Abstract
Bram Stoker, Dracula and the Victorian Gothic Stage by Catherine Wynne, the first volume in the new Palgrave Gothic series, explores the relationship between Stoker’s work in late nineteenth-century theatres and the development of his prose fiction, particularly his celebrated novel Dracula (1897). Whereas many previous critics have assumed Stoker’s Count Dracula to be inspired by actor and theatrical director Henry Irving, Wynne complicates this notion, revealing a web of potential sources from the late Victorian stage in her analysis. Over the course of this tightly researched, thorough volume, Wynne examines multiple strands of Dracula’s evolution, ranging from mesmerism and magicians’ tricks such as vanishing ladies and severed limbs to political and imperial anxieties related to Stoker’s home country of Ireland.
Wynne’s study is divided into five chapters, which ‘reveal the interplay between stage and text, and, most significantly, the fiction’s susceptibility to the themes and influences drawn from Gothic performance’ (p. 10). Chapter 1 gives background on the relationship between gothic and melodrama, focusing on the notion of audience sensation and the role of the performer, necessary underpinnings for the subject of Wynne’s study. The second chapter discusses the Lyceum Theatre’s ‘Gothic culture’ in productions such as Vanderdecken and Faust, and the theatre’s particular debt to Irving’s creative control, as well as this culture’s influence on Stoker’s work. Chapter 3 dwells on Lyceum actress Ellen Terry’s career – both her portrayal of other melodramatic heroines and her role as Lucy in the stage adaptation of Stoker’s Dracula – examining the way ‘Gothic performance opens a space to challenge sexual and gender norms, while ostensibly supporting them’ (p. 11). Building on this notion of female gothic in the theatre, Chapter 4 analyses Stoker’s relationship with actress Geneviève Ward, another Lyceum actress and one to whom Stoker dedicated work later in his career. The fifth chapter takes up a different thread in this cultural tapestry, discussing Irving’s two productions of Macbeth, in 1875 and 1888 respectively, and their possible influence on Stoker’s novel, which he was researching as the controversial second production was being staged at the Lyceum.
One of the study’s strengths is its examination of Stoker’s interaction with his contemporaries, particularly Henry Irving, Ellen Terry and Geneviève Ward – all involved in the Lyceum Theatre. Their connections to Stoker’s works prove fruitful ground for the exploration of not only influences on Dracula and other works, but also interrelated elements from late Victorian culture such as visual arts, music and popular entertainment from stage magicians to sensationalist press. Furthermore, the episodes Wynne describes and analyses from their lives and careers allow for enhanced analysis of the links between gothic, melodrama and late Victorian public culture that are this volume’s strength. In this way, Wynne illuminates the rich environment of late Victorian theatrical culture, in which Stoker spent much of his working life, and which, obviously, and as Wynne eruditely shows, played a crucial role in the development of his prose and theatrical writing.
Wynne’s study of this tight web of influences is a welcome addition to the surprisingly sparse body of work on Stoker’s theatrical work in particular and gothic theatre more generally. The volume proves an excellent companion to Wynne’s earlier edited work, Bram Stoker and the Stage: Reviews, Reminiscences, Essays and Fiction (2012), which provides copies of many original documents related to Stoker’s career writing for the theatre, with extensive annotations and memoirs from contemporaries and theatrical essays. Wynne’s Bram Stoker, Dracula and the Victorian Gothic Stage will be of interest to literary scholars and theatre historians alike, serving to bridge the gap between gothic studies and theatre scholarship.