Day 243 - Bram Stoker and Dracula

While Whitby is noted for quite a few key historical facts, there may not be any that have captured the public's attention as much as it's association with Bram Stoker's Dracula.

For most of his adult working life, Abraham Stoker (Bram to his friends), was actually a theatre manager for the Lyceum Theatre in London, and personal assistant and business manager of actor Sir Henry Irving. Following a rather arduous theatre tour in 1890, Irving suggested to Stoker that he take a break in Whitby.

6 Royal Crescent in Whitby where
Bram Stoker stayed on several visits
to Whitby while writing Dracula.

Stoker stayed at a guesthouse at 6 Royal Crescent, while he waited for his wife and children to join him. He had a week to himself before that happened, and wandered the town with its magnificent seaside views. Stoker had written two books prior to this, both taking place in his native Ireland. The Gothic style of writing prevalent at the time favoured novels set in foreign places, and were filled with spooky castle and ruins. The eerily beautiful silhouettes of Whitby Abbey high on the cliffs of the headland above the fishing town and the steps leading to it and the graveyard of the church built in front of it, provided just the dramatic setting Stoker was looking for in his next writing assignment. Bats could be seen sweeping from the heights of the abbey and over the surrounding moorland. The local pure black stone known as jet was used by the Victorians in mourning jewelry. It all had the feeling he was looking for.

The 199 steps leading to
the Abbey and the church.

But he needed a character. A visit to the library in Whitby would provide him with this. He found a book published in 1820 that mentioned a 15th-century prince called Vlad Tepes who was said to have impaled his enemies on wooden stakes. He was known as Dracula – the ‘son of the dragon’, but it also means devil in the Wallachian language. Many of the character's manners were also based on Irving, who was noted for an high brow bearing and over-stated way of acting.

About five years before Stoker arrived in Whitby, a Russian ship called the Dmitry ran aground below Witby's East Cliff. It was carrying a cargo of silver sand. In the book, Dracula is carried on the ship Demeter along with a cargo of silver sand and earth.

The Dimitry wrecked on the sands near Whitby.

Stoker spent several more years researching his characters and mythology around vampires, crafting his character, but keeping Whitby's location as the inspiration behind the story's setting.

In the story, the ship's log charts the gradual disappearance of the crew during its journey to Whitby. The captain is lashed to the wheel and the only person remaining when it runs aground. That is, except for the "large dog" that runs from the wreckage and bounds up the 199 steps to the church. Dracula has arrived, and the story is just getting started ...

In 1897, the story was published as a play called The Undead. Irving tested for the lead, but hated it and didn't want to be a part of it. So, Stoker redrafted it into a novel in the form of the ship's log, letters, diaries, and newspaper articles.

And the rest is history, as they say. Today, it is the connection to this great Gothic Novel that two times each year, Goths meet up in Whitby, once in the spring and again closer to Hallowe'en. Whitby has certainly embraced its connection.