E X T E N S I O N ORIGINS OF DRACULA When Bram Stoker s Dracula was published in May 1897, many writers had already become interested in the threatening1 nature of monstrosity. In the last quarter of the century there was a vast readership of ghost and horror stories. Dracula was not the first story about vampires. Byron wrote about them publishing The Giaour in 1813, John Polidori wrote The Vampyre in 1818 and Heinrich Marschner s Der Vampyr was already popular in Germany when Stoker wrote Dracula. Lord Byron and John Polidori. In 1818 Mary Shelley had already developed at least two peculiar Gothic motifs that Bram Stoker would find essential elements for his Dracula: one concerns gender2, the other monstrosity. In both novels the motivation for destroying the monster is the same: it is the fear that it might multiply, threatening humanity itself. Stoker s Dracula, published in 1897, became a bestseller even in its own time. Stoker s mother, writing to him in London from Ireland said, Dracula will make you a lot of money, and you will be famous. He did make some money but he did not become famous until after his death. Vampire stories are very old. People in Slovenian countries have believed for hundreds of years that vampires exist. In these stories, bad people become vampires after they die. They return as large bats and drink the blood of sleeping people. These people then become vampires, too. If vampires are able to find blood, they never die. People believed that they could protect themselves from vampires with plants like garlic3, and with fire. 1. threatening: intimidating, menacing. 2. gender: the fact of being male or female. 3. garlic: a plant of the onion family that has a strong taste and smell and is used in cooking to add flavour. 27