Bram Stoker Influences

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Born on November 8, 1847 in Dublin, Ireland as Abraham Stoker to parents Abraham and Charlotte Matilda Thornley Stoker, Irish author Bram Stoker is most well known for writing the classic horror novel Dracula in 1897. He was one of seven children and also bedridden until the age of seven. Stoker enrolled at the University of Dublin where he attended the only constituency at the university, Trinity College. He graduated with honors and a mathematics degrees in 1870, and soon after became a civil servant at Dublin Castle. His first literary work was a legal document titled The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in 1879(Bio). Stoker also wrote for the local newspaper as a critic while working at the castle for no salary. After around 10 yrs. of service at Dublin Castle, Stoker left the position. During the same timeframe, Stoker established a friendship and working relationship with Sir Henry Irving, which proved to be a most important life event. Irving gave Stoker a job at the Lyceum Theatre in London’s West End. Stoker was given a management position where he would write up to 50 letters a day and would join Irving on world tours along with other responsibilities(Bio). …show more content…

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is an epistolary novel, relying on first hand accounts oppose to an omniscient narrator, and King relates Carrie in a similar manner. King’s second novel, Salem’s Lot, actually parallels Dracula closely. Dracula begins with the count wishing to purchase a house in London, while in comparison the vampire Barlow buys a home in the town of Salem’s Lot. Among those who hunted down Dracula was John Seward, who is a doctor, and Abraham Van Helsing, who was John’s medical professor and is an expert on vampires. Salem’s Lot also has a doctor, Jimmy Cody, and his former schoolteacher, Matt Burke, who not only becomes an expert on vampires but is also compared to Van