Published in 1897, Bram Stoker’s Dracula soon became known as a work of pure genius. Even today, it is much read across the world, and regarded as THE all-time classical horror story.

Stoker based his Vampiric character on the fifteenth century Wallacian warrior prince, Vlad Dracule. He researched his novel in great detail, visiting the region of Hungary and Romania that Vlad ruled, and reading ancient manuscripts and stories. The actual novel is written as a series of diary extracts, and the people involved submitted their diaries after the event in order to make sense of it.

In the story, we meet Jonathan Harker, who leaves his beloved fiancé, Mina, to travel to the remote land of Transylvania. He is there in order to organise the finances of a Count Dracula, who is buying an estate in England. Harker soon becomes suspicious of Dracula’s motives. He asks himself why there are no mirrors in Castle Dracula; why he is forbidden to enter a particular part of the Castle; and where Count Dracula disappears to during the day. He realises that not all is what it seems to be in the remote Castle, nestled amidst the Carpathian Mountains.

Dracula’s intentions soon become clear. He intends to create a race of Vampires to rule the world. Such an idea would place the Human race second in the food chain, instead of being on top of it. Such an idea is so immense, and the implications are terrible.

A race of Vampires would reduce Human beings to the role of animals. They would be farmed as cattle, and drained of their blood. Together with Professor Van Helsing, Harker and a few others seek to hunt down the Demon and destroy him. This is revenge for their beloved Lucy, who fell at the hands of Dracula; for Mina, who becomes a communication portal for Dracula; and for the sake of mankind.

This is a story about good against evil. It depends upon the late Victorian ideal that good shall always triumph. The almighty God must win against Satan in the end.

Together with this, Stoker seems to depict the social classes of the era to be corrupt.

If the lower classes are not repressed, then they will turn into a raving monster that consumes and possesses all that stands in it’s way.

I love this novel dearly, and I hope that others will too. Even if you are a devout reader of contemporary horror, this is still a must. The story of Dracula underpins most horror stories that follow it, as well as the whole literary ‘Horror’ genre.