Bram Stoker: The Man Who Gave the World Dracula

22 October 2025

Paul Francis

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Bram Stoker did not live to see how famous his creation would become. When he published Dracula in 1897, it arrived into a rapidly changing world, but the novel was not considered a sensation. It sold steadily, quietly, and respectfully. Only after his death did it begin its ascent from Gothic curiosity to cultural phenomenon.

Bram Stoker in a dark suit poses against a shadowy background. Warm lighting highlights his serious expression, creating a vintage mood.

Today, Count Dracula is one of the most recognisable fictional characters in history, influencing everything from cinema and theatre to fashion, language and popular fears. Yet the man behind it, an Irish theatre manager who wrote at night, remains a far more mysterious figure.

Early Life: A Childhood in Stillness

Abraham “Bram” Stoker was born on 8 November 1847 in Dublin, into a middle-class Protestant family. As a child he suffered from a mysterious illness that left him bedridden for years. This prolonged isolation, he later said, gave him “the habit of dreaming awake.”

He eventually recovered and attended Trinity College Dublin, where he studied mathematics and excelled in athletics, but the stage soon captured his attention. He began reviewing theatre for the Dublin Evening Mail, which led to his first encounter with the celebrated actor Sir Henry Irving.

That meeting would change the trajectory of his life.

The Theatre Years: London, the Lyceum, and Obsession

In 1878, at the age of thirty-one, Stoker moved to London to become acting and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre, working directly under Irving. He would hold the position for nearly thirty years.

The Lyceum was not just a job, it was Bram Stoker’s life. He worked punishing hours, travelling constantly on performance tours, organising schedules, finances and logistics. Irving was famously demanding, but Stoker remained devotedly loyal.

During these years, he met many notable figures, among them Ellen Terry, the Lyceum’s leading lady, and Oscar Wilde, a friend from his Dublin youth. Stoker worked in the heart of London’s artistic and intellectual world. What is remarkable is that he managed to write fiction in the margins of this exhausting career, often through the night.

A vampire with pale skin and fangs holds his black cape open. He wears a dark suit with a red-lined collar, set against a shadowy background.

The Making of Dracula

Dracula, his fifth novel, was published in 1897. It was not his first attempt at horror, earlier stories explored themes of the supernatural, but Dracula was something altogether more ambitious.

It arrived in the age of late Victorian anxiety. Britain was wrestling with fear of invasion, disease, moral decay and scientific overreach. Stoker absorbed it all. He also researched Transylvanian folklore, medieval history, the occult, and early medical science.

The form was striking. It was told through diary entries, letters, newspaper reports, ship logs: fragmented testimony that made the horror feel documentary, almost factual. Dracula is nearly invisible in the book. What matters is the growing fear he leaves behind.

The novel was well received critically, but not a bestseller. It did not become legendary until theatre and cinema got hold of it, especially after the 1931 film adaptation starring Bela Lugosi, nine years after Stoker’s death.

Other Works: Ambition Beyond the Vampire

Although history remembers him almost solely for Dracula, Stoker wrote twelve novels in total.

Notable works include:

The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903) : an Egyptian mummy horror story involving death, reincarnation and occult ritual. It influenced countless later “mummy“ films.
The Lair of the White Worm (1911) : one of his strangest, most chaotic works, involving a shape-shifting serpent-woman and pre-Christian horror.
The Snake’s Pass (1890) and Miss Betty (1898) : Irish and romantic novels respectively, showing his range beyond horror.

Most of these works never achieved the lasting influence of Dracula, but they reveal Stoker’s ongoing interest in folklore, resurrection, forbidden knowledge and the fine line between rational science and ancient fear.

Final Years and Death

The Lyceum Theatre declined in the early twentieth century, and with it went Stoker’s financial stability. He suffered a series of strokes beginning around 1906, which affected his speech and mobility. His health deteriorated, and money troubles followed.

Bram Stoker died in London on 20 April 1912, aged 64. Official records cite a stroke, though tertiary complications are suspected. He died not yet a household name.

His widow Florence Stoker spent years fighting for copyright against unauthorised Dracula adaptations. It was only after his death that the world began to realise the scale of what he had created.

A Legacy That Refused to Die

Bram Stoker gave nothing less than an immortal archetype to literature. His vampire was not the first, but it was the one that endured. Through cinema, theatre, television, graphic novels, video games and even comedy, Count Dracula escaped his pages and became legend.

What makes this more extraordinary is that Stoker never sought fame as an artist. He saw himself as a working professional, a steady hand behind the scenes, not the genius at the centre of the stage.

And yet, history placed him there anyway.

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Tesco is an instantly recognisable brand in the UK. Whilst it might not be the most popular supermarket chain, it's certainly the biggest. Whether you choose to shop at their smaller local stores, their massive supermarkets or you prefer to shop online and have your groceries delivered, there’s one thing you’ll need. A Clubcard.

Without Tesco’s loyalty card, you’ll find yourself spending so much more than you would have had you signed up to Clubcard. It's incredibly easy to do, especially now you can use the app, negating the need for a physical card. The question many people have is why does it allow for such large discounts. Many people on social media are quite sceptical, some say it's a disgrace how expensive items can be without the Clubcard discount. So why not just sign up? Well for many it's a case of privacy.

The reason Tesco wants you to own a Clubcard comes down to data. You may instantly think Tesco simply wants to sell your data but it might not be in the way you first think. This isn’t about selling your name, address and content details. In truth that isn’t very useful to Tesco, especially when the open register has that information already. It's a much more useful collection of data, about your shopping habits.

To a Supermarket, knowing what you buy, how much of it and how often is incredibly valuable information. They can see the different shopping habits in different areas of the country and target certain promotions in certain areas. They can tailor the rewards they offer you based on what you purchase to entice you to spend more money. For example, if you buy a certain brand of biscuits every week but the price increases and you choose not to purchase them anymore, they could give you a personalised offer one week in an attempt to get you to purchase that item once again.

Some people aren’t very comfortable with Tesco doing this and so will choose to not join the Clubcard loyalty scheme. Tesco is aware of this and so will increase the normal prices of items to try and convince you to join Clubcard. If you want to shop online either for click-and-collect or home delivery you have to have a Clubcard. Especially during the pandemic, this must have meant an uptake in people signing up for Clubcard meaning Tesco gained even more data on shopping habits from even more people.

Whilst privacy is an understandable reason to not sign up for Clubcard, you really shouldn’t be too worried. The UK has some of the strictest data protection laws in the world. Anyone who is even remotely involved in handling data will shudder at the sound of GDPR but it's there for a reason. Tesco doesn’t sell your data. They only use it in-house. Your data is connected to you but it's not benefiting anyone other than Tesco and possibly yourself depending on the discounts received. They can see what items are frequently bought together and arrange the aisles accordingly. They can see that you may be more likely to buy one item one week and another item the next but not in the same transaction so tailor your personal discounts week by week. They can see if you prefer to shop at the little or larger stores and build stores in areas of the country based on that data. They can even use it in their banking division to gain a better understanding of you and give discounts on things like car insurance if you are seen as a more trustworthy customer.

The main thing to remember with Clubcard is whilst yes it is collecting your data, it's not being sold outside of Tesco. You will never be worse off as a customer by having one, it will only ever give you discounts. For Tesco, it's essentially a win-win situation. Tesco makes more money by having a greater understanding of how to run their stores and the customer saves money by having discounts that are personalised rather than blanket discounts that cannot be offered on certain products due to the profit they would lose. In truth there's no reason to not have one, your data will be safe thanks to the strong data protection laws in this country.