Literary criticism, taking Freud as its compass, has also had a field day with the original
Dracula, reading into it all manner of subliminal desire and pent-up sexuality. As Brian Murray noted in an essay on Stoker in
Dictionary of Literary Biography, "The publicly prudish Stoker- -who once wrote an essay calling for the censorship of works that exploit 'sex impulses'--would probably be shocked to read of much of the recent criticism of
Dracula." Stoker, a man of many means, would also most likely be peeved that his estate was not benefiting from the raft of spin-offs from his famous creation. But his reputation
has benefited. Daniel Farson and Philip B. Dematteis put it quite bluntly in their essay on Stoker in a further
Dictionary of Literary Biography entry: "Without
Dracula, Bram Stoker would be forgotten. As it is, he is one of the least-known authors of one of the best-known books." The author of a dozen other forgotten novels and several nonfiction works, Stoker truly owes his fame to the infamous Count Dracula.
An Irish Childhood
Bram Stoker was born on or about November 8, 1847, in Clontarf, a village just north of Dublin Bay. In rural Ireland, this was the time of the potato famine when thousands of Irish were either dying from starvation or immigrating all over the world.
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