Who Was Dracula? (26 page)

Interview with the Vampire
preceded the onset of AIDS, but Rice's modern vampire story was quickly interpreted through the lens of this mysterious new plague. In the book, Louis explains how he was initiated into the society of vampires hundreds of years ago by Lestat.
Interview with the Vampire
had taken a step beyond Stoker, and Rice is unstinting in offering passions and unashamed of her bisexual vampires.

“The AIDS story was shaped as a stereotypical horror movie scenario,” author David Skal has observed. “A wasting malady involving blood . . . each victim capable of creating more of his kind . . . the epidemic can only be controlled if traditional sex roles are observed . . . the monster is linked to sexual license.”

In recent years, Dracula has been reincarnated as a teenager—as Edward Cullen, the new, dreamy, Byronic, hormone-fueled supernatural leading man. Stephenie Meyer's
Twilight
, from 2005, has been followed by a series of popular novels for young adults, with a cast of characters who sparkle rather than reek of the grave. Her mortal heroine, Bella Swan, appeals by allowing readers to imagine themselves in the middle of the vampire saga; Bella is the modern Mina Harker. “Bella is every girl,” Meyer explained in an interview. “She's not a hero. She doesn't always have to be cool, or wear the coolest clothes ever. She's normal. Bella's a good girl, which is just how I imagine teenagers, because that's how my teenage years were.

“If I say to someone, you know, ‘It's about vampires,' then immediately they have this mental image of what the book is like,” she said. “And it's so not like the other vampire books out there. It isn't that kind of dark and dreary and blood thirsty world. Then when you say, ‘It's set in high school,' a lot of people immediately put it in another [category].”

But as her
Twilight
books and films have proven, the combination is irresistible. Her vampires exhibit all of the deep tragedy and counterculture heroism that disenfranchised teenagers naturally see in themselves, plus a little more. And, of course, vampirism stands in for sex—a subject that teenagers aren't supposed to address. Vampires no longer need to be researched and categorized; they are part of the culture. Meyer mixed the traditional vampire clichés with her own mythology, but she didn't watch any vampire movies, nor had she even read Stoker's
Dracula
. “It's on the list,” she said. “I should've read that one a long time ago. But I can't read other people's vampires.”

—

Dracula
has proven to be resilient, a wonderful money-spinner with almost every audience and in almost every medium. The last decades, however, have generated a number of interesting experiments—
Dracula
returned to opulent, Victorian London,
Dracula
as a musical,
Dracula
as an opera,
Dracula
dripping with special effects,
Dracula
applied to every specialized audience. A critic might take note that the Count's surreal charms are not limitless. Perhaps he has always been most comfortable in the dank, dirty confines of his coffin.
Dracula
's cheap, nasty productions provide the right sorts of chills—the 1920s actors howling into a lamp chimney offstage to imitate the wolf.
Dracula
's expensive, no-holds-barred indulgences leave audiences cold—a perfectly choreographed and computer-controlled vampire aerial ballet.

This may be why Henry Irving, a masterful showman and something of an old vampire himself, once laughed at Bram Stoker. Perhaps he realized that
Dracula
never needed the Lyceum. Just an old cape, a swirl of smoke, the hypnotic gaze of a woman in a nightgown—and he is there, stealthily sweeping into our dreams with the same determination with which he pushes against the French doors.

A truly great nightmare is once experienced, never forgotten. It is summoned again when we simply close our eyes. It needs nothing but imagination. It is never very far away.

Henry Irving as Mephistopheles in his famous production of
Faust
; here Bram Stoker found inspiration for his vampire.
(All photos are from the author's collection unless noted otherwise.)

Henry Irving's
Faust
featured the Brocken scene, in which the demon summoned an army of supernatural creatures.

TOP LEFT
: Bram Stoker of the Lyceum Theatre, the author of
Dracula
.

TOP RIGHT
:
Florence Balcombe, in a sketch by Edward Burne-Jones; she was a classical beauty, and almost Mrs. Oscar Wilde before becoming Mrs. Bram Stoker.

BOTTOM LEFT
:
Henry Irving; this was the portrait signed to Bram Stoker in Dublin in 1876.

BOTTOM RIGHT
:
Ellen Terry, Henry Irving's leading lady, was a devoted friend of Stoker.

Stoker's page of notes displays his prideful decision on the new title,
Dracula
.
(Courtesy Rosenbach Museum and Library)

Vlad Tepes, the historical Dracula, provided the name for Stoker's character.
(Courtesy Rosenbach Museum and Library)

The Lyceum Theatre was the site of Irving's success and Stoker's
Dracula
dramatization.

TOP LEFT
: Bram Stoker's play was given only one performance, to register the copyright.

TOP RIGHT
:
The American actor Richard Mansfield as Jekyll and Hyde.

BOTTOM LEFT
:
Dracula
was dedicated to Stoker's friend Thomas Hall Caine, the Victorian novelist.
(© Corbis)

BOTTOM RIGHT
:
An engraving of suspect Francis Tumblety's arrest in St. Louis, from a booklet published by Tumblety. He was later suspected of the Jack the Ripper murders.

LEFT
: Henry Irving was respected as England's leading actor, famous for his spectacular and melodramatic productions.

CENTER
:
Ellen Terry as Portia in
The Merchant of Venice
at the Lyceum Theatre.

RIGHT
:
Walt Whitman, a model for Dracula, and an important influence on Bram Stoker's artistic career.
(© Corbis)