Who Was Dracula? (27 page)

Oscar Wilde early in his career, at the time of his North American tour.
(© Corbis)

Clyde Fitch was an early paramour of Wilde, and Mansfield's collaborator.

Richard Mansfield starring in
Beau Brummell
, Clyde Fitch's play.

Oscar Wilde, the successful playwright, at the height of his fame.
(© Corbis)

TOP LEFT
: Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Svengali; his production of
A Woman of No Importance
was at the center of Wilde's trials.

TOP RIGHT
:
The Marquess of Queensberry (John Sholto Douglas) accused Wilde of “posing as a sodomite.”
(© Corbis)

BOTTOM LEFT
:
Ellen Terry with her terrier Drummie and, right, Irving's terrier Fussie.

BOTTOM RIGHT
:
Henry Irving's career ended with a series of missed opportunities and failures.

Bram Stoker, at the time of Henry Irving's death.

Bela Lugosi as Dracula in 1927; he popularized the vampire for the twentieth century, first on Broadway and then in Hollywood.
(Florence Vandamm Photo © Corbis)

My agent, Jim Fitzgerald, was the very first to say to me, “Bram Stoker,” quite unaware that I'd been following the twists and turns in Dracula histories for many years.

At Tarcher, the project arrived at the desk of my editor, Mitch Horowitz, and I am grateful for his enthusiasm and careful advice throughout the project.

Orson Welles, whom I'd worked with in the early 1980s, recounted his belief that Stoker had based his character on Henry Irving, but subsequent research has widened that net and added levels of complexity to the story. It was fascinating to assemble the pieces and draw from the decades of wonderful Dracula scholarship.

There is a great deal of fascinating material written on the subject of Dracula, and I benefited from the remarkable works of informative and insightful authors. I'd cite, in particular, David Skal, who first inspired me with his magnificent tale of the evolution of Dracula in popular culture,
Hollywood Gothic
. Mr. Skal has since gone on to publish a great deal of primary source material on Dracula, adding his own commentary.

Similarly, Elizabeth Miller has gathered together a great mass of important Dracula source material in her various books. This diligent research has been matched by her sensible, wonderful insights into the subject. I think that no one has provided a brighter light, and pointed it in precisely the right direction, than Elizabeth Miller.

At the Rosenbach Library, Farrar Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Fuller were most helpful.

Finally, thanks to my friends (and
Dracula
fans) Richard Kaufman and Marty Demarest, who looked at it all with a fresh eye and a critical eye. Thanks to David Regal and Ben Robinson for suggestions and encouragement. And to my wife, Frankie Glass, for her support, ideas, and advice throughout a long project.

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I've based my description of Henry Irving's rehearsals, and the production of
Faust
, on various sources. Bram Stoker tells the story of the Brocken scene, and his doubt about its overall effect, in Bram Stoker,
Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving
(New York: Macmillan, 1906). The production of
Faust
has been wonderfully described by Michael R. Booth,
Victorian Spectacular Theatre, 1850–1910
(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981), and George Rowell,
Theatre in the Age of Irving
(Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1981).

Edwin Booth is quoted in Booth,
Victorian Spectacular Theatre
. This book also explains the special effects that were specially installed. There is speculation about Irving's personal lights, built within the hood of his garment. Michael R. Booth quotes several sources about this lighting effect, suggesting that Irving had three different colors of lights used throughout the play. Perhaps Irving experimented with this effect. It sounds far-fetched to me, and the subtlety required would have been difficult to achieve in 1885. Stoker,
Personal Reminiscences
, gives the details of the magical swordfight. Booth,
Victorian Spectacular Theatre
, explains the opening-night accident.

Faust
gives a perfect impression of Irving's unique productions onstage, and a taste of his mixture of illusion and theatrics. I believe that this highly charged, melodramatic atmosphere was an important influence on Stoker, who saw his ideal stories in these same terms.

Irving's quotes to Stoker about the Brocken scene are from Stoker,
Personal Reminiscences.

Ellen Terry's note about the light is quoted from Ellen Terry (with Edith Craig and Christopher St. John),
Ellen Terry's Memoirs
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1932). Booth's remarks, and Henry James's criticism, are from Booth,
Victorian Spectacular Theatre
. David Devant's observations are from David Devant's
Secrets of My Magic
(London: Hutchinson, 1936).

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Stoker's expressions of his relationship to Irving are from Stoker,
Personal Reminiscences
. For Bram Stoker's early life, I've used his own
Personal Reminiscences
(which contains a little autobiographical material about his childhood), and four biographies of Stoker: Harry Ludlam,
A Biography of Dracula: The Life Story of Bram Stoker
(London: Quality Book Club, 1962); Daniel Farson,
The Man Who
Wrote Dracula: A Biography of Bram Stoker
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 1975); Barbara Belford,
Bram Stoker: A Biography of
the Author of Dracula
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996); and Paul Murray,
From the Shadow of Dracula: A Life
of Bram Stoker
(London: Pimlico, 2005). A number of these biographies are linked to Stoker's family members and associates. Ludlam wrote the book with the cooperation of Noel Stoker, Bram's son, and the recollections of Hamilton Deane, the actor and producer who adapted
Dracula
for the stage. Barbara Belford made extensive use of Stoker's papers from the Lyceum, including some personal papers. Daniel Farson, a great-nephew of Stoker, compiled his book after Noel had died. He had access to a cache of family letters as well as the assistance of Ann McCaw, Bram's granddaughter, and her son Noel Dobbs. The Stoker family papers are now housed at Trinity College.

Stoker's early accounts of Henry Irving are from Stoker,
Personal Reminiscences.

Material from Oscar Wilde's childhood in Dublin is from Richard Ellmann,
Oscar Wilde
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988), and Eric Lambert,
Mad with Much Heart: A Life of the Parents of Oscar Wilde
(London: Fredrick Muller, 1967). Le Fanu is discussed in Murray,
From the Shadow of Dracula
, and Elizabeth Miller, ed.,
Bram Stoker's Dracula
 (New York: Pegasus, 2009). This is a fascinating collection of primary-source Dracula material.

Polidori's story is discussed in Miller,
Bram Stoker's Dracula
, and the vampire dramas are discussed in Roxana Stuart,
Stage Blood: Vampires of the 19th-Century Stage
(Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1994), and Richard Fawkes,
Dion Boucicault
(London: Quartet Books, 1979). The account of Stoker meeting Boucicault is from Murray,
From the Shadow of Dracula.

Stoker's letters to Whitman are recounted (in vague terms) in Stoker,
Personal Reminiscences
, and quoted by Horace Traubel,
With Walt Whitman in Camden
, vol. 4:
January 21–April 7, 1889
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1953).

Stoker's account of Henry Irving and “The Dream of Eugene Aram” is from Stoker,
Personal Reminiscences.

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Henry Irving's story is from Stoker,
Personal Reminiscences
; Belford,
Bram Stoker
; Laurence Irving,
Henry Irving, the Actor and His
World
(New York: Macmillan, 1951); Austin Brereton,
The Life of
Henry Irving
 (Bronx, NY: Benjamin Blom, 1969); Frances Donaldson,
The
Actor-Managers
(Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1970); and David Mayer, ed.,
Henry
Irving and The Bells
, with a memoir by Eric Jones-Evans (Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 1980).

Florence Balcombe is from Ludlam,
A Biography of Dracula
; Farson,
The Man Who Wrote Dracula
;
Belford,
Bram Stoker
; and Murray,
From the Shadow of Dracula
. Her relationship with Wilde is from Ellmann,
Oscar Wilde
.

Henry Labouchère's interest in Irving is from Irving,
Henry Irving
.

Ellen Terry's story is from Stoker,
Personal Reminiscences
; Belford,
Bram Stoker
; Irving,
Henry Irving
; and Terry,
Ellen Terry's Memoirs
.

Information on Noel and Florence Stoker is from Ludlam,
A Biography of Dracula
; Farson,
The Man Who Wrote Dracula
; Belford,
Bram Stoker
; and Murray,
From the Shadow of Dracula
. Wilde is from Ellmann,
Oscar Wilde
; Neil McKenna,
The
Secret Life of Oscar Wilde
(New York: Basic Books, 2005); and Franny Moyle,
Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of
Mrs. Oscar Wilde
(London: John Murray, 2011).

Stoker's early books are described in Belford,
Bram Stoker
, and Murray,
From the Shadow of Dracula
. His short novels have been reprinted in
Complete Works of Bram Stoker
(London: Delphi Classics, Digital Edition, 2011). Reviews are from Carol A. Senf, ed.,
The Critical Response to Bram Stoker
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993).

Both Terry's and Irving's voice recordings are available online. Max Beerbohm is quoted in Belford,
Bram Stoker
. Irving's lines in Shakespeare, and Terry's objections, are from Stoker,
Personal Reminiscences
. Her remark about the steamroller is quoted in Donaldson,
The Actor-Managers
.

Irving's stage effects are from Stoker,
Personal Reminiscences
, and A. Nicholas Vardac,
Stage to Screen
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1949). Wilde's letter is quoted from Ellmann,
Oscar Wilde
.

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Fussie is from Belford,
Bram Stoker
, and Murray,
From the Shadow of Dracula
. His appearance onstage is from Terry,
Ellen Terry's Memoirs
. Stoker's appearances onstage are from Stoker,
Personal Reminiscences
.

Irving's productions are from Brereton,
The Life of Henry Irving
; Irving,
Henry Irving
; Belford,
Bram Stoker
; and Ellmann,
Oscar Wilde
. The account of the performances before Victoria are from Stoker,
Personal Reminiscences
. Stoker's work at the Lyceum is from Ludlam,
A Biography of Dracula
; Farson,
The Man Who Wrote Dracula
; and Belford,
Bram Stoker
. Irving's speeches are described in Stoker,
Personal Reminiscences
.

Hall Caine is described in Miller,
Bram Stoker's Dracula
, and Vivien Allen,
Hall Caine: Portrait of a Victorian Romancer
(Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997). Irving's dinners and the Beefsteak Room evenings are described in Stoker,
Personal Reminiscences
; Belford,
Bram Stoker
; and Murray,
From the Shadow of Dracula.

Stoker's reviews are from Senf,
The Critical Response to Bram Stoker
, and his law training was described in Murray,
From the Shadow of Dracula
.

Irving's tours, and the visit to Whitman, are from Brereton,
The Life of Henry Irving
, and Stoker,
Personal Reminiscences
.

Caine is from Miller,
Bram Stoker's Dracula
. Descriptions of Stoker appear in Joseph Hatton,
Henry Irving's Impressions of America
(Boston: J. R. Osgood, 1884). Louis Austin is quoted in Farson,
The Man Who Wrote Dracula
.

The visits to Whitby are described in Belford,
Bram Stoker
; Murray,
From the Shadow of Dracula
; and Miller,
Bram Stoker's Dracula
. Stoker's notes are housed at the Rosenbach Library in Philadelphia, where I was able to see them. Librarian Elizabeth Fuller was most helpful and informative. The notes have been reproduced in Bram Stoker,
Bram Stoker's Notes for Dracula: A Facsimile Edition
, ed. Robert Eighteen-Bisang and Elizabeth Miller (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008).

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