Conclusion

Abstract

Bram Stoker died on 20 April 1912. He could not count his life a financial success: he had to beg funds from the Royal Literary Fund in 1911, and Florence was to spend the rest of her life struggling against infringements of the copyright of Dracula in order to preserve what meagre royalties she obtained from it. The Lyceum no longer existed, and when I visited the present building in the summer of 2004 the doorman had never heard of Bram Stoker (and only barely of Henry Irving). Indeed, the principal physical monument to Stoker’s long years of residence in England is the rather dubious ‘Dracula Experience’ in Whitby, and an interactive panel in the Abbey’s new visitor centre at which one can question ‘Stoker’ on video. At least the Whitby Abbey display is well-informed, which is more than one can say for the various Dracula tours to Transylvania, a place which Stoker never visited.