Descubra alguns fatos sobre um dos grandes clássicos da literatura de terror.
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Bram Stoker's Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. It introduced the character of Count Dracula and established many conventions of the vampire fantasy. The novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England so that he may find new blood and spread the undead curse, and of the battle between Dracula and a small group of people led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing.
Dracula has been included in many literary genres, including vampire literature, horror fiction, gothic fiction, and invasion literature. The novel has been recreated in many theatrical, film, and television adaptations.
Stoker was a business manager for the Lyceum Theatre in London, where he supplemented his income by writing many novels, his most successful being Dracula, published in May 1897. He spent seven years researching European folklore and stories of vampires. The reputation for cruelty of the Romanian ruler of Wallachia Vlad III Dracula, which Stoker first learned about in 1881, inspired the name of the count Dracula. The name Dracula was the patronym (Drăculea) of the descendants of Vlad II of Wallachia, who took the name "Dracul" after receiving the Order of the Dragon in 1431. In the Old Romanian language, the word dracul meant "the dragon" and Dracula meant "son of the dragon". In the present day however, dracul means "the devil".
At the end of the 19th Century, many authors wrote tales in which fantastic creatures threatened to destroy life on Earth (the so-called invasion literature). Victorian readers enjoyed Dracula, but it did not reach its legendary status until later in the 20th Century, when film versions were made.
Film adaptations
F. W. Murnau's unauthorized film adaptation Nosferatu, released in 1922, increased the story's popularity considerably.
In 1958, another movie, Horror of Dracula, came out. Directed by Terence Fisher, it featured Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing. It became an international success and Lee fixed the image of the fanged vampire in popular culture. Both Lee and Cushing reprised their roles multiple times over the next decade and a half in other films.
Another famous Dracula was Klaus Kinski, in 1979's Nosferatu the Vampyre.
Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula, starring Gary Oldman, was another famous adaptation.
The character of Count Dracula has remained popular over the years, and many films have used him as a villain.
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VOCABULARY
Fanged (adjective)
A person who has fangs (long canine teeth).
Reprised, to reprise (verb)
To repeat, to do again.
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