Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula is without a doubt the most influential of literary vampire stories. In the 112 years since its first publication, it has been adapted for theatre, ballet, television, comics and film. It was particularly on film, the new medium that was in its early days of development when the book was originally published, that Dracula found his home. With hundreds of adaptations, sequels, spin-offs, parodies and knock-offs to his name, Dracula has been brought to the screen more than almost any other literary character, with each version offering a new spin on Stoker’s original tale. More importantly, Stoker’s conception of the vampire and his reworking of traditional folklore have had a significant influence upon the cinematic vampire. For over sixty years the vampire in film was modelled on Stoker’s aristocratic, patriarchal Eastern European archetype. As influential as Stoker’s work has been on the screen vampire, however, developments within the genre have also had a reverse influence on Dracula. Since the 1970s, attitudes toward the vampire in fiction and film have changed, with their representation shifting from the monstrous and rapacious to the sympathetic, romantic and sometimes even tragic. — Stacey Abbott.
‘Dublin: One City, One Book’ is a Dublin City Council initiative led by the City Library Service in association with Penguin Books, the Sunday Tribune, the Irish Blood Transfusion Service and Dublin CityBIDs.
