First published in 1897, the novel Dracula by Irish author Bram Stoker has never been out of print. It has been reissued in over 300 editions, including dozens in foreign languages. The figure of Count Dracula has dominated twentieth-century culture, from movies to cereal boxes, from Sesame Street to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. In fact, I cannot think of another fictional work that has had such a pervasive influence on a whole culture as has this one. To begin with, Bram Stoker did not invent the vampire.
Vampires appear in the folklore and legends of many cultures dating back to ancient times.
The occasion was a rash of vampire sightings reported and documented in several parts of central and eastern Europe and eventually reported in the British press. These were so widespread that in some countries government officials became directly involved, as did the academic community including the biblical scholar Dom Augustin Calmet and such leading figures of the Enlightenment as Diderot and Voltaire. It was inevitable that the vampire, a revenant from the realm of folklore, would be adopted by gothic writers. The first in English literature to do so were poets, notably Robert Southey and Lord Byron. But the most important contribution came from an unlikely source, Lord Byron's personal physician, John Polidori.