Literary Review of Bram Stoker's Dracula
Review of Bram Stoker’s Dracula Prior to the creation of the literary classic “Dracula”, Bram Stoker spent his time managing the Lyceum Theatre and legendary actor Henry Irving. According to Jennifer Dorn, when the novel was first published in 1897, critics regarded it as a “pulp fiction potboiler” (Dorn). The novels declaration as a literary masterpiece came many years later. A graduate of Trinity college, Stoker came from a middle class Irish family, the son of a civil servant. The publication “The Literary World of Bram Stoker,” by Jennifer Dorn, declares that Stokers vision of the setting of London’s Victorian upper-class society, derived from his station in the acclaimed Lyceum Theatre and from his memories of summer travels to the cliff side fishing village of Whitby. In the novel, the Westenra’s reside in the quaint seaside village and it is also the port in which the counts embarks on his quest for blood, ultimately claiming the life of Lucy Westenra. Many diary entries in the novel describe the view of the town and sea from a little bench on the cemetery hilltop. The setting for the desecration of Lucy’s undead body was formed by the Stokers recollection of a mausoleum in a cemetery in the town of Hendon, according to the research of Phillip Coppens. (Coppens). The aforementioned hilltop bench is actually also located there, not in Whitby as described in the story. Though the town of Whitby is where most of the story is described, according to Dorn, Stoker actually wrote the literary classic in the town of Cruden Bay (Dorn). In fact, according to author Phillip Coppens, Stoker had never previously visited Transylvania, and all of his descriptions of the countryside came from memories of his native country Ireland (Coppens).
To understand the purpose of this novel, you must first understand the writer. Bram Stoker had an inherent interest in science and modern medicine and believed in progression, according to an Internet search of the history
To understand the purpose of this novel, you must first understand the writer. Bram Stoker had an inherent interest in science and modern medicine and believed in progression, according to an Internet search of the history
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