The Snake's Pass

Book excerpt: Born from the mists of Irish legend, Bram Stoker’s ‘The Snake’s Pass’ traces a romance fraught with mystery and peril. Arthur Severn is holidaying in the town of Carnacliff, Ireland, when he meets a peasant girl in the fog and falls in love. But their social standing is not the only thing keeping them apart. The town’s money lender, Black Murdock wants to take control of the land where Arthur has been staying and seems obsessed with finding a hidden treasure lost beneath the bog. As legends resurface of the Snake King’s lost crown, the shifting swamp threatens to swallow the house itself and destroy Arthur’s hopes of finding the girl again. Drawing on the legend of St Patrick, Stoker’s thrilling romance creates a brooding world of danger and mystery. His only work set entirely in Ireland, ‘The Snake’s Pass’ is an unmissable classic and rightful precursor to the Gothic horror that is Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’. Bram Stoker (1847 - 1912) was an Irish author celebrated for his contributions to the Victorian Gothic period. Among his works, 'The Primrose Path', 'The Snake's Pass', and 'The Lair of the White Worm', 'Dracula' is best-known as the masterpiece of Gothic Horror that introduced vampires to English shores. Born in Dublin, Ireland, Stoker later moved to London to work alongside Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre, where he followed his interests in the arts, science, and the occult.