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The Man

Bram Stoker

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    It is truly unfortunate that Bram Stoker is mostly only known for his famous novel, Dracula. While that is a great book, it has long ceased to be my favorite. I thought, for quite a while, that The Mystery of the Sea had taken the number one spot, and then I read this one!! Oh, my. While not a thriller, it certainly has its thrilling and scary moments. But it is essentially the epitome of nineteenth century Romantic literature, stylistically, and genuinely a beautiful Victorian Romance, as in love story. It is often dripping with sweetness, but, you know, that is OK with me. While here in our present state, we are dealing daily with horror, tragedy, and terror in our "real" lives, where mere existence has become a psychological thriller, and I suspect in the end we will discover it is all a false reality. This novel is like a vacation away from planet earth, a story with a happy ending (you knew it was gonna be happy!), where love, virtue and honor triumph, and are not only important factors, but essential ones. It is super easy to read—nothing complicated at all, and the chapters fly by. I could barely put it down. While not driving, like a who dunnit mystery, still we very quickly come to love and care about the two main characters, and we don't want to see them hurt, though they do enough to hurt themselves. While some critics may say this book is too flowery to be good literature (no more flowery than Jane Austen!!), I am not a professional critic, and I judge what I read by either whether I liked it, or whether it enriched my knowledge of the world in some way. I don't know if my knowledge was enriched by this one, but I sure felt good as I read it and after I finished it. It does a person good to indulge in mental pleasure.
    In this rare instance, I am not quoting Wikipedia because their article on this book is not very good and even inaccurate. However, I did find another article on a site called The Gothic Wanderer. It too has some inaccuracies, however the overall review is good. Sometimes analysis creates suggestions that perhaps never even occurred to the author. And so, here I provide a synopsis of the story, with little analysis!
    The story begins as Stephan Norman (a girl) and Harold An Wolf sit in a churchyard, listening to two little children arguing. The first, Marjorie, states that she "would rather be an angel than God," because she would rather obey orders than give them. Susan, however, says, "All the same I would rather be God and be able to do things." When the children leave, Stephan and Harold begin to discuss their little argument, and Stephan finds she agrees with Susan's perspective. The idea of being a woman and being able to do things haunts her throughout the story, and returns to her in full force, when she realizes she must save the life of The Man. But here, now, she speaks of women being allowed to take men's roles, and do all that a man can do.
    We then go back in history, and learn where she has acquired her strength of character. Her father, Stephan Norman, a wealthy Squire, had reached middle age, and decided he must take a wife to have a male heir to his large estate. Being close friends with his neighbor, he takes an interest in the squire's much younger half-sister, Margaret.
    Very much in love, they marry, and after a while, an expected son is due. However, not only was Margaret's life in serious jeopardy from this childbirth, but the son turned out to be in fact a daughter. Knowing that his wife was dying, the doctor told Stephan that news before his wife even knew, because she would fear his disappointment that it was not a son. When the time came that there was little hope of her recovery, Stephan entered her room, kissed his wife, and asked to see his dear daughter, whom he embraced with love. Relieved, Margaret began to rest more peacefully, but was quickly going downhill. Later, as Stephan was summoned as she lay dying, he again assured his wife that he would cherish his dear daughter. She then insisted that the child must be called Stephan, after the line of her heirs. Then she died.
    And so, Stephan did become both son and daughter to her father, who loved her with his heart and soul. So it was not unusual for her to assume that women could be as strong as men. Margaret's aunt, Laetitia, who was the much younger sister of her father, wanted to live at Normanstand, to help raise her little grand-niece, but was concerned, because she herself was so young, and it would seem improper to live in the same house with a man. However, she soon developed a close relationship with the little girl, and assisted in her education.
    And as for Harold—his father was a minister about thirty miles from Normanstand, and though the Squire and he were good friends, the distance, with no railway available, made their visits few and far between. After Harold's birth, the two friends had even less opportunities to get together. When An Wolf's wife, Harold's mother, was killed in a train accident, Norman helped him out, and An Wolf later assisted in the burial of the Squire's wife.
    After the shock of Margaret's death subsided, An Wolf was invited for a visit to Normanstand, where he became captivated with the little daughter, who now not only spoke well but was quite outspoken. After hearing all about Harold, how big and strong and athletic and wonderful he was, she urged her daddy's friend to return soon, and to bring Harold. Two weeks later, they did just that, and the little girl and older boy quickly became best friends. By the end of the visit, Harold had fallen in love with Stephan, and from then on she was the only girl he ever loved. After the two friends parted, Stephan whispered to her daddy as he was tucking her in, that is would be nice if Harold would come there to live.
    Two years later, that happened, as An Wolf succumbed to pneumonia. Squire Norman helped Harold through his grief, then offered his home to him, to live there as the son he never had. Harold was now not quite fifteen years old. He accepted, and the family lived in blissful harmony.
    And that takes us to the scene in the churchyard, where Stephan is now fourteen years old, and Harold some years older. The churchyard was one of their favorite hangouts, the Church of St. Stephan, where the Stephan Normans were all buried. On one particular occasion, Stephan begs to enter the crypt, which they find open, but Harold will not let her enter, because he did not want her to see her mother's tomb in such a cold dark place.
    But one day Harold had to attend to business, and Stephan found her opening. Another boy, Leonard Everard and her were to visit the tomb, and this time she planned to enter. Harold, upon returning home, for some reason went by the church, where he discovered there was something wrong. Stephan and Leonard had entered the crypt, but Stephan had dropped both candles, then Leonard came out without her. Harold demanded the matches from Leonard, and it was he who went in to rescue Stephan, who had passed out. When she awoke, she assumed Leonard had carried her out, and neither he nor Harold corrected that assumption. That made an impression on Stephan.
    Meanwhile the two, Stephan and Harold, were closer than ever, even when he went off to Cambridge. During his absence, Leonard and Stephan became companions. Stephan later had a chance to visit Oxford, and caught a glimpse of the way "regular" girls behaved and she did not like it at all. But she finally "got it" that she was a woman. She also became friends and stayed with one of her mother's old friends, Mrs. Egerton, a professor at the college.
    On the way home, she had much to think about—the fact that she was a woman, but that she did not need to behave as other women did. She decided to attend Petty Sessions Court with her father, which alarmed Aunt Laetitia. But Stephan's arguments made sense. She wanted to learn to be able to serve all those in her estate with fairness and honesty.
    I will skip ahead here, to the next most important event that shapes the rest of the story. First, her beloved father and her uncle, Squire Rowley are killed on the way to a meeting when their horses get spooked and run out of control. Harold had been riding behind them, not realizing why they went so fast, and could not catch up. But he did, in time to learn that Squire Rowley had died instantly when thrown from the cart, and Squire Norman was not expected to live. He quickly dispatched a messenger to fetch Stephan, but before that, the Squire entreated Harold to care for his daughter, and if their affections developed into something more than that, their marriage had his blessing, but to give her time to grow. And If she should choose another, he asked that Harold still be her friend. Stephan arrived in time to say goodbye to her father.
    So now, Harold has taken that request to heart, overly so. Though he is madly in love with Stephan, he is afraid to show it, because he does not want to force anything. And because neither really have any experience with the opposite sex, other than each other, neither knows how to read the thoughts which are not spoken. Harold withdraws because he wants to give Stephan space, but she takes it as indifference. She begins to look elsewhere, and the only other man with whom she has had any relationship is Leonard, who has become a wastrel, is in serious debt to the point where his father cannot or will not pay, and he faces imprisonment. Stephan, not understanding, and excited to try out her theory that women are allowed to ask men to marry them, does just that. He laughs in her face, then gets drunk and blabs it to Harold, saying that he will marry her. (She has offered to pay his debts.) Harold, in a panic, tries to finally express his love, which offends Stephan, because she figured that Harold knows of her foolishness and thinks he just pities her. She says some revolting things to him and sends him permanently off, without thinking, of course, but merely in a mad passion. He takes her seriously and takes a boat to Alaska to be alone and far from Stephan.
    Meanwhile Aunt Laetitia has come to live with Stephan, and Leonard now becomes not only a pest but a blackmailer, determined to marry Stephan for her money. She is so ashamed of her behavior toward both Leonard and Harold, that she has fallen into grief and despair. Both she and Harold now have some new adventures on the way which help them to grow and mature, and during which their love continues to strengthen all those miles apart.
    And there I will leave you, so you can find out the rest when you read the book. It is free from Project Gutenberg. Very highly recommended. To read more Bram Stoker reviews, please go to his Index Page.