Bram Stoker Abraham "Bram" Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula. During his lifetime, he was better known as personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, which Irving owned. Early life[edit] Stoker was born on 8 November 1847 at 15 Marino Crescent, Clontarf, on the northside of Dublin, Ireland.[1] His parents were Abraham Stoker (1799–1876), from Dublin, and Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley (1818–1901), who was raised in County Sligo.[2] Stoker was the third of seven children, the eldest of whom was Sir Thornley Stoker, 1st Bt.[3] Abraham and Charlotte were members of the Church of Ireland Parish of Clontarf and attended the parish church with their children, who were baptised there. Stoker was bedridden with an unknown illness until he started school at the age of seven, when he made a complete recovery. Early career[edit] Lyceum Theatre[edit]
M. R. James Early influences[edit] Scholarly works[edit] James is best known for his ghost stories, but his work as a medieval scholar was prodigious and remains highly respected in scholarly circles. He catalogued many of the manuscript libraries of the Cambridge colleges. James also achieved a great deal during his directorship of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge [1893–1908]. James was Provost of Eton College from 1918 to 1936.[1] He died in 1936 and was buried in Eton town cemetery. Ghost stories[edit] James's ghost stories were published in a series of collections: Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911), A Thin Ghost and Others (1919), and A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925). According to James, the story must "put the reader into the position of saying to himself, 'If I'm not very careful, something of this kind may happen to me!'" Other critics have seen complex psychological undercurrents in James's work. Adaptations[edit] Film[edit]
Bram Stoker's Dracula Bram Stoker's Dracula is a 1992 American horror fantasy erotic drama film directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.[3][4][5] It stars Gary Oldman as Count Dracula, Winona Ryder as Mina Harker, Anthony Hopkins as Professor Abraham Van Helsing, and Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker. Bram Stoker's Dracula was greeted by a generally positive critical reception and was a box office hit, although Reeves' performance has been widely criticised. Its score was composed by Wojciech Kilar and featured "Love Song for a Vampire" by Annie Lennox, which became an international hit, as the closing credits theme. Plot[edit] In 1462, Vlad Dracula, a member of the Order of the Dragon, returns from a victory against the Turks to find his wife, Elisabeta, has committed suicide after receiving a false report of his death. In 1897, newly qualified solicitor Jonathan Harker takes the Transylvanian Count Dracula as a client from his colleague R. Cast[edit] [edit]
Vlad the Impaler Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (1431–1476/77), was a member of the House of Drăculești, a branch of the House of Basarab, also known by his patronymic name: Dracula. He was posthumously dubbed Vlad the Impaler (Romanian: Vlad Țepeș pronounced [ˈvlad ˈt͡sepeʃ]), and was a three-time Voivode of Wallachia, ruling mainly from 1456 to 1462, the period of the incipient Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. His father, Vlad II Dracul, was a member of the Order of the Dragon, which was founded to protect Christianity in Eastern Europe. As the cognomen 'The Impaler' suggests, his practice of impaling his enemies is part of his historical reputation.[2] During his lifetime, his reputation for excessive cruelty spread abroad, to Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Name[edit] Bust of Vlad the Impaler in Sighișoara, his place of birth During his life Vlad wrote his name in Latin documents as Wladislaus Dragwlya, vaivoda partium Transalpinarum (1475).[3] Family[edit] Early life[edit] Life in Edirne[edit]
Frankenstein Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, is a novel written by English author Mary Shelley about eccentric scientist Victor Frankenstein, who creates a grotesque creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty. The first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818. Shelley had travelled through Europe in 1814, journeying along the river Rhine in Germany with a stop in Gernsheim which is just 17 km (10 mi) away from Frankenstein Castle, where two centuries before an alchemist was engaged in experiments.[1][2][3] Later, she traveled in the region of Geneva (Switzerland)—where much of the story takes place—and the topics of galvanism and other similar occult ideas were themes of conversation among her companions, particularly her lover and future husband, Percy Shelley. Summary[edit] A variety of different editions Captain Walton's introductory frame narrative[edit]
Mary Shelley Mary Shelley (née Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Mary Godwin's mother died when she was eleven days old; afterwards, she and her older half-sister, Fanny Imlay, were raised by her father. In 1816, the couple famously spent a summer with Lord Byron, John William Polidori, and Claire Clairmont near Geneva, Switzerland, where Mary conceived the idea for her novel Frankenstein. Biography Early life Page from William Godwin's journal recording "Birth of Mary, 20 minutes after 11 at night" (left column, four rows down) Percy Bysshe Shelley Bath and Marlow
Robert Louis Stevenson A literary celebrity during his lifetime, Stevenson now ranks among the 26 most translated authors in the world.[1] His works have been admired by many other writers, including Jorge Luis Borges, Bertolt Brecht, Marcel Proust, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, Cesare Pavese, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Vladimir Nabokov,[2] J. M. Barrie,[3] and G. Life[edit] Childhood and youth[edit] Daguerreotype portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson as a young child Stevenson's childhood home in Heriot Row Lewis Balfour and his daughter both had weak chests, so they often needed to stay in warmer climates for their health. Stevenson's parents were both devout and serious Presbyterians, but the household was not strict in its adherence to Calvinist principles. Robert Louis Stevenson at the age of seven Education[edit] Say not of me that weakly I declined The labours of my sires, and fled the sea, The towers we founded and the lamps we lit, To play at home with paper like a child.
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the original title of a novella written by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson that was first published in 1886. The work is commonly known today as The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. The work is commonly associated with the rare mental condition often spuriously called "split personality", referred to in psychiatry as dissociative identity disorder, where within the same body there exists more than one distinct personality.[4] In this case, there are two personalities within Dr Jekyll, one apparently good and the other evil; completely opposite levels of morality. Inspiration and writing[edit] Robert Louis Stevenson "In the small hours of one morning,[...]I was awakened by cries of horror from Louis. Lloyd Osbourne, Stevenson's stepson, wrote: "I don't believe that there was ever such a literary feat before as the writing of Dr Jekyll. As was customary, Mrs Stevenson would read the draft and offer her criticisms in the margins. Dr. Dr.
The Body Snatcher The Body Snatcher (1884) is a short story by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. First published in the Pall Mall Christmas "Extra", in December 1884, the story is based on characters in the employ of Robert Knox, around the time of the Burke and Hare murders. Plot summary[edit] The story begins with a group of friends sharing a few drinks, when an eminent doctor, Wolfe MacFarlane, enters. One of the friends, Fettes, recognizes the name and angrily confronts the new arrival. It transpires that MacFarlane and Fettes had attended medical school together, under the famous professor of anatomy, Robert Knox. On one occasion, Fettes identifies a body as that of a woman he knew, and is convinced she has been murdered. Later, Fettes meets MacFarlane at a tavern, along with a man named Gray, who treats MacFarlane in a rude manner. Fettes and MacFarlane continue their work, without being implicated in any crime. Film, TV and theatrical adaptations[edit] External links[edit]
Ghosts & Scholars, Montague Rhodes James, M.R. James Newsletter "Shortly before his death I asked him what he really thought on the subject, since he had written better ghost-stories than any man living. He answered: 'Depend upon it! Some of these things are so, but we do not know the rules!'" --- Shane Leslie on M.R. James. Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936), Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and later of Eton, was a noted medieval scholar, antiquary, and expert on Bible apocrypha. M.R. The Newsletter is edited by Rosemary Pardoe (pardos@globalnet.co.uk); with assistant editors, David Rowlands and Steve Duffy. Issue 21 (April 2012) of The Ghosts & Scholars M.R. Jamesian News. (March 29, 2012) Current and Forthcoming Publications, Back Issues List, and Subscription Information. Guidelines for Contributors to The G&S M.R. Jamesian Cards and Bookmarks For Sale. Frequently Asked Questions. A Chronological Listing of M.R. Index to Ghosts & Scholars 1-33. Index to The Ghosts & Scholars M.R. Bibliography of Writings about M.R. M.R. An Index to M.R. The M.R.
Paul Féval, père Paul Henri Corentin Féval, père (29 September 1816 - 8 March 1887) was a French novelist and dramatist. Féval's greatest claim to fame, however, is as one of the fathers of modern crime fiction. Because of its themes and characters, his novel Jean Diable (1862) can claim to be the world's first modern novel of detective fiction. His masterpiece was Les Habits Noirs (1863–1875), a criminal saga comprising eleven novels. After losing his fortune in a financial scandal, Féval became a born-again Christian, stopped writing crime thrillers, and began to write religious novels, leaving the tale of the Habits Noirs uncompleted. Life[edit] Paul Féval, postcard F. Paul Henri Corentin Féval was born at the Hôtel de Blossac in Rennes in Brittany on 29 September 1816. Féval's break came with the Les Mystères de Londres (1844), a sprawling feuilleton written to cash in on the success of Eugène Sue's Les Mystères de Paris. In 1882, Paul Féval was again ruined, the victim of an embezzler. Sources[edit]
List of Gothic Fiction works Gothic fiction (sometimes referred to as Gothic horror or Gothic romanticism) is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Books[edit] A[edit] B[edit] C[edit] D[edit] E[edit] F[edit] G[edit] H[edit] I[edit] J[edit] K[edit] L[edit] M[edit] N[edit] O[edit] P[edit] Q[edit] R[edit] S[edit] T[edit] U[edit] Miloš Urban's The Seven Churches (1999)[11] V[edit] W[edit] X[edit] Y[edit] Z[edit] Anonymous[edit] The Nightwatches of Bonaventura (1804)[15] References[edit]
Gothic fiction Romance, horror and death literary genre Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror (primarily in the 20th century), is a literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name of the genre refers to the Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which characterised the settings of early Gothic novels. Role of architecture [edit] Including a Gothic building in a story serves several purposes. 'Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world. — Lines from Shakespeare's Hamlet The components that would eventually combine into Gothic literature had a rich history by the time Walpole presented a fictitious medieval manuscript in The Castle of Otranto in 1764. Another major influence among Gothic writers was John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667), particularly his depiction of the tragic anti-hero character Satan. Alexander Pope also had a significant role in shaping Gothic fiction. Development of Gothic aesthetics