The title is a little misleading as it is more of a biography with little details here and there that actually concerns Dracula. Not a bad read though. ( )

Steinmeyer tries to unravel the influences behind Bram Stoker’s creation of the world’s most famous fictional vampire.

He uses his central thesis that the infamous Count was formed out of an amalgamation of Stoker’s friends and acquaintances to present a series of mini-biographies of his chief suspects. The handling of the various subjects is uneven and there’s a fair degree of supposition and conjecture on how each influenced the author of Dracula (in some cases I’m not sure they did at all.)

The book concludes with a look at the history of Dracula on stage and it’s rise in pop culture, but other than a few passing mentions totally overlooks the impact of the cinematic incarnations.

In the end I’m not sure who the book was aimed at, nor did it lay out a convincing case for it’s thesis. ( )

Not as good a bio as the author did for Charles Fort, but it could be the seeming padding of this book. The gist of it really ought to be a great article or short-form novella, but it got filled out to standard book length with a lot of seemingly irrelevant side matter. (Honestly, I know Oscar Wilde nearly married the woman who became Stoker's wife, but did his history & trial and info thereabouts really need to fill two chapters in a book ostensibly about Stoker & the origins of his DRACULA novel?)

Engagingly written and well enough done to finish, but frustrating for its meandering off course and off topic. It was like a college course lecture by a well-liked professor whose attention to his topic wavered but eventually returned. ( )

For fans of Bram Stoker's classic novel Dracula, this book provides a fascinating insight into the life and times of Mr. Stoker as well as various other figures whom the author argues influenced Stoker's work including Henry Irving, Walt Whitman, and Oscar Wilde. The book reads well as the author writes in a straightforward style. Aside from the material about the creation of Dracula as a novel, the stories of each of the gentlemen above who allegedly influenced the work also make for interesting reading.

On the down side, the author's arguments that Jack the Ripper was influential is a bit silly and seemingly included only for shock value, as was the argument that the novel was sexual in nature. While a good writer, these are perhaps the most glaring of the author's failed attempts at deeper insights into Mr. Stoker's work. ( )

Who was Dracula? Well apparently he was much more than just his creator, Bram Stoker. At best, Stoker was for the most part, a mediocre writer, gaining very little acknowledgement from critics in his time. He was, however, an excellent manager for one of the Victorian era's major stage actors, Henry Irving. Stoker dedicated his life to helping Irving, who has almost vanished into history, achieve fame on the English stage. In turn, Stoker borrowed freely from Irving's character to help characterize Dracula. Bram also drew from other personalities of the time, with whom he was well acquainted, notably Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, and perhaps even Jack the Ripper. The book notes in detail Stoker's interactions with these personalities. It attempts to detail what characteristics Bram borrowed either consciously or unconsciously, to invest in his character, Dracula. It would take Stoker seven years to meld his thoughts with some of the characteristics of these persons, thus giving birth to Dracula. Although Dracula appears in only 60 or so pages of his 400 page opus, Stoker created a character that would take on a life of it's own. This book much like it's subject, Dracula, is at times lusty and full of life, while at other times it can descend into the dryness and dust of history. Book provided for review by the well read folks at Tarcher/Penguin. ( )