This story, which will be the beginning of a big movie, has a key name: Gibbet Hill. This is an area on the outskirts of London near Hindhead, Surrey. In the past, this place was known to be a public execution ground, a residential area where the bodies of criminals were displayed on a “gallows” (gallows) as a warning to others. It is thought that this gloomy atmosphere and its association with death attracted the attention of Bram Stoker to begin his famous novel Dracula. Now its “origin” has been discovered.

News. An amateur historian, he went to the National Library in Stoker’s hometown of Dublin one afternoon in October 2023. The man found something unusual among the books and newspapers. An 1890 text naming Gibbet Hill. I didn’t know it yet, but I’ve just discovered a lost short story from the famous author’s legendary gothic novel, which was published only seven years ago and subsequently disappeared.

Inside the story. Apparently, the man who discovered this literary treasure responds to the name of Brian Cleary, who told this discovery to the media these days after taking leave from work following the sudden loss of hearing in 2021, in which he spent a lot of time. Time at the National Library in Dublin.

Exactly a year earlier, Cleary, an avowed follower of Stoker’s work, came across an unknown name in the 1890 Christmas supplement of the Daily Express Dublin Edition. He explained: “I read the Gibbet Hill lyrics and knew that this was not a Bram Stoker story I had heard in any biography or bibliography. I was astonished, stunned. I looked at the screen and asked myself: Am I the only living being reading this?”

User’s guide when finding a literary work. Library director Audrey Whitty said Mr Cleary rang her immediately after the discovery and said: “I found something extraordinary in your newspaper archives, you won’t believe it.” Whitty said Cleary’s face was a poem, emphasizing, “His brilliant amateur detective work is a testament to the library archives, there are truly important discoveries waiting to be found around the world.”

The next step was to turn the discovery over to historians and experts. After initial research, Cleary contacted Stoker’s biographer Paul Murray, who confirmed that no trace of the story had been found for over a century (134 years to be exact). It also reminded me that Stoker was a young writer making his first notes for Dracula in 1890. “This is a classic Stoker story, the struggle between good and evil, the emergence of evil in exotic and inexplicable forms. It sheds light on his development as a writer and was an important stop on the road to the publication of Dracula,” he added. .

The plot of Gibbet Hill. The story revolves around a man (the narrator) who encounters three young men standing in front of the monument to a sailor who was murdered on Gibbet Hill by three criminals whose bodies were hung on the gallows as a warning to passing travelers. The four characters walk together to the top of the residential area. Distracted by the image, the narrator loses sight of the young people.

The man takes a nap among the trees and wakes up to a scene: A snake moves towards the young people a short distance away from him, who are able to communicate with and control the snake over their feet. A story that fits perfectly with Stoker’s ever-present interest in grim and dark legends and his connection to historical places steeped in symbolism, Gibbet’s Hill has finally emerged (a place also mentioned here, by the way). Charles Dickens’ 1839 novel Nicholas Nickleby).

(Re)broadcast. Of course, it is now possible to access this time-wasting work of Master Stoker. Gibbet Hill is being published alongside artwork by Irish artist Paul McKinley by the Rotunda Foundation, the fundraising arm of Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital, where Mr Cleary works.

In essence, it’s good business, as all proceeds will go to the newly established Charlotte Stoker Fund, named after the author’s mother, a self-proclaimed anti-hearing loss activist, and used to fund research on children’s hearing loss. Plus: The fascinating discovery will also be featured at the Bram Stoker festival, which takes place in the city later this October.

Image | Hersson Piratoba, snl

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