Introduction

The author of the book

Bram Stoker (1847~1912)

Bram Stoker was born on November 8, 1847, in Dublin, Ireland. He was a frail child, so he often was bedridden during his childhood. He loved reading and writing in his youth, so he wanted to become a writer someday despite his father’s intense opposition. He became a civil servant after graduating from Trinity College.

While in the civil service, Stoker used even spare moment to work as a drama critic and as a magazine editor. Soon, he met Henry Irving, an actor with whom he established a lifelong friendship. This association seemed to have a great influence on Stoker’s entire career. He later married Florence Balcombe, the former girlfriend of Oscar Wilde, the writer, poet, and drama critic. Stoker then left his civil service job of eight years and moved to London, where he worked as the manager of the Lyceum Theater, which Henry Irving owned.

Stoker faithfully fulfilled his job duties and also worked as a writer. In addition to his first published work, Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland, many more of his long and short stories were published. In 1897, Stoker's work Dracula won his worldwide fame. He was a genuine, tireless writer who devoted himself to writing until his death on April 20, 1912.

Dracula

The story begins with the Englishman Jonathan Harker heading to meet Count Dracula, who lives in an old castle in Transylvania, Rumania. Harker is easy prey to the temptations of Count Dracula, who, under the pretense of purchasing a house in London, tricks Harker. Dracula is really a vampire, who exists only by drinking the blood of living people.

Throughout his stay in the castle, Harker is seized with fear and suspicion. As he becomes aware he is being held captive by the vampire, Harker takes decisive action at the risk of his own life to escape from the vampire’s castle. Meanwhile, Harker’s fiance, Mina, lives together with her friend Lucy. Lucy suddenly starts going outside their home at night. Mina becomes worried about Lucy turning paler and paler every day as her behavior continues...

Dracula, a masterpiece, has been performed on the stage and made into movies hundreds of times, always giving audiences sensations of thrill and horror and sometimes causing them to stay awake all night as they confront their fears.