Next year is the 110th anniversary of the publication of Dracula. Dracula, or Count Dracula, is probably the most famous vampire of them all. After one hundred years, Dracula is so ingrained into vampire mythology that when we think vampires - we think Dracula.
You could argue that the reason for this began with F.W. Murnau's film Nosferatu. Although the main character, wonderfully portrayed by Max Schreck, is referred to as Count Orlok - the viewing public were not fooled! Thousands of fans knew Murnau was telling the Dracula story! And so began a phenomenon, Dracula is now the most portrayed character in the horror genre - beating the likes of Frankenstein - and notching up over 160 portrayals. Most notable of these, apart from the previously mentioned Max Schreck, include those by: Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee and, more recently, Gary Oldman.
So, does this explain the unbelievable success of the Dracula novel? Are the scores of portrayals serving as huge advertising campaigns? Is this the reason why one hundred years on thousands of copies of Dracula are still being sold? Of course not!
Bram Stoker's Dracula completely captured the imagination of the reading public. One of the reasons for this is that it is not written like a novel - one unknown voice telling you a story. Stoker's Dracula is told to us by many voices all of which are characters within Dracula. The protagonists tell us the story through diary entries, newspaper clippings and letters. This style of story telling adds to our fear while reading, as it immerses us in the character's plight and gives us the impression that these events could be based on truth. You may think this last statement ludicrous and it probably is, but the fact that we have never found the burial place of Vlad Dracula (Vlad the Impaler), only adds to an air of uncertainty. When you are alone at night, a copy of Dracula on the bedside table, the wind and rain pelting against the windowpane, what seems ridiculous in cold light of day seems only the more real with the unexplained noises that occur during the night.
One of the most interesting reasons why Dracula has survived the test of time is quite simply; it is the ancestor of all vampire novels. All other vampire stories are descendants of it, even Anne Rice, who refers to Dracula in one of her novels as the, "vulgar fictions of a demented Irishman," cannot dispute that her novels are descended from it.
How do we know that every vampire novel is descended from Bram Stoker's? The reason is simple, Stoker set down a list of vampire rules, and every book that followed after has used these rules. These rules may have been reinterpreted but still today, most stay remarkably true to Stoker's original vampire laws. Stakes through the heart, fear of religious symbols, sleeping in coffins- these are all Bram Stoker's ideas. All modern portrayals of vampires and vampire slayers use Stoker's story as a benchmark, or something to aspire too. You could even argue that Buffy the Vampire Slayer's watcher is a modern interpretation of Van Helsing.
Stoker was also the first person to coin the term "Un-Dead," used to this day by fiction writers to refer to vampires or zombies. Not many writers have ever achieved the accolade of inventing a word that becomes automatically absorbed into the English language.
In conclusion, if you are a avid reader looking to read one of the classics, you can't go wrong with Bram Stoker's Dracula, and like wise if you are aspiring horror writer- make it first on your list of books to read and inspire you.
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