A Brief Consideration of THE JEWEL OF SEVEN STARS by Bram Stoker.

In nineteenth-century supernatural horror, few horror authors command a more respected place than Bram Stoker. As well, few works of horror rank higher than his Dracula. However, deemed a close second to Dracula, Stoker's The Jewel of Seven Stars is a masterpiece of mystery, suspense and the weird.

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I include Bram Stoker's The Jewel of Seven Stars in this exploration of nineteenth-century supernatural horror as Stoker's literary career crossed the nineteenth and twentieth centuries – the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Though initially applied for copyright in the US in 1902, this work was published in the UK in 1903, then in the US in 1904. Because it was first published in 1903, this work of weird fiction is technically of the twentieth century and Edwardian.

Under consideration here is the US 1904 edition from Caldwell & Co.

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In trying to understand this text, one of the first questions faced is whether this work concerns a mystery involving an Egyptologist or an Ancient Egyptian mystery? Both, as it turns out.

This novel reflected the time in which it was written very strongly. In England during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the culture was filled with a fascination of all things Ancient Egyptian. It was this same fascination combined with the certain belief that nothing could not be understood via modern science that lead to the basic premise of this work – using modern science to validate Ancient Egyptian magic!

The feeling of mystery, suspense and the "weird" permeates the entire work. For the first third to half, the novel reads like a mystery "who done it" with suspects and possible motives, even a Scotland Yard detective. The story of the titular ornament is only presented at about the mid-point of the work. Also, while there were a few very obscure hints as to what is really going on, it is much nearer the conclusion that the actual situation is revealed and only at the very conclusion that the possible supernatural element is introduced and resolved in rapid succession.

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Once again, the Vintage Pop Fictions blog provides a superb summation of the book. A link out to the article is here.

There is an interesting side note to this novel which I was initially unaware of. In the 1903 original's conclusion, with the exception of the protagonist, Malcolm Ross, every other person dies. The novel ends with Malcolm discovering the body of his love, Margaret, her dead eyes open, horror on her face. There is no hope . . .

However, for its 1912 re-release, The Jewel of Seven Stars went through a significant revision. The entirety of Chapter 16 "Powers–Old and New" was cut. Also, it might be supposed that, with the romantic build-up between Malcolm and Margaret, the novel needed a more traditional happy ending. To that end, the last two pages of the novel were completely and utterly rewritten.

It was only with the publication of the Penguin Classics edition in 2008 that Chapter 16 was restored to the text. In this edition also, both the 1903 and 1912 endings were included for completeness and comparison.[i] Prior to the release of this 2008 Penguin edition, the only version in print and available outside of libraries and private collections, was the 1912 revised version.

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There have been several movie adaptations of The Jewel of Seven Stars. There was Charleton Heston's The Awakening of 1980. Followed by John Carradine in 1986's The Tomb. And lastly in 1998, was Louis Gossett, Jr.'s Bram Stoker's Legend of the Mummy. But for me, the stand out, though maybe not the most accurate, film adaptation of The Jewel of Seven Stars was 1971's Blood from the Mummy's Tomb – a Hammer Film production.

A reviewer from 2009 comments "the #1 reason to watch Blood from the Mummy's Tomb is the lovely and talented Valerie Leon."[ii] A sentiment with which I could not agree more wholeheartedly. Whether portraying the innocent Margaret or the far-reaching Queen Tera, the statuesque Valerie Leon is quite good in this Hammer production.

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I believe that it was rather propitious that The Jewel of Seven Stars is the current work which I choose for consideration. A recent post on this blog concerned Tales of Unease by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (link). Imagine my surprise when I came across a newspaper article – The World (New York) dated July 28, 1907 (link). In this article, Bram Stoker interviewed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Apparently, the two gentlemen had been friends for years before the article and were fans of each others work! In a letter dated August 1897, Doyle wrote Stoker: "I write to tell you how very much I have enjoyed reading Dracula. I think it is the very best story of diablerie which I have read for many years."(link).

Conversely, it had been reported that Stoker was a Sherlock Holmes fan himself. He may have used the Holmes stories for inspiration in an early draft of Dracula. (link)

I knew that such a thing would never happen, but, based on the above, I can dream that this might have been actually a real Doyle / Stoker collaboration.

The fact that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker were friends just made my research into this book all the richer.

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In my opinion, Bram Stoker's The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903 version) stands up well to its older brother, Dracula. While I do not know the justification for the changes made in the 1912 revision, I hold that they were not needed and in actuality took away from the work rather than improved it. The original is, in and of itself, a great work of weird fiction.

 

 

References

Digital Resources

 

Stoker, Bram. The Jewel of Seven Stars. PDF Edition.

http://www.bramstoker.org/novels/08stars.html

 

Stoker, Bram. The Jewel of Seven Stars. 2016. Kindle Edition.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0082QTOTC/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

Online Resources

Bramstoker.org. "Non-Fiction: Interviews by Stoker."

Accessed 26 March 2017.

http://www.bramstoker.org/nonfic/doyle.html

 

Chapman, Erin. Vamped.org. "Strigoi! Did Arthur Conan Doyle Really Know Bram Stoker?"

10 August 2016. Accessed 27 March 2017.

http://vamped.org/2016/08/10/strigoi-did-arthur-conan-doyle-really-know-bram-stoker/

 

Common Sense Movie Reviews. "Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971)"

December 2009 Accessed 26 March 2017.

http://commonsensemoviereviews.blogspot.com/2009/12/blood-from-mummys-tomb-1971_06.html

 

Vintage Pop Fictions. "Bram Stoker's The Jewel of Seven Stars."

5 September 2010 Accessed 26 March 2017.

http://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2010/09/bram-stokers-jewel-of-seven-stars.html

 

Wikipedia. "Bram Stoker."

Accessed 26 March 2017.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Stoker

 

Wikipedia. "The Jewel of Seven Stars."

Accessed 26 March 2017.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jewel_of_Seven_Stars

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[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jewel_of_Seven_Stars

[ii] Common Sense Movie Reviews. "Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971)"