Born in Clontarf on November 8, 1847, Bram (Abraham) Stoker is recognized as one of the most prominent Gothic authors of the Victorian fin-de-siecle. An accomplished athlete, journalist, author, biographer, theatre critic and theatre manager, Stoker is best known for his Gothic masterpiece Dracula (1897). The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903) is another Gothic horror novel, but this time the ancient Egyptian Queen Tera is the creature at its core. Dracula is a veritable sexual lexicon of Victorian taboos, seduction, rape, gang rape, group sex, necrophilia, pedophilia, incest, adultery, oral sex, menstruation, venereal disease, and voyeurism. Bram Stoker's now legendary novel, Dracula, is not just any piece of cult-spawning fiction, but rather a time capsule containing the popular thoughts, ideas, and beliefs of the Victorian era that paints an elaborate picture of what society was like for Bram Stoker's generation. Like his immortal creation Count Dracula, Stoker's life is shrouded in mystery, from his rumored participation in occult circles, to his purported death from syphilis."