Beyond ‘Hommy-Beg’: Hall Caine’s Place in Dracula

Abstract

On 23 February 1897 (in a letter now in the Manx National Heritage Library) Bram Stoker wrote to his friend Hall Caine proposing to dedicate Dracula to him and suggesting the obscure wording which all readers now encounter at the beginning of the novel: ‘To my dear friend Hommy-Beg’. Stoker floated the alternative of naming Caine more formally but evidently preferred the idea of using his joke name for his friend, reassuring him that ‘if the book is ever worth remembering it will be well understood what is meant’.¹