Abraham "Bram" Stoker (1847 - 1912) was an Irish novelist and short story writer best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel, Dracula. Before writing Dracula, Stoker met Ármin Vámbéry who was a Hungarian writer and traveler. Dracula likely emerged from Vámbéry's dark stories of the Carpathian mountains. Stoker then spent several years researching European folklore and mythological stories of vampires. Dracula is an epistolary novel, written as a collection of realistic, but completely fictional, diary entries, telegrams, letters, ship's logs, and newspaper clippings, all of which added a level of detailed realism to his story, a skill he developed as a newspaper writer. At the time of its publication, Dracula was considered a "straightforward horror novel" based on imaginary creations of supernatural life. In this book: Dracula Dracula's Guest The Jewel of Seven Stars The Lair of the White Worm The Mystery of the Sea The Lady of the Shroud