The Snake's Pass

(Hardback)

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The Snakes Pass (1890) is a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. Written at the beginning of his career, The Snakes Pass helped to establish the Irish master of Gothic horrors reputation as a leading writer of the early-twentieth century. The Snakes Pass is based on the story of Saint Patrick, the legendary hero who cast the serpents out of Ireland forever. During a violent storm, Arthur Severn and his driver Andy are forced to take shelter in Carnacliff, a town in County Clare. Waiting out the weather in the local bar, Arthur listens to a story of the King of Snakes, who is rumored to remaindespite being banished by Saint Patrickin order to watch over his crown. Whenever a fog rolls over the town, the local people say it is the spirit of the terrible king, returned once more to ensure his treasure stays hidden. That same evening, Arthur meets a man known as Black Murdock, a vindictive landowner and usurer who manipulates the poor folk of Carnacliff. Against his own interests, Arthur decides to remain in town to help a man whose land was taken from him by Murdock, only to be swept up in a quest to find the Lost Crown of Gold. The Snakes Pass is a gripping work of horror and romance by Bram Stoker, the secretive and vastly underrated creator of Dracula, one of historys greatest villains. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Bram Stokers The Snakes Pass is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.

Author Bio

Bram Stoker (1847-1912) was an Irish novelist. Born in Dublin, Stoker suffered from an unknown illness as a young boy before entering school at the age of seven. He would later remark that the time he spent bedridden enabled him to cultivate his imagination, contributing to his later success as a writer. He attended Trinity College, Dublin from 1864, graduating with a BA before returning to obtain an MA in 1875. After university, he worked as a theatre critic, writing a positive review of acclaimed Victorian actor Henry Irvings production of Hamlet that would spark a lifelong friendship and working relationship between them. In 1878, Stoker married Florence Balcombe before moving to London, where he would work for the next 27 years as business manager of Irvings influential Lyceum Theatre. Between his work in London and travels abroad with Irving, Stoker befriended such artists as Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman, Hall Caine, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In 1895, having published several works of fiction and nonfiction, Stoker began writing his masterpiece Dracula (1897) while vacationing at the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel in Cruden Bay, Scotland. Stoker continued to write fiction for the rest of his life, achieving moderate success as a novelist. Known more for his association with London theatre during his life, his reputation as an artist has grown since his death, aided in part by film and television adaptations of Dracula, the enduring popularity of the horror genre, and abundant interest in his work from readers and scholars around the world.