Jedburgh born writer: the inspiration for horror classic Dracula

by LESTER CROSS

"There are two sorts of vampires, living and dead. The living vampire is generally the illegitimate offspring of two illegitimate persons; but even a flawless pedigree will not insure any one against the intrusion of a vampire into their family vault".

If that quotation sounds like a direct 'lift' from Bram Stoker's terrifying novel Dracula, then nothing could be further from the truth. For those words were penned by Jedburgh-born Emily Gerard almost a decade before Stoker published his masterpiece 125 years ago.

As Nigel Roth wrote in a recently published blog post: "While Bram Stoker gets accolades for establishing the ‘conventions of vampire fantasy’, and JK Rowling gets $1billion for penning a series of books about a school of magic, we may want to reflect on Jane Emily Gerard, who appears to have brought these devilish ideas out of the shadows in the first place."

It has become clear that Stoker leant heavily on Emily's book Land Beyond the Forest, published in 1888 as he researched the fearful beliefs held by many residents of Rumania which resulted in Dracula's literary birth in 1897.

A grand literary tour of England and Scotland to mark the 125th anniversary of Dracula's first edition is scheduled for later this year. It is being organised by travel agency Discover Transylvania whose founder Gloria Andersson told us: "Having read Emily Gerard's writings, we see her as one of the key influences upon Bram Stoker's choice of Transylvania as a place for the plot of his novel. She was a fantastic 'travel blogger' of the mid 1800's, describing Transylvania so accurately and objectively, some details still being applicable in today's rural societies, when it comes to superstitions."

Emily's influence is also acknowledged by Dacre Stoker, great-grand nephew of Bram Stoker, lecturer, author and film maker who will be making the trip to Dracula landmarks such as Whitby Abbey, and Slains Castle, Cruden Bay.

Gerard was born into a wealthy family who were resident at Chesters, near the village of Ancrum in 1849. Having moved first to Airdrie, the Gerards then became residents of Vienna (1863-1866), where Emily was well connected with leading literary figures, then studied European languages at the convent of Sacré Coeur, Riedenburg, Austria. 

She married Chevalier Miecislas de Laszowski on 14 October 1869, moving with him to Brzezum (Poland) and then back to Vienna.

Emily Gerard explains in her book: “In the spring of 1883 my husband was appointed to the command of the cavalry brigade in Transylvania, composed of two hussar regiments, stationed respectively at Hermanstadt and Kronstadt a very welcome nomination, as gratifying a long-cherished wish of mine to visit that part of the Austrian empire known as the Land beyond the Forest.

"The two years spent in Transylvania were among the most agreeable of sixteen years acquaintance with Austrian military life; and I shall always look back to tliis time as to something quaint and exceptional, totally different from all previous and subsequent experiences. Much interested in the wild beauty of the country, the strange admixture of races by which it is peopled, and their curious and varied folk-lore".

Chapter 25 of The Land Beyond the Forest includes a vivid description of Romanian vampires and werewolves, and the suspicions and fears associated with them. She writes: “More decidedly evil is the nosferatu, or vampire, in which every Roumanian peasant believes as firmly as he does in heaven or hell. There are two sorts of vampires, living and dead. 

"The living vampire is generally the illegitimate offspring of two illegitimate persons; but even a flawless pedigree will not insure any one against the intrusion of a vampire into their family vault, since every person killed by a nosferatu becomes likewise a vampire after death, and will continue to suck the blood of other innocent persons till the spirit has been exorcised by opening the grave of the suspected person, and either driving a stake through the corpse, or else firing a pistol-shot into the coffin. 

"To walk smoking round the grave on each anniversary of the death is also supposed to be effective in confining the vampire. In very obstinate cases of vampirism it is recommended to cut off the head, and replace it in the coffin with the mouth filled with garlic, or to extract the heart and burn it, strewing its ashes over the grave."

Emily Gerard died in Vienna, aged 55, in 1905 just five weeks after her husband's passing.

According to Nigel Roth: "Gerard was born in Jedburgh, Scotland, in 1849, just north of the one-hundred and fifty-four kilometre border with England. No historic plaque celebrates the birthplace of a writer who inspired a literary genre, though there is one, strangely, that commemorates the fact that William Wordsworth went past in a coach once.

"It’s not the first or last time that a female author has been so inspirational and yet almost completely lost to history, despite her contribution, not just to a book or two, but to an entire genre. Maybe Jedburgh should consider replacing the Wordsworth plaque with one for Jane Emily Gerard, who we realise, now that we’ve lifted her Cloak of Invisibility, wasn’t just passing through."