The Pre-Loved edit from Shopbop
To share your reaction on this item, open the Amazon app from the App Store or Google Play on your phone.
Buy new:
$30.13
FREE delivery January 30 - February 6
Ships from: Fast Cat Books
Sold by: Fast Cat Books
$30.13
FREE delivery January 30 - February 6. Details
Or fastest delivery February 1 - 3. Details
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$30.13 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$30.13
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Fast Cat Books
Fast Cat Books
Ships from
Fast Cat Books
Returns
30-day refund/replacement
30-day refund/replacement
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. You may receive a partial or no refund on used, damaged or materially different returns.
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$19.95
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Used Good Condition, item may or may not contain highlighting and/or writing. May be Ex Library. Used Good Condition, item may or may not contain highlighting and/or writing. May be Ex Library. See less
FREE delivery Monday, January 27 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or Prime members get FREE delivery Friday, January 24. Order within 8 hrs 55 mins.
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$30.13 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$30.13
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula Hardcover – April 9, 1996

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 12 ratings

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$30.13","priceAmount":30.13,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"30","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"13","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"UXzOGKgUn%2BlotU0G4KzHO0trcUbFSp5%2BOEcXDeSh64OyEZXTinNbzjx0qjvBOtOGTeYFTbSx7z%2FwfJJUgpKXBcTjn%2BMhhj6GaDeHWu4Q44L0eR9fd%2B%2FpVZj5JH2cnpkVfcCVR1DJf5uD61GhekfVirqGj%2BvgSpRgAoEtdgYebHUd4nNq909SGBcPFAI73tdo","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$19.95","priceAmount":19.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"19","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"UXzOGKgUn%2BlotU0G4KzHO0trcUbFSp5%2BC43OBpLF%2FbAoJPCPG6EFshxw662yNuY573BuwL6WNR6e5O0gNn7XVKQpMhw%2Fhgdx55hMu81LkkbdsqER23GvUsdXpMIRaWaz5Nqr9EjJvTh8yXhLKFvfuhbSWsIcYS7ee2na3FOlqSAg17H9eO6bET%2BdtPAfoDMB","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

The first full-scale biography of the complex man known today as the author of Dracula, but who was famous in his own time as the innovative manager of London's Lyceum Theatre, home of the greatest English actors of the day, Henry Irving and Ellen Terry.

Barbara Belford tells the story of Stoker the hidden man. On the surface: the very model of Victorian modesty, reserve, and duty, the devoted husband and father. In actuality: a man whose emotional and working energies were in large part expended on the care and cultivation of the flamboyant, mesmerizing genius of the stage, Henry Irving.

We see Stoker the writer of novels and stories that were imbued with sexuality, violence, and the celebration of death -- works at opposite poles from the decorum he presented in society. And Barbara Belford shows us in Dracula a mirror of the undercurrents of Stoker's own life, as well as a masked exploration of subjects utterly forbidden in his time -- seduction, rape, necrophilia, incest, voyeurism -- universal taboos dramatized with such a myth-making edge that the novel remains resonant and unsettling almost one hundred years later.

We follow Stoker from his sickly childhood -entertained by his mother's twice-told tales of Irish hobgoblins and banshees -- to his years as a Dublin undergraduate and newspaperman, when he first wrote to his idol Wait Whitman, spilling out his innermost thoughts and beginning a lifelong correspondence that culminated in their meeting when Stoker traveled to America on tour with Irving and Ellen Terry. We see Stoker's childhood friendship with Oscar Wilde, and watch as the two young men compete for the hand of the beautiful Florence Balcombe, who became Stoker's wife. And we see Stoker in the literary and theatrical circles of Victorian London among such figures as Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, James Whistler, Lord Tennyson, and George Bernard Shaw.

Belford gives us a vivid picture of the man, his time, his London -- the domestic and theatrical worlds he lived in -- and the dark imaginary realms that were the wellspring of all his writings, especially of his enduring and enduringly fascinating Dracula.
The%20Amazon%20Book%20Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"I am here to do Your bidding, Master. I am Your slave, and You will reward me, for I shall be faithful." These words spoken by Renfield to Dracula might have been said by Bram Stoker to his boss, the mesmerizing, domineering actor Henry Irving. Stoker was such a mild-mannered, secretive man that the real subject of this acclaimed biography turns out to be the genesis of his novel Dracula, and Irving--the man who, according to Barbara Belford, inspired its famous monster. Other fascinating characters who appear in Stoker's life are Florence Stoker (courted by Oscar Wilde before Bram married her), Ellen Terry (Irving's leading lady), Walt Whitman, the aging Lord Tennyson, W. S. Gilbert, William Gladstone, Lady Speranza Wilde, her son Oscar, Queen Victoria (who knights Irving, the first actor so honored), George Bernard Shaw, and Mark Twain. As Margot Peters writes in the New York Times Book Review, "Stoker himself is pretty much swamped in these heavy seas. But as Ms. Belford's intelligent, well-written and always interesting book makes clear, Stoker lived to serve. His revenge for lifelong self-effacement was Dracula."

From Publishers Weekly

Bram Stoker's son claimed that the plot of Dracula (1897) came to his father "in a nightmarish dream after eating too much dressed crab." Despite some melodramatic prose, that comment is as exciting as this biography of Stoker (1847-1912) gets. How a boring Victorian Dubliner could have produced the creepiest horror novel of his time remains one of the mysteries of fictional creativity. Belford, biographer of Violet Hunt, has struggled with the problem and sees in Stoker's mesmerizing employer, actor-impresario Henry Irving, the sinister reflection of Vlad the Impaler, but the part-time author, who was the business manager of the Lyceum Theatre, remains bloodless. A tempestuous inner life, fired by sexual frustration (although Stoker was married to an Irish beauty) and omnivorous reading in lurid subliterature, is as close to a solution as we get here. Since Stoker's routine, whether Irving's company traveled or stayed put, was prosaic, Belford often segues to his London acquaintances or his restaurant menus, and sights foreshadowings of Dracula far and near. For those who have been frozen in their armchairs by the spell of Stoker's unforgettable vampire, or who are riveted by its hardly hidden sexual pathology, Stoker's life will be an anticlimax. Illustrations.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Knopf; First Edition (April 9, 1996)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 381 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679418326
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679418320
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.65 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.75 x 1.25 x 10 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 12 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Barbara Belford
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
12 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2023
    This book was listed as "good condition," but arrived flawless and a full week early. Very pleased.
  • Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2016
    A very interesting book, that focuses in on Stoker's life with Henry Irving and at the Lyceum Theatre, which he managed.
    2 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2020
    If you think you'll find out very much about Stoker's writing of Dracula, or really very much at all about Stoker's life, you're in for a disappointment. This book should have been titled, "Henry Irving And His World" or something along those lines. Stoker was the stage manager for the Lyceum Theater and basically worked for Irving. Endless pages about Irving, and other Victorian notables, but not a lot of indepth info about Stoker. I found the book poorly written and at times confusing. The author also tends to use words/language that is so pretentious and outmoded that it detracts from the overall comprehension of the work. That's not good writing. That's BAD writing. I found myself having to re-read paragraphs or sentences just to grasp what it is the author is saying (or trying to say). Could have used a good editor to cut through some of the unnecessary digressions and lack of focus. Guess what? After slogging through over 300 pages of this book, I still know very little about Bram Stoker, what made him tick, and certainly almost nothing about the writing of Dracula, the one and only reason why modern day readers even know about this man.
    One person found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2005
    Barbara Belford's "Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula" is considered to be the most scholarly and thorough of the 3 Bram Stoker biographies that have been published. But Mr. Stoker was a reticent person about whose personal life, opinions, and character there is precious little known. Whether out of humility or caution, he usually took care not to reveal himself. So what we know of Stoker comes primarily from his public life, which was thankfully shared with several grander, more loquacious personalities. Perhaps due to the scarcity of information about her subject, Barbara Belford gives Stoker's friends, colleagues, and the London theater community a lot of attention, especially Henry Irving, the great actor whose fame was dwarfed only by his ego, and whom Bram Stoker dedicated 27 years of his life to serving. Indeed, this biography of Stoker would serve well as a history of Irving's famous Lyceum Theatre for the decades that Stoker served as its acting manager.

    The book starts by describing Stoker's childhood in Dublin, the third child born to a middle class Anglo-Irish family in 1847 during the potato famine, and his apparent debilitation until the age of 7. He grew up to be a civil servant like his father, and pursued personal interests as an unpaid drama critic for the "Evening Mail", through which Stoker met Henry Irving. After marrying the lovely Florence Balcombe, whom Oscar Wilde also courted, the Stokers moved to London where Bram's efficient management would help make the 1500-seat Lyceum Theatre fashionable and profitable. Since the Lyceum dominated Stoker's life, it dominates his biography, but Belford also discusses his trips to America on tour with the Lyceum company, his effusive admiration for Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln, and his novels and stories.

    The upshot of "Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Man Who Wrote Dracula" is that Bram Stoker was a modest, hardworking man, exceedingly courteous even by Victorian standards, whose tireless work for Henry Irving was acknowledged by many but unappreciated and unrewarded by Irving himself. Stoker's genial but reserved manner harbored passionate, worshipful emotions toward his heroes, invariably men of power with larger-than-life personalities. Belford draws an occasional parallel between persons in Bram Stoker's own life and characters in "Dracula". Most notably, she sees a "sinister caricature" of Henry Irving in the vampire Count. Actress Ellen Terry seems to be reflected in Mina, and Stoker's wife Florence may have lent some of her character to Lucy. None of this is a stretch as long as one recognizes that "Dracula"'s characters don't have a single source, but many.

    This biography includes a lot of good information for fans of Bram Stoker's work, but a couple of stylistic problems nagged at me. One is Belford's confusing tendency to refer to people by first or last name only, at the beginning of a chapter, instead of starting off with a full name. Another is the repeated use of the phrase "Unholy Trinity" to describe the business partnership between Henry Irving, Bram Stoker, and stage manager H.J. Loveday, which I found melodramatic. But Belford's book succeeds in creating a picture of Bram Stoker's personality without reading too much into his actions or words.
    15 people found this helpful
    Report

Top reviews from other countries

  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good Quality
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 29, 2020
    The product was exactly as described and arrived in the time given.