Bram Stoker - The Lair of the White Worm

Soon Dracula is stalking Harker’s fiancée Wilhelmina and her friend Lucy. When Lucy begins to fall ill her blood is drained and she appears to die. However, by night she is resurrected as a vampire, where she begins victimizing children. Professor Abraham Van Helsing recognizes that Lucy has become a vampire, so she is ritually killed. Dracula reacts by infecting Wilhelmina and controlling her mind through telepathy. Ultimately Dracula is pursued back to his castle, as the Professor knows that the only way to save Wilhelmina is to put an end to Dracula.

Stoker’s book is made real by the way it is written. It comprises various accounts narrated by different characters and includes excerpts from newspaper reports. The result is a story that has the illusion of truth. This style of writing is known as epistolary and was also used by Mary Shelley in writing Frankenstein . From an author’s point of view the technique means that a story can be told in such a way that the central characters do not need to witness everything themselves and the inclusion of newspaper excerpts means that events can happen without any of the characters having been their as witnesses. Inevitably this approach mimics the way things happen in real life so that scenarios (fictitious events) take on the quality of actual events. Readers are left wondering whether they are reading the imaginings of an author or reportage, thereby blurring the boundary between fiction and non-fiction. Needless to say, this enables the reader to readily suspend their disbelief and become wholly absorbed by the story.

It would be difficult to think of another novel that has influenced a genre quite so much as Dracula , except perhaps Frankenstein . Together they form the foundation upon which most subsequent horror stories rest. In many respects the vampire and the monster have now become caricatures of themselves, but a read of the original books make’s one realize just how dark and Gothic those characters were upon first inception.

There have been so many permutations of the Dracula and vampire theme in modern culture in print, television and film that it is easy to forget how it all started, with the publication of Dracula the novel in 1897. In truth, Bram Stoker did not invent the idea of the vampire by any means, but his story brought together the various myths and legends that were already in existence into a cohesive whole. Stoker’s tale of Count Dracula caught the imagination of a Victorian audience and continues to appeal to readers to this day.

Stories of vampires had trickled through to England from Eastern Europe for centuries before Stoker was inspired to write. European folklore included tales of vampires from the late mediaeval period and these became embellished and retold as popular fireside stories. Perhaps the earliest example of a real person being accused of vampiric traits was a Croatian named Jure Grando. It was claimed that he rose from death to feast on the blood of the living and had to be decapitated when a stake through the heart proved ineffective.

At that time, in the late 17th century, people were entirely open to notions of witchcraft and supernatural powers as science and empiricism had yet to come to the fore. Word of mouth, secondhand accounts and circumstantial evidence were taken as proof in a world where they served as likely explanations for things that people found frightening and disturbing. People were religious too, so they were entirely indoctrinated with the notion of heaven and hell, and good and evil. We can never know the truth of the Grando case, but it certainly caught the public imagination.

By the 18th century things were beginning to get out of hand. Many people, both dead and alive, were accused of vampirism and found themselves staked or beheaded whenever unexplained misfortune fell upon others in the community. In cultures where illnesses and diseases were not understood scientifically it was only natural to presume that someone had cast a spell on them or done something unspeakable to them. So it was that perfectly innocent neighbours became scapegoats and were slain as vampires or else had their corpses disinterred only to die a second time.

By the 19th century the subject of vampires had entered the realm of considered debate. Many scholars denounced the whole idea, pointing out that all reports of vampires were nothing more than fictitious stories based on anecdote and hearsay. Furthermore, there wasn’t a scrap of scientific evidence that it was possible for people to become ‘the undead’ and transform into vampires under cover of darkness. Nevertheless, many people persisted in their beliefs – especially in the more remote regions of Eastern Europe.

To my friend Bertha Nicoll with affectionate esteem.

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM Bram Stoker

Copyright

History of Collins

Life & Times

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Classic Literature: Words and Phrases

About the Publisher

Adam Salton sauntered into the Empire Club, Sydney, and found awaiting him a letter from his grand-uncle. He had first heard from the old gentleman less than a year before, when Richard Salton had claimed kinship, stating that he had been unable to write earlier, as he had found it very difficult to trace his grand-nephew’s address. Adam was delighted and replied cordially; he had often heard his father speak of the older branch of the family with whom his people had long lost touch. Some interesting correspondence had ensued. Adam eagerly opened the letter which had only just arrived, and conveyed a cordial invitation to stop with his grand-uncle at Lesser Hill, for as long a time as he could spare.

“Indeed,” Richard Salton went on, “I am in hopes that you will make your permanent home here. You see, my dear boy, you and I are all that remain of our race, and it is but fitting that you should succeed me when the time comes. In this year of grace, 1860, I am close on eighty years of age, and though we have been a long-lived race, the span of life cannot be prolonged beyond reasonable bounds. I am prepared to like you, and to make your home with me as happy as you could wish. So do come at once on receipt of this, and find the welcome I am waiting to give you. I send, in case such may make matters easy for you, a banker’s draft for £200. Come soon, so that we may both of us enjoy many happy days together. If you are able to give me the pleasure of seeing you, send me as soon as you can a letter telling me when to expect you. Then when you arrive at Plymouth or Southampton or whatever port you are bound for, wait on board, and I will meet you at the earliest hour possible.”