in which he tries to `conquer' the will of two ladies using mesmerism. Lady Arabella always carries a gun (just in case when she is attacked by a mongoose, I am not joking). Nothing makes sense here, and Adam and others, who should have known better, act as if nothing unusual happened after witnessing these weird things.

It is often pointed out that the text of `Dracula' is full of sexual innuendo. In `The Lair of the White Worm' the hidden meanings are more obvious, but written with less subtlety. The book is sometimes criticized for its misogamy (seen in the characterization of Lady Arabella), and the criticism is mostly justified. The book's conclusion is extraordinary in its sickly descriptions, which easily beat Lucy's staking scene in `Dracula.'

In a sense, Ken Russell did an incredible job in making a film out of this mess. If you're looking for some hints as to the mind of the creator of Dracula, you might be rewarded, finding some creepy images among the feeble and incoherent story. Otherwise, stay away, or read some other Gothic novels instead.

The Lair of the White Worm, which is also known as The Garden of Evil, is a classic horror novel by Bram Stoker, who is most famous for Dracula (1897), regarded as the greatest horror novel ever written. It was published in 1911, the year before Stoker's death. In 1988, Ken Russell adapted the novel into a film starring Hugh Grant.

The plot of the novel centers around Adam Salton, originally from Sydney, Australia, who receives a letter from his grand-uncle, Richard Salton, in England in 1860 for the purpose of establishing a relationship between these last two members of the family. Richard Salton plans to make Adam his heir. Adam arrives at Southampton and travels to Richard Salton's house in Mercia, the estate called Lesser Hill, and quickly finds himself in the center of mysterious and inexplicable occurrences.

He meets Sir Nathaniel de Salis who is a friend and associate to Richard Salton. He tours the countryside and visits Liverpool and becomes familiar with the terrain and its history. He learns that the area has an ancient history going back to Roman times and the time of the Druids. He discovers that Romans had settled the region and had built structures there.

The new heir to the Caswall estate, Castra Regis in Latin, the Royal Camp, is Edgar Caswall who is obsessed with mesmerism. Lady Arabella March is a mysterious widow whose husband was found with a gunshot wound to the head. She is haughty and domineering wearing tight white clothes that give her a snake-like appearance.

Adam Salton discovers black snakes on the property and buys a mongoose to hunt them down. He then discovers a child who is bitten on the neck. The child barely survives. He learns that another child was killed earlier while animals were also killed in the region. The mongoose attacks Arabella who shoots it to death. Arabella tears another mongoose apart with her hands. Arabella then murders Oolanga, the African servant, by dragging him down into a pit or hole. Adam, who is shot at, witnesses the murder. Adam then suspects Arabella of the other crimes.

Adam and Sir Nathaniel de Salis plot to stop Arabella by whatever means necessary. They suspect that she wants to murder Mimi Watford, who is half-Burmese, whom Adam marries. Mimi's half-sister is Lilla Watford, who is terrorized by Caswall and subsequently dies. Nathaniel is an Abraham Van Helsing type of character who begins tracking down the human monster, Arabella. Arabella assumes a Dracula-like menace as Adam and Nathaniel track her down to destroy her.

The White Worm is a large snake-like creature that lives in the hole or pit in Arabella's house. Like the black cat in "The Squaw", the White Worm has green glowing eyes and feeds on whatever is thrown to it in the pit. The giant White Worm eats Oolanga when he is thrown down the pit. The White Worm ascends from the pit and seeks to attack Adam and Mimi in a forest.

Adam plans to pour sand into the pit and to use dynamite to kill the giant White Worm in the pit.

Edgar Caswall is a slightly pathological eccentric who has Mesmer's chest which he keeps at the Doom Tower, in the turret-chamber. Caswall wants to recreate mesmerism, associated with Anton Mesmer, which was a precursor to hypnotism. He has a giant kite in the shape of a hawk to scare away pigeons which have gone berzerk and have attacked his fields.

In the final scene, Adam Salton, Mimi Watford, and Nathaniel de Salis confront Arabella and Edgar Caswall. A thunderstorm and lightning destroy Diana's Grove by igniting the dynamite.

The Lair of the White Worm is a surreal horror fantasy novel by one of the greatest horror writers of all time. Dracula is arguably the greatest horror novel ever written in any language. It inspired the German horror classic Nosferatu and the 1931 Universal seminal classic Dracula starring Bela Lugosi. That movie started the horror genre in the US and around the world, being Universal's first horror movie. Dracula proved to be a huge success which convinced Universal to release other horror movies.

Most readers only know Bram Stoker for one work, Dracula. He wrote other novels, however, such as The Lady of the Shroud, The Jewel of Seven Stars, The Lair of the White Worm, The Man, non-fiction books such as Famous Impostors (1910), and short story collections such as Dracula's Guest (1914) and Under the Sunset (1882). The Lair of the White Worm is a short novel, approximately 120 pages in length. It is highly recommended. It has unforgettable surreal images and fantasy horror. It is a page-turner and a book difficult to put down. It is well-written and recaptures some of the menace and terror of Dracula.

The Lair of the White Worm is a must-read and a must-own horror novel for anyone interested in the genre by the foremost horror writer, Bram Stoker. The novel was published one year before Stoker died. He managed to get in one more shocker and thriller.

Allegedly written while the author was going insane, "The Lair of the White Worm" is a fantastic, dream-like narrative whose only saving grace is that there's nothing else like it out there. The plot, if one can call it that, is a maze of myth and pseudo-gothic imagery that, while never the least bit convincing, is somehow irresistible. It is to Stoker's credit that he was able to infuse even a total failure with a mesmeric readability--perhaps he had taken lessons from one his own characters (read the book and you'll get it)! The whole has shades of "Dracula," though none of that work's macabre artistry. Whereas "Dracula" is a frequently subtle, carefully crafted piece of literature which defies the reader to refute its horrors, "Lair of the White Worm" requires so many leaps of faith that it's impossible to achieve any suspension of disbelief. But again, despite its literary deficiciencies, the book inexplicably entertains on a minor level. Amidst the decaying estates through which his characters stumble, the hackneyed romance, the stupefying telepathic duels, the clouds of protective pigeons and the malevolent kite (!)and the gross-out climax in the midst of a raging storm--between all these things are glimpses into a great writer's mind that, to the true devotee of classic horror, might make this book worth buying. Caveat Emptor!

It has been said that Ken Russell's 1980s cinematic adaptation of Bram Stoker's "classic", "The Lair of the White Worm", is a travesty of the original, a betrayal of the source material. However, a read of the book in question will in fact reveal that Russell must be some sort of genius to rewrite this thing so that it makes any kind of sense at all.

Our story begins in rural England, though I must say that it's not much like the rural England I remember from my childhood. For one thing, every landmark and citizen appears to live within one hundred feet of each other; this almost claustrophobic aspect of the Less Than Great Outdoors proves a plot point later on when not one, but two, places of residence are blown to smithereens by the same bolt of lightning. Still, they were evil places of residence, so let's not trouble ourselves too much about it.

Our central characters are young Adam Salton, an allegedly dashing Australian, and his pal Sir Nathaniel de Salis, the kind of individual whose immediate reaction upon hearing that a young lord of the realm was staring at a young woman is that this is "a matter of life and death".

The rest of our merry band includes Edgar Caswall, said young lord, whose primary delight in life is flying kites through thunderstorms in a manner that can only be described as Darwinian; Mimi and Lilla Watford, shy blushing young country lasses straight from Central Casting, whose primary role in the proceedings is to engage in inadvertently hilarious staring contests with Edgar; Oolanga, a jaw-droppingly racist caricature of a black man who, since Stoker wants to have his Ku Klux Kake and eat it too, is both manipulative AND stupid; and, last but certainly not least, Lady Arabella March, the White Worm herself, although Stoker can't seem to make his mind up as to whether or not she was originally human and is now possessed by the Worm's spirit (as a flashback by Sir Nate would indicate), or is actually an ancient serpent who has evolved the ability to shape-shift (as everyone eventually concludes).

Evidently, when the forces of Good and Evil are collectively as effective as, well, flying a kite in the middle of a thunderstorm, you can immediately see how the story is going to be problematic. This, however, does not do the book justice. Independent of the characters, Stoker manages to cram in such enormous plot holes that the Worm, were it to really exist, could comfortably dwell inside one of them for many centuries to come. This is a novel where, after the battle lines have been clearly drawn, the deadly enemies STILL keep inviting each other to tea; where two entire chapters are dedicated to a chest that belonged to Mesmer, which turns out to have absolutely no further role to play in proceedings whatsoever; where a villain murders a victim right in front of the hero and then does nothing to stop him telling anyone other than writing him a sternly worded letter. Clearly, we're not in Kansas anymore. I understand they have editors there.

In addition to all this, we're treated to Stoker's thrilling theories about such matters as gender (women are either evil or stupid), mental illness (mad people are just being selfish), and, especially, race relations, upon which everyone in the novel, good and bad, can agree that black people are just naturally inferior. Isn't it nice that they can all put aside their differences in the face of a common cause?

So, yes, all of this contributes to make "Lair of the White Worm" a less than urgent addition to one's book collection. However, I hasten to add that the book, if read as a comedy, is an absolute laugh riot. Keeping that in mind, I shall leave you with my own personal favorite exchange from the novel, one which, I hope, will afford you as much mirth as it did me:

"'...God alone knows what poor Captain March discovered - it must have been something too ghastly for human endurance, if my theory is correct that the once beautiful human body of Lady Arabella is under the control of this ghastly White Worm.'

"Adam nodded.

"'But what can we do, sir - it seems a most difficult problem.'"

The story opens with a woman in white, a shroud, in a coffin on the water. A fairly odd sort of a both, that one. A bit of a gothic type of story, here.

This is one of those tales where the odd woman that might be a vampire turns up at your doorway trying out for a full length wet t-shirt contest. However, she only wants help, as she and others have been in an accident.

The protagonist does have a psychic aunt though, for some reason.

`The Lady of the Shroud,' written in 1909 by the author of `Dracula' has been an obscure title, and will remain so forever. The book opens with a stunning sequence with a mysterious lady in a small coffin floating off the coast of the Blue Mountain, fictional country in Balkan Peninsula. Clearly Bram Stoker wrote this surprise opening, part imitating Wilkie Collins's style. (`The Lady of the Shroud' is written in the style of assorted documents like `The Woman in White' and of course, `Dracula.')

However, the intriguing opening soon drifts into very lengthy and boring sequences about the reading of a will, which changes the life of young intrepid Rupert Sent Leger. Rupert inherits enormous amount of money on condition that he help the people of the Blue Mountain and the Balkan acquire the independence from the threatening power surrounding them.

[NOT EXACTLY A GOTHIC NOVEL] But how does the titular `Lady of the Shroud' fit in the story? The scanty Gothic elements are provided by the enigmatic woman who knocks on the window of the Castle of Vissarion in the middle of the night. The beautiful lady in white shroud, soaked to the skin, asks Rupert to allow her to stay in his room, and warm herself. Rupert, suspecting that she might be a vampire, lets her in, and finds himself attracted to the majestic beauty of the lady. But who is she?

The truths about the lady are far from convincing, even far less interesting than the three female vampires in the Castle Dracula. For all the inclusion of such items as deserted church, `second sight' of Rupert's aunt, and very ritualistic midnight marriage, you will be disappointed if you are looking for any occult element in this book. What little Gothic factor in the first part of the book is dispersed in the second half, in which you read, most incredibly, about battleships and aeroplanes. In spite of the unique topics used here, Bram Stoker never succeeds in incorporating these high-tech items into the story, and his bland prose is not imaginative enough to successfully envision the new world of the Balkan nation.

To be honest, I found most part of the book very boring. Stoker throws several interesting things into the book's story, but he doesn't seem to understand that reading about ten or more pages of the minutest (and dull) accounts of the fictional country's coronation ceremony can be hardly attractive. You just cannot do that if you started a book with the `Lady' in the floating coffin. I know it is cruel to say this, but if the book has a merit, it might be that it shows how Stoker failed to realize and re-create the successful formula that worked in `Dracula' written about ten years before.

Diasappointing Selection, Oct 22 2007
By D. Cooley - See all my reviews


I was looking forward to this small selection of stories. I was familiar with Michael Williams from some of his TV work and had never heard of the stories Dog or Demon and The Mystery of the Semi-Detached. Dog or Demon is indeed a chilling story but nowhere in the 2 cassettes can "The Mystery of the Semi-Detached" or the anonymous "Haunting" be found. The Judge's House is enjoyable and The Watcher becomes a poignant ode to the "dumb" animals of the wild. However, most of the rest of the selection is devoted to the ponderous Dickens standard "The Signalman" and to Bierce's "The Moonlit Road". The latter is almost silly in its earnestness about Spiritualism and fails to deliver the chills of Bierce's other stories such as "The Damned Thing" and "The Eyes of the Panther".
In summation, there are only five stories present in this collection, not seven; and of the five I can only recommend three.

Why is this even listed? This short work is in the public domain and can be found for free elsewhere on the internet. I suspect Amazon is just inflating its Kindle books count by including works like this.

Put it on you Kindle for free elsewhere.

It is commonly said that the book is better than the movie. For many cases, that is probably true; such as the recent Star Wars movies, Harry Potter, and the Time Machine. But this is one book that was not worth reading. Coming in at over 600 pages, this slowly-paced book tells the story of a man who ventures to Romania to find a man who is actually something more; a vampire that drinks human blood to stay alive. He must rescue his love from this creature, and is aided by a small cast of characters who have tracked Dracula for decades. The book is quite boring, and I highly suggest one to read an abridged version, or to watch the movie with Gary Oldman.