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Something in the Blood

The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula

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Something in the Blood

By: David J. Skal
Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
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About this listen

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 "bad blood" 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.

©2015 David J. Skal (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books Art & Literature Authors European Literary History & Criticism World Literature Middle Ages
All stars
Most relevant
Performance lacks character. Book all over the place. A bit pretentious but a fun read

weird mish mash

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Altogether a fascinating but flawed look at the life of Bram Stoker. For example, there seems to be an incredible amount about Oscar Wilde.Yet Bram Stoker’s collection of short stories,Dracula’s Guest, is barely mentioned despite the fact that it contains such classic tales as The Judge’s House. That said the later chapters about the film versions of Dracula are most interesting. Overall I would recommend.

Less Wilde, more Stoker.

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Everything you ever wanted to know about Dracula, its creator and the times he lived in and that influenced the work, described in an utterly gripping fashion! This book has provided me with totally new and fascinating insights into the late Victorian era and its artists. Excellent narrator, too (although his pronunciation of some Brirish names and foreign words is a little eccentric at times). Highly recommended!

Brilliant!

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