Victorian Texts Tuesday: Bram Stoker's Dracula

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to state that Abraham "Bram" Stoker loved sensational fiction. Even at university, as a member of the University Philosophical Society, he wrote a paper on "Sensationalism in Fiction and Society."

Like most authors, Stoker conceived Dracula based on a number of influences. Whitby, the northeastern coastal English town, which serves as Dracula's port of entry in the novel, was a place that Stoker knew well, being the favored site for his summer holidays. He researched European folklore in the library at Whitby and was particularly drawn to a book about the principalities of Wallachia in modern day Romania. Stoker likely drew the name Dracula from these accounts. It is a derivation of the name, Dracul, based on the chivalric Order of the Dragon, used by Vlad II and his son, Vlad III, also known as Vlad Tepes, the Impaler. He was Dracula, or son of Dracul.

Stoker also befriended Armin Vambery, a Victorian traveler, who shared stories of the Carpathian region with the Irish author. Some even speculate that Stoker's character Van Helsing may have been based on Vambery, but as appealing as the notion may be there is little proof to substantiate such a claim.

The novel itself is a rich, complex text, still studied, read, and beloved today, perhaps more influential now than it was in its own time. Told in epistolary format, the novel doesn't just follow the letters or journal entries of one character, but several, and it even utilizes fictional newspaper accounts and ship's logs to move the story along. Such a technique gives me the sense, each time I re-read the novel, that I've happened upon a treasure trove of written clues that I must piece together to draw closer to the mystery of Stoker's vampire.

Though the novel remains in print and continues to inspire films, books, and even a new, lushly produced television series starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, it did not make Stoker a wealthy man at the time. Bram was so poor near the end of his life that he asked for assistance from the Royal Literary Fund. However, the novel was critically appreciated, even upon its release, and many recognized it for it's iconic qualities and the enormous talent of its author.


Whether you love or hate the novel, or have never experienced the story except through film and television adaptations, Stoker's Dracula has made an undeniable and indelible impact on popular culture and continues to feed our ongoing fascination with vampires.

Ripper Street and the Real Ed Reid

I jump at any chance to see Victorian England portrayed in movies and on television, so the prospect of Ripper Street, when they began advertising it on BBC America last year, had me delirious with anticipation by the time the first episode aired in January 2013. I wasn’t disappointed. How could I be? The series stars Matthew Macfadyen as Detective Inspector Edmund Reid, who hardly has time to deal with the aftermath of the Jack the Ripper murders before equally heinous crimes arise in his corner of London’s East End.

It’s easy to get distracted by Macfadyen’s voice and eyes and his altogether excellent acting, but the other cast members—Jerome Flynn as DS Drake and Adam Rothenberg as former US Army Surgeon and Pinkerton agent turned brothel owner Captain Homer Jackson—are equally engaging. I particularly like the fact that the series uses relevant historical issues from the period to drive the show’s episodes and storyline. In the first season alone, they have explored the advent of moving picture film, the threat of cholera, the development of the underground railway, and the London Dock Strike of 1889, to name just a few. Luckily for those of us who have enjoyed every moment of the first season, a second has been commissioned and should be filming soon.

The real Edmund Reid was a bit different than the tall, handsome, deep-voiced Macfadyen. Well, Reid might actually have sported a deliciously deep baritone. There are no extant recordings to prove otherwise. But he wasn’t tall. In fact, at the time he joined he was the shortest man on the Metropolitan Police force at 5 feet 6 inches tall. However, his height did nothing to deter his rise up the ranks. He entered the Met as a constable in 1872 at the age of twenty-six, and he finally reached the position of Detective Inspector in 1885. Three years later, when Jack the Ripper began his homicidal rampage through East End London, DI Reid was the head of the CID (Criminal Investigation Department) in Whitechapel.

The real Reid must have been a bit of an adventurer. Not only did he choose to join the police force and enter the detective service, but he was a balloonist and parachutist. He made about 23 balloon ascents and, in 1883, won a gold medal for a record-breaking ascent from The Crystal Palace. Like his fictionalized counterpart on Ripper Street, he did have a wife named Emily. However, he and his Emily had two children, a daughter named Elizabeth and a son named Harold. Seventeen years after Emily’s passing, Reid remarried to Lydia Halling, a woman twenty years his junior. Unfortunately, he died later that same year at the age of seventy-one.

Ripper Street’s Reid has the same kind of scappy, means-to-an-end attitude about solving crime and finding the truth as I imagine the real DI Reid possessed. For a wonderful combination of historical details, cinematic flair, and great acting, check out Ripper Street on BBC America, iTunes, or Amazon Instant Video.