A new short story from “Dracula” author Bram Stoker is being published for the first time in 134 years.
Amateur historian Brian Cleary was studying Stoker’s works in the National Library of Ireland in Dublin, the Gothic novelist’s hometown, when he made the discovery.
Cleary told Agence France-Presse, “I read the words ‘Gibbet Hill’ and I knew this was not a Bram Stoker story I had heard about in any biography or bibliography.” “And I was just stunned, stunned.”
He added, “I was sitting at the screen wondering, am I the only person alive who has read this?”
Cleary’s next thought: “What the hell do I do with this?”
Stoker’s biographer Paul Murray confirmed the surprising discovery, and said that the work would definitely be done. “Having been a station on his way to publishing ‘Dracula'”, which he began writing in 1890, the same year he published the forgotten short story as well as his first novel, the romantic thriller “The Snake Passes” Was.
The news comes ahead of the Bram Stoker Festival in Dublin later this month.
“Gibbet Hill” is set in the village of the same name in Surrey, Britain, and tells the story of three criminals who are tried and hanged for the murder of a sailor and are ordered to warn off malicious travelers. He is left to be hanged.
“It’s a classic Stoker story,” Murray said, “a conflict between good and evil, evil that arises in foreign and unexplained ways.”
Cleary stumbled upon the short story in 2021 during a hiatus from his work at Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital due to sudden onset hearing loss. To pass the time, he pored over old news clippings and other articles – such as the 1890 Christmas supplement of the Daily Express Dublin edition where “Gibbet Hill” was published for the first and last time.
Library director Audrey Whitty recalled Cleary’s message: “I’ve found something extraordinary in your newspaper archives – you won’t believe it.”
Whitty called it “astonishing amateur detective work” – and a testament to his archival program.
“There are truly world-significant discoveries waiting to be found,” he said.
Cleary’s discovery came full circle when he helped broker a deal to purchase “Gibbet Hill” for a second time, courtesy of the Rotunda Foundation, a charity associated with Cleary’s employer. Sales of the book will benefit the Charlotte Stoker Fund, named after Bram’s mother, who coincidentally was an advocate for the deaf community.
