In writing ‘Dracula,’ Stoker drew from a plethora of already existing Vampire literature, such as John Polidori’s ‘The Vampyre‘ which, when published in 1819, became the first complete work of vampire literature in English prose, and Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 homoerotic vampire fiction ‘Camilla.’ There was also the anonymously published ‘Varney the Vampire‘ published in 1847. ‘Dracula‘s reputation would only truly soar years after Stoker’s death. In his time, it was less an achievement for him than his position as Henry Irving’s right-hand man. While ‘Dracula’ was favorably reviewed upon its publication, it did not bring much financial stability for Stoker. This also shows Stoker’s awareness of contemporary Britain’s colonialist and racist attitudes, as well as the bad blood between Western Europe on one hand and Russia and its Eastern European neighbors on the other. The antagonists are embodiments of sexual licentiousness, greed, and evil- and they are from Eastern Europe.
The protagonists in ‘Dracula‘ are all gentlemanly, prudish Western Europeans who were embodiments of Victorian Britain’s standards for proper conduct and character. All these most likely contributed to ‘Dracula,’ as were the sensibilities of the Victorian period in which he lived.
Stoker was also privy to the so-called vampire scare of 1896, where a Tuberculosis outbreak was mischaracterized as symptoms of vampirism. The seeds for ‘ Dracula‘ were most probably planted through the numerous horror stories involving the “undead” that Stoker’s mother told him during his long incapacitated and sickly childhood by her side.
‘ Dracula‘s staying power owed as much to Stoker’s writing as it did to the way in which he was able to capture the full range of Victorian anxieties. Through a fragmentary narrative technique and expert build-up of tension, Bram Stoker created a gripping tale that has lasted in public consciousness ever since it came out. It is the book most responsible for catapulting vampiric literature and media onto the top of public consciousness. Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula‘ is a gothic horror story about a Vampire’s attempts to gain a foothold in England in order to find fresh blood and the attempts of a group of courageous individuals to stop him.
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