Dracula is a horror novel written by the Irish writer Bram Stoker. Bram Stoker published the novel in England in 1897. The character 'Dracula' may have been based in part on Sir Henry Irving (who was an actor and friend of Bram Stoker) and on Vlad III the Impaler (a Romanian king). The story is about a vampire called Dracula, who wants to take over England. The novel happens in 1893.
A young solicitor (a type of lawyer) Jonathan Harker goes to the country Transylvania to sell a house in England to a nobleman named Dracula. After living in the castle for a week, he realizes that Dracula is a vampire that wants to take over England. Dracula traps Harker in his castle with three other vampire women (who are called his brides) and goes to England, by hiding on a ship and killing the crew. When he gets to England, he bites a young woman called Lucy Westenra and turns her into a vampire. Lucy is then killed by Abraham van Helsing (a vampire hunter) and the other characters in the book. Then Dracula bites Jonathan's wife Mina. Because of this, the other characters try to defeat Dracula, by chasing him back to Transylvania and stabbing him in the heart with a wooden stake.
Most famous adaptations of DraculaEdit
- 1922, Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror). First adaptation of the novel. Directed by F. W. Murnau. Max Schreck has the role of Count Orlok. The movie director could not get permission to use the actual story from Stoker's widow, who ordered many copies of the movie to be destroyed after its release.
- 1931, Dracula. Horror, directed by Tod Browning and starring Béla Lugosi as Dracula.
- 1958, Horror of Dracula. Horror, stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula.
- 1979, Dracula. Horror, stars Frank Langella as Dracula.
- 1979, Love at First Bite. Comedy, stars George Hamilton as Count Vladimir Dracula.
- 1992, Bram Stoker's Dracula. Horror, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gary Oldman as Dracula.
- Dracula: Dead and Loving it. Comedy, directed by Mel Brooks and starring Leslie Nielsen as Count Dracula.
- Van Helsing is a 2004 movie that has Hugh Jackman as the title character (Gabriel Van Helsing) and Richard Boxburgh as Count Vladislaus Dracula.
- 2014, Dracula Untold, directed by Gary Shore