| 籍贯： | 都柏林 | ||
阅读布莱姆·斯托克 Bram Stoker在小说之家的作品!!! | |||
布莱姆·斯托克许多人，甚至整个西方文坛都将他看做是吸血鬼等恐怖题材的正宗始祖，可当我们第一次看到〈德库拉〉的时候，想必让人触动最大的是其中人与吸血鬼悲伤的爱情故事，许多网页是这样介绍这故事的“拉姆.史托克写的小说面世一百年以来，已有无数电影电视版本，但极少忠于原著，哥普拉（笔者注：又译作弗朗西斯·福特·柯波拉，最为人所熟知的作品是〈教父〉和〈现代启示录〉）决定要还他本来面目。达古拉伯爵原是罗马尼亚大将军，因误传死讯而令情人自杀，他以吸人血延续生命，向上帝报复。四百年后他遇上与情人一般模样的少女，决定要不惜代价夺回所爱。本片的演出阵容可谓强大，除了男女主角外，更有基努 里维斯、安东尼.霍普金斯、理查德.E.格兰特等大明星出任配角。”可这样的简介基本上可以说是错漏百出，有心的读者可以找一找原书一读。电影的版本（一般都翻译为〈惊情四百年〉）很多，甚至可以说太多，所以搞混也是无可厚非。
布莱姆斯托克出生于1847.11.8，德国都柏林人，在他二十多岁时当上了公务员，可这样无聊的生活并不能满足他，他喜欢戏剧，喜欢那些稀奇古怪却又深触人心的故事，不久后他开始为〈都柏林邮报〉写戏剧品论，只是没有得到报酬，是义务工作而已。1876年他开始了27年的经纪人生涯，一直跟随着当时著名演员亨利艾尔文留居伦敦等地。〈德库拉〉完成于1897年，此后又写出〈白衣女人〉（喜欢推理小说的朋友，这可与威尔基.柯林斯的〈白衣女人〉没有什么关系）等作品，共计17部，他死于 1912年。
Bram Stoker was born near Dublin on November 8, 1847, the third of seven children. An unidentified illness kept him virtually bedridden until age seven. Although he remained shy and bookish, in his adolescence Bram Stoker was anything but sickly. Perhaps to make amends for his earlier frailty, he was by this time developing into a fine athlete. At Trinity College, Dublin, he would conquer his shyness and be named University Athlete.
Young Bram had always dreamed of becoming a writer, but his father had safer plans. Yielding to the father's wishes, Bram followed him into a career as a civil servant in Dublin Castle. While climbing the civil service ladder, he wrote a dry tome entitled Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland. This book of rules, however, would not be published until 1879, by which time Stoker would be married, living in another country, and immersed in a new career.
During his eight-year stint in the civil service, Stoker continued to write stories, the first of which, a dream fantasy entitled "The Crystal Cup" (1872), was published by The London Society. A serialized four-part horror piece, entitled "The Chain of Destiny" followed three years later in the The Shamrock. He also found time to take unpaid positions as theatrical critic for Dublin's Evening Mail and, later, as editor of The Irish Echo.
In 1878, Henry Irving offered Stoker the job of actor-manager at London's Lyceum Theatre. Stoker promptly resigned the civil service, married Florence Balcombe and set off for his new life in London. Within a year, Florence had given birth to their only child, a son, Noel, but Stoker and his wife, though continuing to keep up appearances, are said to have become estranged.
Despite his heavy professional duties, Stoker somehow found the time to write fiction. His first book, Under the Sunset (1882), consisted of eight eerie fairy tales for children. His first full-length novel, The Snake's Pass, was published in 1890. That same year marks the beginning of Stoker's research for his masterwork, Dracula, which, would be published in 1897 to world-wide acclaim. Stoker wrote several short stories, novels and essays but his name is inextricably linked with Dracula.
Stoker continued to pursue a writing career until his death on April 20, 1912.