Poe is nowhere, but Bram Stoker's mother is everything!

Charlotte Matilda Blake Thornley Stoker

I was going to write a blog post today about the mothers of writers in London in the 1890s, but I found this passage in Barbara Belford's biography of Bram Stoker that I think says it all. To me, this passage shows that, when things are looking down, when you are faced with criticisms and your endeavours are not as successful as you hope, mothers often know best.

Stoker borrowed money to publish Dracula, which didn't make him much money (in his lifetime) and got pretty dismal reviews - even from his friends.

Fortunately authors have mothers. "My dear, it is splendid," gushed Charlotte Stoker, "a thousand miles beyond anything you have written before, and I feel certain will place you very high in the writers of the day - the story and style being deeply sensational, exciting and interesting." To his mother, Stoker had surpassed all competitors. "No book since Mrs Shelley's 'Frankenstein' or indeed any other at all has come near yours in originality, or terror - Poe is nowhere," she wrote. "I have read much but I never met a book like it at all. In its terrible excitement it should make a widespread reputation and much money for you." Unfortunately it did neither during Stoker's lifetime. If Dracula had been published in 1818 at the same time as Frankenstein, instead of at the height of literary realism and naturalism, it would have been a Romantic milestone. Source

Thank you for always being so supportive of me, mom. We writers need moms like you.

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Images of London in 1897

In May, Oscar Wilde was released from Reading Gaol. In June, Queen Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubilee. In July, the Tate Gallery opened. In August, London got its first horseless taxicabs, and taxi driver, George Smith became the first Londoner charged with drunk driving that September. W. Somerset Maugham discovered that he was destined to be a writer, not a doctor, that year, when he published Liza of Lambeth.

This is the year in pictures.

Outside the Bank of England 1897
Horseless carriages would be a good thing
because people were really starting to worry
about horse poop. You can see why!

A Bersey Cab in London 1897

The Royal Gun Factory in Woolwich 1897

Regent Street and Waterloo Place, London, 1897

Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Parade moving
down Whitehall in the City of Westminster London, 1897

Diamond Jubilee procession, London, England, 1897

New Palace Yard, Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) 1897

Leadenhall Market 1897

Newgate Prison and the Viaduct Tavern 1897

Exhibition at Earl's Court
Illustrated London News 1897

Coventry Street, Piccadilly 1897

London City Council 1897

Tower Bridge Hotel, Bermondsey, London 1897

Robert Koch in the London Illustrated News 1897

Oxford Street 1897

Fire on Oxford Street 1897

The workshop of Charles H. Fox,
Theatrical, Historical & Private Wig Maker and Costumier,
25 Russell Street, Covent Garden, London 1897

Old woman on roller-skates 1897

Guy's Hospital 1897

Upper Richmond Rd. 1897

Colonial troops in London for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee 1897

The Jubilee celebrations 1897. The Scotch Stores Trades Wagon.

London United Tramways horse tram 1897

Construction of the Central Telegraph Office 1897

Want more? Go further back to Images of London in 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893,1894, 1895, and 1896.

If you really want to see more of London in 1897, this other site has a cool collection that compares 19 pictures of 1897 London to the present day.

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