It's easy to forget that Stoker used cutting edge technology - such as the phonograph - in Dracula, to heighten the realism.ĭracula is indisputably his best novel in the time it took him to write it - between 18 - Stoker rattled off another three (bad) novels. So what does Spedding make of Dracula as a novel? 'It's a perfectly acceptable book,' he says dryly, adding that Stoker's real genius was to tie in mythology with reality, to create something believable. Note the page corner turned down, on the same page that 'Dracula' is mentioned One of the strange books that Stoker probably borrowed from the library Not all his books may have been page-turners - but he was guilty of being a page-turner himself.

Spooky coincidence? Probably not copies of books known to have belonged to Stoker have been treated with equal disregard by the writer. On the same page, the word 'Dracula' appears.

On page 17 of another of the library's books - An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia - the corner has been turned over. Stoker never actually visited Transylvania, instead using contemporary travel guides to form the opening backdrop of Dracula's mountain castle. The research would have been easier, Spedding admits, had Stoker's handwriting not been so appalling. In one book, which mentions the human instinct to 'extinguish life', there is a note which possibly reads: 'bosh'. Stoker never visited Transylvania, instead using contemporary travel books to form the backdrop for Dracula Did Stoker write 'Bosh' in the margin here?Įlsewhere, Stoker appears to have noted lines describing death and the paranormal. The more Spedding explored the library's book stacks, the more he discovered crosses, lines and page turn-downs, consistent with Eighteen-Bisang's book. The library's copy is littered with pencil marks closely correlating with a transcription of Stoker's Dracula notes, published by Robert Eighteen-Bisang. Book stacks at the London LibraryĪmong the books that Stoker is thought to have borrowed while researching Dracula, is The Book of Werewolves, an egregious tome by Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould. Dracula was to become the exception to the rule.

His other stuff is dreadful,' says Spedding. While Stoker's name may be revered in the literary world, in fact he wasn't a natural talent when it came to pen and paper. He was proposed by Hall Caine, the man Dracula is dedicated to. Bram Stoker's London Library subscriptionĪn Irish businessman living in Chelsea, Stoker joined the London Library in 1890.

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