Selling Fast
Dracula
Selling Fast
Bram Stoker (1847–1912) was born in Dublin and graduated from Trinity College with BA and MA degrees. After working as a theatre critic, he escaped the monotony of a career in the Irish Civil Service by accepting the job of manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, which he ran for 27 years. Through the actor Henry Irving (who owned the Lyceum), Stoker became acquainted with leading artistic figures of the day, including Arthur Conan Doyle, and he also travelled widely with Irving, for many years spending summer holidays on the Aberdeenshire coast, where he would concentrate on writing. Dracula (1897; Folio 2021) was his fifth novel, and it was to have an impact and an enduring appeal its author could never have foreseen. Inspired by a visit to the Yorkshire coastal town of Whitby and Stoker’s research into Central European folklore, the novel reinvigorated the genre of horror literature and has inspired countless adaptations in film and other media. Bram Stoker died at his home in St George’s Square, Pimlico, in 1912.
John Banville is a novelist, screenwriter, playwright and book reviewer. He worked in journalism for many years, and was literary editor at The Irish Times from 1988 to 2000. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, New Statesman and other journals. His latest novel is Venetian Vespers. His works include The Book of Evidence, The Sea and The Infinities. Among the awards he has received are the Man Booker Prize, the Austrian State Prize for Literature, the Kafka Prize, Irish PEN Award and the Prince of Asturias Award. He has written a number of crime novels including Snow and, most recently, The Drowned. He was born in Wexford, and lives in Dublin.