The Mystery of the Sea is a mystery novel by Bram Stoker, first published in 1902. It tells the story of an Englishman living in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, who meets and falls in love with an American heiress. She is involved with the intrigues of the Spanish–American War, and a complex plot involving second sight, kidnapping, and secret codes unfolds over the course of the novel.
The Mystery of the Sea contains supernatural elements, but is in many respects a political thriller. Stoker draws from personal experience and incorporates historical strands from the Spanish–American War as well as the sixteenth-century conflict between Spain and Elizabethan England, using these events to explore important themes of his time such as national identity and changing concepts of womanhood. Although The Mystery of the Sea received many favorable reviews when it was published, it has been significantly overshadowed in scholarship and criticism by Dracula.
Bram Stoker and the literary context
Stoker's life and connections to the novel
Bram Stoker was born on 8 November 1847, in Dublin, Ireland. He was brought up in a Protestant middle-class household, and was a sickly child.Belford However, Stoker eventually grew out of his illnesses and attended Trinity College, where he studied science and mathematics. Stoker became a civil service clerk in Dublin for a short time, but was always interested in literature. He wrote short fiction and edited an Irish newspaper, publishing his first story, "The Crystal Cup", in 1872. He also submitted work to a magazine called the Shamrock, based in Dublin.Daly In 1876, while volunteering as a drama critic for the Dublin Evening Mail, met actor Henry Irving. In 1878, Stoker moved to London to serve as manager for Irving's Lyceum Theatre. Stoker was an adept administrator and introduced a number of new practices into the theatre, including numbering seats and advertising a season or selling tickets for shows in advance. Stoker was quite busy while he worked for Irving, and much of his writing had to be done on holidays and in his spare time.
However, Stoker's business often proved to be helpful to his writings. Stoker's position at the Lyceum had a direct influence on his novels, particularly in terms of travel and setting. Company tours between 1883 and 1904 took him to America regularly.Hopkins, p. 93 Although The Mystery of the Sea takes place in Scotland, Stoker's travels to America are important considering that the main female character of The Mystery of the Sea is American. The Lyceum tours likely provided some background information (and stereotypes) for the character of Marjory, as well as for some of Stoker's other notable American characters like Quincey Morris in Dracula. Stoker also was drawing from personal experience when he wrote about Cruden Bay, being a frequent visitor there.
His first trip to Cruden was with Irving to research for a production of Macbeth in 1888 (incidentally, Stoker finished writing Dracula in Cruden).Senf, p. 102 Carol A. Senf argues that Archibald Hunter, the protagonist of The Mystery of the Sea, is an autobiographical character because of his repeated visits to Cruden as well as the hints he gives of an invalid past and an "enthusiasm for…technology" which Senf identifies as a characteristic shared with Stoker. Archibald also mentions having studied law, which Stoker did too, although he never practiced. The character of Gormala also had a real-life inspiration; in 1901, while on holiday, Stoker was at the seaside and met a strange old woman. Locals thought she had supernatural abilities, and Stoker was inspired to write the short story "The Seer", which would later grow into The Mystery of the Sea.Peter Haining, ed. Shades of Dracula: Bram Stoker's Uncollected Stories. London: William Kimber, 1982, 124, qtd. in Senf, p. 106
Stoker worked at the Lyceum until 1902, and his professional experiences and personal friendship with Irving led to the 1905 publication of Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving, a two-volume work dedicated to Irving that is one of the most important sources for people wanting to learn about Stoker's life. Beginning around 1897, as Irving was in decline, Stoker had depended increasingly on his writing for money. Stoker worked as a journalist and also wrote eight novels during this time, including The Mystery of the Sea (1902). While Stoker is known today for Dracula, he wrote seventeen other novels as well as many short stories and pieces for periodicals.Senf, p. 2
Publication history The Mystery of the Sea was first published in 1902 by the London firm W. Heinemann. The same year, it was published in America by the New York-based Doubleday, Page, & Co.WorldCat OCLC Catalog A digitized copy of this version is available from Google Books and is linked below. In 1903, a two-volume version was released as part of a series called The English Library, published by Leipzig, Heinemann, and Balestier.HathiTrust Digital Library, http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011405371 This particular series was an effort to bring English fiction to the continent, and Stoker himself invested in the company. Heinemann published another edition of the novel in 1914, as did the London company Rider. The beginning of the book was published as a short story called "The Seer" in The London Magazine in 1901. There have been various reprints and e-book editions of The Mystery of the Sea during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, many of which are accessible online.
Historical context The Mystery of the Sea has two important layers of historical context: the Spanish–American War, and the sixteenth-century interactions between England and Spain. The first event is contemporaneous with the events of the novel and Stoker's lifetime, while the second provides a backdrop and historical frame within the novel. The sixteenth-century and nineteenth-century events are closely intertwined in the novel, and both play a role in the politics of the story as well as character and plot development. A review in The Athenaeum from Stoker's time recognizes these historical resonances from a surprisingly close perspective. This reviewer notes that "because the charming heroine is American, we have another 'mystery.' It is the time of the Spanish–American War, and naturally a Spanish grandee is brought upon the scene".Athenaeum, p. 216 The reviewer also pinpoints the "recent controversy that suggests the Baconian Bilateral Cipher as the means of finding the Papal hoard".
Spanish–American War
As suggested by the reviewer's reference to a "recent controversy", the Spanish–American War was only recent history when The Mystery of the Sea was published in 1902. The Spanish–American War began in 1897 with America's involvement in the Cuban insurrection against Spain.Walker Cuban revolutionaries had begun fighting Spanish rule in 1895,Smith, p. 133 and Spanish troops were sent to Cuba, where they set up camps known as reconcentrados, meant to contain the rebels. Conditions in these camps were very poor, and they became fodder for "yellow journalism" in the United States, provoking sympathy and outrage on behalf of the Cubans. Many American politicians supported the idea of going to war, and some even wanted to annex Cuba to the United States. Tensions with Spain intensified upon the publication of a letter from the Spanish minister that insulted President William McKinley, calling him weak. However, the event leading up to the war that caused the greatest public uproar and bears particular significance to The Mystery of the Sea was the explosion of the battleship Maine in Havana in 1898. This caused an outpouring of public sentiment against the Spanish, even though the explosion was most likely not the result of a vicious attack. Popular headlines and slogans like "Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain"qtd. in Walker suggest that the character Marjory's attitude is a representation of the broader American public attitude during the Spanish–American War, and adds significance to her decision to use her fortune to buy a battleship for the U.S. Navy to use against the Spanish.
Spanish Armada
The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 was a major victory for England, and, in a larger sense, for Protestantism. Philip II of Spain had hoped to use the attack to incite a rebellion against the English Protestant monarchy under Elizabeth I.Lowe By this point in English history, Elizabeth was firmly establishing her Protestant rule (the Church of England had been established under her father, Henry VIII). She had already beheaded her Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart, and had taken several hostile actions towards Catholic Spain. These included authorizing Francis Drake to attack Spanish ships and ports and supporting the Dutch against Spanish rule in the Netherlands. There are two connections here to the novel's heroine, Marjory Drake. First, Marjory is revealed to be a descendant of Sir Francis Drake, the same pirate (or hero, depending on which side one is on) who was so closely linked to Queen Elizabeth's successes. Second, in buying a battleship, Marjory is aiming to support the Cuban rebels against Spanish domination, just as Elizabeth was on the side of the Dutch against the Spanish.
The actual defeat of the Spanish Armada occurred in August 1588 when the British and Spanish ships met at Gravelines. The British victory over the strong Spanish fleet had more to do with logistical issues for the Spanish and favorable winds than it did with English naval prowess, but the British Protestants took it as a moral (and even a divinely ordained) triumph. The buried treasure that figures so prominently in Stoker's novel was supposedly granted to one of the sailors of the Armada by Pope Sixtus V after the Armada's defeat to use in further actions against England. The characters are still haunted by this treasure, and the conflict is perpetuated when the American heiress, Marjory, comes into contact with Don Bernardino, the Spaniard whose family is in charge of the treasure. Scholar Andrew Smith argues that the interactions between these two characters are very "politicised" due to their positions in the Spanish–American War, but also sees The Mystery of the Sea as an exploration of Catholic-Protestant conflicts on a wider scale (possibly having to do with Stoker's Irish background), incorporating the earlier tensions from the Elizabethan conflict.Smith Ultimately, Smith observes a unifying of Catholics and Protestants in both time periods due to the use of the Baconian Cipher (a Protestant-invented device) to convey a Catholic message and the collaboration between the Catholic Don Bernardino and Protestant Archibald Hunter as they work to defend Marjory's honor, among other reasons. Regardless of specific interpretation, there is a sense throughout the novel that political and religious struggles can endure far longer than the people who start them.
Minor historical influences