Vámbéry’s dinner talk on Balkan superstitions inspired Stoker’s Dracula

Evidence

(It was after a dinner at which Vámbéry had talked about Balkan superstitions that Bram Stoker went home and had the nightmare that inspired his novel Dracula.) — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 341

Categorization

• CANDY: A light, tweetable anecdote — a real Orientalist’s dinner conversation sparked the nightmare behind Dracula.