Episode Details

Bram Stoker was a civil servant in Dublin Castle who moonlighted as the business manager for actor Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre. He had no literary reputation, no horror credentials, and no reason anyone would expect him to write the novel that defined vampire fiction for all time. Dracula was assembled from years of research into Transylvanian folklore, and its author died without knowing he had created one of the most iconic characters in the history of fiction.

This episode traces Stoker from his bedridden Irish childhood through the civil service, the Irving partnership, the seven years of research, and the novel that made Dracula immortal in more ways than one.

• Stoker's childhood illness and the bedridden years that fueled his imagination
• The Dublin civil service career and the partnership with Henry Irving that consumed his adult life
• Seven years of folklore research and the composition of Dracula
• The modest reception during his lifetime and the posthumous explosion that made Dracula a global icon