Abraham Stoker (1847-1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish theatre manager, writer, novelist and Freemason. He became famous as the author of Dracula (1897), an epistolary Gothic horror novel widely considered a landmark in vampire literature. The work deeply influenced future representations of fictional vampiric characters, and Stoker came to be regarded by many as "the father of vampire fiction".
The Invisible Giant, the short horror story by Bram Stoker which we offer to our readers today, was first published in 1881 in Stoker's first collection of short stories Under the Sunset.
It is a horror tale about a girl who loved birds and was loved by them. She saves her village, called "The Country Below the Sunset" (most likely the same village as another Stoker story of the same title) from the Giant (who is most likely the plague, judging by his dark death) thanks to her "devotion and innocence". No one believes her when she speaks of the Giant's presence because he remains invisible to others. But she, with the help of a good man, helps them when they fall ill. The Giant abandons them after taking the life of this good man, Knoal, and leaves because of her heart-rending wail and her offer to sacrifice himself for his life.
