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    Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula
    Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula
    Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula
    Audiobook21 hours

    Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula

    Written by David J. Skal

    Narrated by James Patrick Cronin

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Bram Stoker, despite having a name nearly as famous as his legendary undead Count, has remained a puzzling enigma. Now, in this psychological and cultural portrait, David J. Skal exhumes the inner world and strange genius of the writer who conjured an undying cultural icon. Stoker was inexplicably paralyzed as a boy, and his story unfolds against a backdrop of Victorian medical mysteries and horrors: cholera and famine fever, childhood opium abuse, frantic bloodletting, mesmeric quack cures, and the gnawing obsession with ldquo;bad bloodrdquo; that informs every page of Dracula. Stoker's ambiguous sexuality is explored through his lifelong acquaintance and romantic rival, Oscar Wilde, who emerges as Stoker's repressed shadow side?a doppelganger worthy of a Gothic novel. The psychosexual dimensions of Stoker's passionate youthful correspondence with Walt Whitman, his punishing work ethic, and his slavish adoration of the actor Sir Henry Irving are examined in splendidly gothic detail.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateOct 4, 2016
    ISBN9781681682532
    Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula
    Author

    David J. Skal

    David J. Skal (1952 - 2024) was the author several critically acclaimed books on fantastic literature and genre cinema, including The Monster Show; Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen; Screams of Reason; Mad Science and Modern Culture; V Is for Vampire: The A to Z Guide to Everything Undead; and, with Elias Savada, Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning. With Nina Auerbach, he co-edited the Norton Critical Edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula. His writing appeared in a variety of publications, ranging from The New York Times to Cinefantastique, and for television, on the A&E series Biography. He wrote, produced, and directed a dozen original DVD documentaries, including features on the Universal Studios' classic monster movies, and a behind-the-scenes chronicle of the Academy Award-winning film Gods and Monsters. He lived in Los Angeles.

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    Reviews for Something in the Blood

    3.5/5

    31 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Explore not only Bram Stoker’s life, but the Victorian era, contemporary authors, famous theater celebrities, and the various works of Stoker in this book.I grew up watching all sorts of Dracula and vampire stories and as an adult I finally read Dracula by Bram Stoker. It remains one of my favorite horror stories, being full of suspense and the darker, often repressed, side of human nature. When I saw that a biography on Stoker was available, I jumped on it.This book was so much more than I expected. It was educational and entertaining. Not only did I learn about Stoker but also about this writer and theater side of the Victorian Era. Then there was also Victorian viewpoint on same-sex relationships that played a big role in shaping Stoker’s life.Here are some of the things I learned from this book but there’s plenty more so don’t feel like you’re getting the complete picture. Stoker was a sickly child, often bedridden until he turned 7. Eventually he grew into a strapping young man who excelled at athletics. I particularly found it interesting that during this era, it was common to dress both boys and girls as young girls until they reached a certain age. I think partly, this is to assist in potty training (a smock or tunic-like dress easier to lift up and do your business and perhaps easier to clean). Stoker did blossom from this stage into a boy and that’s when he became much more active. All sorts of psychology of both Stoker and his mother are explored in the book concerning this particular thing.There was a very scary cholera epidemic when Stoker was a child. At one point, his mom had to fend off the sick from breaking into their house. Perhaps young Stoker saw more blood and violence than most kids at that age.One of the key things I learned concerned Victorian views on same-sex partners. For men, it was against the law. For women, it was never against the law as there was this underlying cultural belief that for it to be real sex, a male member had to be involved. Yes, that idea had me laughing a little bit. Also, curiously there was not a real term for homosexuality until much later so Victorian folks would use colloquialisms and slanted looks to get their meaning across. The idea that people didn’t really have words to express their sexual orientation, even to themselves, was an eye opener as to how in the closet homosexuals were at this time.There’s plenty stuff about the London and Dublin theaters in this book since Stoker worked for the famous actor Henry Irving. Most of this was lost on me. I don’t recognize the names and have never been to these famous theaters. I do think that for folks who have even a passing interest in theater stuff from this era would find these sections of the book insightful.Stoker himself was a very private man and there’s very little written by him concerning his personal thoughts on things. So much of his motivations have to be inferred from his actions and the few bits we have written by him (usually communications to others). It was very interesting to learn about his fascination with Oscar Wilde. I have never read anything by Wilde but after listening to this biography, I am sorely tempted to do so. Since Stoker and Wilde had an on/off friendship of a sort throughout the decades, we learn plenty about Wilde in this book including his imprisonment for homosexual acts.Syphilis comes into play more than once. According to some reputable data this book dug up, perhaps as much as 25% of London males during Stoker’s time had this STD. It being pre-penicillin days, there wasn’t a good treatment for syphilis, which can also lie dormant for years. This means you don’t know you have it but you can spread it around.As the book winds down, taking us to Stoker’s death, I still had 2 CDs left. This biography includes what happened after Stoker was buried not only to his family but also to his works. I was fascinated by the number of knock-offs of Dracula, both in book form and on screen. Copyright laws were not present in some countries back then. There was also some interesting stuff about Bela Lugosi after he played Dracula – apparently it was hard for him to get any kind of role outside of the monster characters.All together, this was a very thorough and complete accounting of Stoker’s life and the life of his most well known work, Dracula. I feel the author treated his life with an objective hand. Stoker wasn’t a saint but he was a very interesting man in interesting times.I received a free copy of this book via LibraryThing.The Narration: James Patrick Cronin was a great pick to narrate this book. He sounded genuinely interested in the subject throughout the book. The pacing was good and occasionally, a little bit of emotion is injected at appropriate times.
    • 4/5
      Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker the Man Who Wrote Dracula is a biography in which author David J. Skal with deep research relates the personal and social context in which this man created his novel and it's immortal character. My reading was actually listening as this was the audio-book published by HighBridge and read by James Patrick Cronin who does a marvelous job. The challenge for author Skal as well as the reader is the enigma of his subject Bram Stoker which makes this scholarly biography a necessity as well as a frustrating experience at times. Essentially Bram Stoker through his choices and the circumstances of the Irish & English Victorian culture into which he was born and lived frequently makes him a peripheral participant in his own life. In his life as well as in this book of his life-story he is overshadowed by dominant personalities including his mother, his fellow author & Irishman Oscar Wilde and the central person in his life actor & showman Henry Irving. Stoker's marriage to his wife Florence was mostly loveless and sexless, although their union did produce a son Noel. Stoker's affections were reserved for men, although probably not of the physical kind, especially great men including American poet Walt Whitman, best selling author Hall Caine and actor Henry Irving. Skal shows that despite Stoker's devotion to Henry as his business manager the emotional connection was strictly one way. A more intimate relationship existed between Stoker and Hall Caine for whom he did legal publishing work and from whom he sought advice on his own writing projects. It is made clear that Stoker's writing and publishing career was driven by a desire to write books that would sell. Upon publication Dracula was well received by reviewers and sold steadily, although in no way a best-seller, it garnered fans including a young Winston Churchill. However, much of Dracula's popular success arose after Stoker's death in 1912 and widow Florence, driven to support herself, acted as literary agent in keeping Stoker's books in print and adding new markets through translation. One such market was Germany where an unauthorized adaption of Dracula was produced in 1922 as "Nosferatu". Florence's lawsuit was successful and resulted in all prints of the film being seized destroyed, nearly making the F. W. Murnau film a lost silent classic, it netted her no money. However, the case was widely covered vaulting Dracula to much wider public attention and notoriety. Eventually, this lead to a hit theatrical play being adapted from Dracula, which Stoker himself tried and failed to get Irving to mount, and after a successful three year run in England transferred to America. One thing that did not transfer to Broadway was the actor playing Dracula whose role was eventually assumed onstage by a little know Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi. A huge hit Dracula was then put into production as a film at Universal with director Tod Browning who intended the title role for the star Lon Chaney. When Chaney died no other actor would accept the role, once again, the last minute addition was Bela Lugosi film history was made. Dracula and vampires achieved an immortality and popularity that would astound Bram Stoker who would undoubtedly be proud to find himself and his character at the center of a biography published 100 years after his death. Equally Stoker, the reserved and private man, would be dismayed by the analysis on his character Dracula as well as his own character, not because it is wrong, rather because of the depth and breath as we confront social, sexual and medical realities that Victorians & Edwardian's likely would not have believed or certainly not acknowledged about themselves or anyone they knew, except maybe Oscar Wilde. This biography is well written and researched on a fascinating period of history even if it's central subject Bram Stoker remains an enigma while being less interesting than those around him or, of course, the immortal fascinating character he created in Dracula.
    • 3/5
      I won an audio version of this novel via LibraryThing's Early Reviewers group. I was not quite sure what to expect when I loaded this cd in my car. What I did not expect was a rather dry voice with slight accent. Add to the situation that this biography is LONG and through... you either have to be very interested in the history of the time period or the history of the people surrounding one of the most successful vampire stories of all time. Lucky for me, I am a bit of both.Despite the author's tendency to state a fact, then spend the next 5 minutes going back in time to explain all the background surrounding that fact, the story picks up the pace in the second half, once Stoker has become "friends" with Irving. The writer helps to detail the beliefs and opinions on homosexuality during the timeframe, and outline how Stoker's life dictated actual passages in his writing. I took a college course on East meets West, and Dracula was the only interesting part of it. I enjoyed a deeper exploration of Stoker's life in this way. Not sure who I would recommend this biography to, though. Scholars or theater nerds, perhaps.
    • 3/5
      I am at a loss as to how to describe this audiobook. It is billed as a book about Bram Stoker, author of Dracula. However, it seemed to be more about everyone around Stoker than Stoker himself. More than once, mention is made about Stoker's private nature and the fact that little is written about him. Perhaps this is why author David Skal builds his biography of Stoker by piecing together glimpses of everyone around him. I learned much about Henry Irving, Oscar Wilde, Stoker's wife and others associated with Stoker. Nevertheless, the audiobook was quite interesting and narrator James Patrick Cronin does a remarkable job with his reading of the book. I would recommend this one to anyone doing research on Stoker/vampires/Victorian roles. I received an ARC from LT's Early Reviewers program.
    • 2/5
      I wish I could put in a positive review for Something In The Blood (received as part of the Early Reviewers program on audio). But I can't. This is not "the untold story of Bram Stoker, the man who wrote Dracula." It's more of a psycho-sexual speculative dual biography of Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker - heavy on the speculation and Oscar Wilde.Which is too bad. Two other books about Horror in general and Dracula in particular - The Monster Show and Hollywood Gothic - are must have titles for any fan of the genre. Something In The Blood is not.
    • 3/5
      I’ve always been bugged by the sparkly vampire type of story. Vampires should not sparkle. They shouldn’t be the heroes of any story. They are the villains. I’m okay with them as silly, campy villains like in Bugs Bunny or Scooby-Doo. I’m fine with them as menacing villains like in Buffy. I like a good comic vampire. But as a possible romantic partner? A misunderstood sort of fellow who agonizes over his need for blood but at the same time keeps it PG and clean, avoiding any real mention of the violence inherent in its very existence? No thanks.In a new book by David Skal, the writer confronts head all the most disturbing aspects of vampires, and he does it with a scholarly thoroughness. The blood and gore, the violence, the sexual dominance, the violation – he really examines it, what it all means, and where it fits into Victorian society of the times. He uncovers all the little secrets of Bram Stoker and his influences. If you are a reader who thought Dracula was just a crackling good horror story, you would appreciate it so much more when you see what you missed.But.Why are we reading so much about so many other things? Where are you going with this, Mr. Skal? So many times listening to this, I would just be getting into the story of Bram Stoker, when the writer would introduce a new character, like Oscar Wilde, or Oscar Wilde’s mother, or Oscar Wilde’s brother, or a friend of Oscar Wilde – seriously, why so many Wildes? – and we’d wander totally off the into somewhere else. By the time we meandered back onto Stoker, I had completely lost track of what he was talking about before.So I don’t know how to rate this. I think I’m going to take the easy way out and give it 2.5/5 stars and split it right down the middle. Also, if it does sound interesting to you, I would recommend the print version instead of audio. The author read it, and he did a fine job, but like I said, sometimes I wanted to skip ahead and the tracking made it impossible for me to know when a chapter was coming to an end.