7.1.1

Initial Reception of Dracula

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The Initial Reception of Dracula

AO5 requires students to explore literary texts informed by different interpretations. As such, integrating the ideas of literary critics alongside your own interpretations is important in an exam response.

Illustrative background for The Manchester GazetteIllustrative background for The Manchester Gazette ?? "content

The Manchester Gazette

  • The Manchester Gazette suggested that Gothic literature had passed its peak in 1897, suggesting that “Man is no longer in dread of the monstrous and the unnatural, and although Mr Stoker has tackled his gruesome subject with enthusiasm, the effect is more often grotesque than terrible [...] it is, however, an artistic mistake to fill a whole volume with horrors. A touch of the mysterious, the terrible or the supernatural is infinitely more effective and credible."
Illustrative background for Arthur Conan Doyle Illustrative background for Arthur Conan Doyle  ?? "content

Arthur Conan Doyle

  • Stoker’s contemporary, Arthur Conan-Doyle, was more receptive to the depiction of the grotesque, writing to Stoker to inform him "how very much I have enjoyed reading Dracula. I think it is the very best story of diablerie (sorcery supposedly assisted by the devil) which I have read for many years."
Illustrative background for Stoker's motherIllustrative background for Stoker's mother ?? "content

Stoker's mother

  • Stoker’s mother was very receptive to her son’s work: that "No book since Mrs Shelley's Frankenstein or indeed any other at all has come near yours in originality or terror…"

Jump to other topics

1Context - Gothic Literature

2Context - The Victorian Era

3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

4Character Profiles

5Key Ideas

6Writing Techniques

7Critical Debates & Interpretations

7.1Initial Reception of Dracula

7.2Modern Reception of Dracula

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