Dracula by Bram Stoker (Epub)

Description

The vampire count of Transylvania seeks his lost love and the conquest of Britain by plague. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola.”

User’s Reviews

Amazon.com Review Dracula is one of the few horror books to be honored by inclusion in the Norton Critical Edition series. (The others are Frankenstein, The Turn of the Screw, Heart of Darkness, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Metamorphosis.) This 100th-anniversary edition includes not only the complete authoritative text of the novel with illuminating footnotes, but also four contextual essays, five reviews from the time of publication, five articles on dramatic and film variations, and seven selections from literary and academic criticism. Nina Auerbach of the University of Pennsylvania (author of Our Vampires, Ourselves) and horror scholar David J. Skal (author of Hollywood Gothic, The Monster Show, and Screams of Reason) are the editors of the volume. Especially fascinating are excerpts from materials that Bram Stoker consulted in his research for the book, and his working papers over the several years he was composing it. The selection of criticism includes essays on how Dracula deals with female sexuality, gender inversion, homoerotic elements, and Victorian fears of “reverse colonization” by politically turbulent Transylvania. –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. From Brooke Allen’s Introduction to DraculaUpon its publication in 1897, Bram Stoker’s Dracula was seen as nothing more than a slightly cheesy thriller, if an unusually successful one. Most such “shilling shockers” were forgotten within a year or two. But this one was different: Over the course of the next century Count Dracula, the aristocratic vampire, left his natural habitat between the pages of a book and insinuated himself into the world’s consciousness as few other fictional characters haveever done. Now, more than a hundred years after his appearance in print, Dracula has shed the status of “fictional character” altogether and has become an authentic modern myth.Why has this odd and terrifying figure exerted such a hold on our collective imagination? Why does the image of the vampire both attract and repel, in apparently equal measure? If, as has been argued, Dracula owes its success to its reflection of specific anxieties within the culture, why then has its power continued unabated throughout more than a century of unprecedented social change? Late-Victorian anxieties and concerns were rather different from our own, yet the lure of the vampire and the persistence of his image seem as strong as ever.Dracula’s durability may in part be due to Tod Browning’s 1931 film, for when most people think of the character, it is Bela Lugosi’s portrayal that springs to mind. But in spite of memorable performances by Lugosi and by Dwight Frye as Renfield, the film is awkward and clunky, even laughable in parts; in terms of shocking, terrible, and gorgeous images, it cannot compare with the novel that inspired it. It is hard to believe that, on its own, it would have created such an indelible impact.Once Dracula became lodged in the popular imagination, it began to accrue ever-new layers of meaning and topicality. The novel has provided rich material for every fad and fancy of twentieth-century exegesis. It has been deconstructed by critics of the Freudian, feminist, queer theory, and Marxist persuasions, and has had something significant to offer each of these fields. Today, in the age of AIDS, the exchange of blood has taken on a new meaning, and Dracula has taken on a new significance in its turn. For post-Victorian readers, it has been a little too easy to impose a pat “Freudian” reading on the novel, in which the vampire represents deviant, dangerous sexuality, while the vampire-hunters stand for sexual repression in the form of bourgeois marriage and overly spiritualized relationships. This interpretation certainly contains a large element of truth, but the novel’s themes are much richer and more complex than such a reading might suggest.Readers coming to Dracula for the first time should try to peel away the layers of preconception that they can hardly help bringing to the novel. We should try to forget Bela Lugosi; we should try to forget easy (and anachronistic) Freudian cliches; we should put out of our minds all our received twentieth- and twenty-first-century notions of friendship and love, both heterosexual and homosexual. If we let the novel stand on its own, just as it appeared to Bram Stoker’s contemporaries in the last years of the Victorian era, what exactly do we find? –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ You know that scene in a horror movie when it gets dark and ominous music begins to play and you know that at any moment the killer is going to suddenly appear and murder everyone in a horrible fashion. That intense build up, and the anxiety of wondering exactly when you’re going to be scared, because you already know it’s coming. That’s this entire book. I had to take breaks at times to read some short stories that were a bit lighter, because the unnerving fear for the characters, as we the reader know what’s happening, could be a bit much at times. However, it’s easy to see why this is a classic, and how it has inspired others to delve into the dark world of vampires. Though, considering I’ve mainly read paranormal romance, it’s a bit disconcerting to see how the original was so completely evil. The vampires in this are soulless, not misunderstood, and kill children and anyone that gets in their way without remorse. More so, it’s incredible all the powers they are given, not just immortality and strength, but real mystical sort of powers, that I wish hadn’t been pushed off to the side in the other stories I’ve read. Beyond all of that though, I don’t believe I have ever come across a story written in this style, and it was this style that really made the tale such an intriguing one. Sure there have been plenty who have done rotating first person, but this is told in pieces of people’s diaries, the letters they’ve written to others, and even newspaper clippings. You’re getting the events after the characters have experience them and have pondered over them, as they try to understand what exactly is going on. Because of this you get to see how it all slowly melds together, and what each character really is thinking, and a much more personal aspect of the story that allows you to really feel for each of them as if these were actual historical letters that someone has stitched together. And I do so hope people were ever like this, this goodness and bravery and the way in which they talk so passionately about everything. It’s really a wonderful book. Though I would advise getting a version that has footnotes to explain certain things. Such as words that are no longer used in this way. As well as some of things that are referenced. I’m sure you could easily enjoy this book without such, but it was rather nice to have.

⭐ Unfortunately the author’s name (BRAM STOKER) is spelled wrong on the cover and spine. It is correct on the inside. I’m not trying 2 be picking but I’m a collector or bram stoker’s dracula. The publish date is supposed to be October 10, 2019 but it is actually December 26, 2019 (I wanted this book 4 the cover and the publish date which is my birthday). I am not 100% happy.

⭐ Entire book was nothing but a smeared photocopy. Unreadable.

⭐ I decided to get this shortly after seeing James Rolfe’s video on which Dracula movie was more faithful to the book. I not only wanted to see if what he said about the book was true, I also just wanted to try a vampire book that goes back to the very beginning of the modern lore. I didn’t want vampires that went to high school, nor did I want heroes who learned everything from movies; I wanted a story about an evil man who happened to be a blood-sucking creature of the night, and the people who rose against him. Dracula is a bonafide classic which captivated me in the early chapters. The exploits of Jonathan Harker in Dracula’s castle were eerie and suspenseful, seeing how he became a virtual prisoner in a castle he was so cordially invited to. Unfortunately, like many classics, there tends to be a lot of words that ultimately say very little, including long-winded speeches from everyone’s favorite moonlighting vampire-hunter, Professor Van Helsing. But the book’s biggest failing, in my opinion, is the author’s choice of narrative structure. The story is told through a series of journal entries, letters, and newspaper clippings. Am I to truly believe that the characters had typed and even handwritten such lengthy descriptions of their experiences, including entire conversations that can last for paragraphs that take up an entire page? I can hardly do that, especially considering one news article about a fierce storm that reads unlike any kind of newspaper section I’ve ever seen. The thing is, these entries, letters and articles read more like someone telling a fictional story than people recounting extraordinary experiences. While it is interesting to see how a character’s mood changes over time and circumstance, this kind of narrative does little for my suspension of disbelief, and it can take me out of story more often than it takes me in. (And yes, I realize how futile it is to complain about a story over a hundred years old, but hopefully I can dissuade any enterprising writers out there from taking a similar narrative.)

⭐ I hear people make references to Dracula and Vlad the Impaler and vampires in general, but I never really understood the more sophisticated ones because I had never read the book – well now I can say that I HAVE! My book arrived in excellent condition- better than I expected. The cover of this book by Bram Stoker is even more beautiful than the pictures show – in fact, it is the single most colorful novel on my bookshelf. The title letters are raised off of the front cover and are coated in same metallic-blue ink, which makes it unlike any book I have seen. The plot is very exciting (even though it seems unbearably slow and boring in the beginning) and it is very difficult to predict future scenes, which is a major bonus for me because I dislike books that are too predictable. The words are just the right size and the book is extremely lightweight so you won’t have to rest it on anything. It is much smaller in size than other books of the same title and is therefore extremely easy to store. In addition, in my opinion, it is always better to use hard copy printed books because you read much faster, you focus on the material easily, you will not damage your eyes like you will glaring at lcd screens, and best of all, you get to smell and feel the pages between your fingertips. Moreover, this book was the cheapest priced version I could find. Everything combines to make this an excellent product.

⭐ I suppose almost every person on earth is familiar with Dracula as the iconic vampire, and I guess because he’s been portrayed so frequently in so many hokey ways over so many years as to become a bad joke most of the time that I went into the book not expecting too much. But, wow, was I wrong. This is just a great book, full of suspense and adventure, gripping from first to last, full of well drawn heroes. Early on I found the unusual way the story is told — entirely through alternating diary entries and letters of Jonathan and Mina Harker, Dr. Seward, Van Helsing, and Lucy along with a few newspaper clippings — kind of irritating but it grew on, and by the end I thought it worked very well. To be sure, it is much more action and suspense oriented and less thoughtful and philos phical than Frankenstein, but in its own way Dracula is just as good in my opinion.As an aside, it’s funny to realize 30 years after seeing the movie just how faithful in spirit the Francis Ford Coppola was to the book. The movie invented the whole Dracula/Mina love angle and Mina being Dracula’s dead wife reborn, but basically it follows the plot and includes all the key characters of the book more than other Dracula adaptation I’m aware of. And yet the movie, while entertaining, is kind of silly compared to the book, I guess because of some really bad or over-the-top acting in key parts mostly.

⭐ It’s been at least 60 years since I first tried to read this book. Now that I have, I can only say what a profoundly dull, repetitive ponderous thing it is. The first part was good, with Harker a prisoner in Dracula’s castle. The last 15 pages were good as Dracula was pursued to the end. But, the other 90 percent was a melange of philosophizing and rehashing of personal and religious idealism. It went on and on and on and on…. Maybe that was the style of writing at that time, but it is pure boredom today. The movies, Nesferatu, and the 1931 film with Bela Lugosi, were excellent; lots of scary scenes. Not so in the book.

⭐ While this book took a while to get through, it’s a story I’m glad I took the time to read, purely because of how much of a classic it is.Stoker does an amazing job with descriptions, where it’s to the point one can so vividly picture the settings he places the characters in. I loved being able to read through this and visual all these beautiful, and sometimes terrifying, scenes.Another great aspect is the style it’s written in; diary/journal entry form where we hear certain character’s thoughts as they recount events. Sometimes, this can take away the suspense of a scene, though that is rarely the case here.I would recommend any person interested in vampires to give this a read. It does drag on at certain parts, but once you get past those, it picks up tremendously.

⭐ The first thing you should know is that Dracula is a very long book. To read the entire thing is a huge investment in time. It was also written at a time where literary works had a very different flavor. It is written from the point of view of correspondence and personal memoirs of the people who had decided to fight Dracula.For me, I really enjoyed each individual section as they told the story from the personal recollection of Johnathan Harker, Mia Harker, Dr. John Seward, Quincey Morris, and Lord Godalming. You not only get the plot, narrative, and the dialogue from their points of view, but you also get their own internal dialogue.The book is chiefly well written, but you have to be in the mood for an older style of writing. I suggest, if you are feeling adventurous, read the book and then follow it up by watching the 1931 version of Dracula.I want to be forthcoming. I am a horror writer so reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula is sort of a must for me. On balance, we have no hope of actually influencing the author (Bram Stoker died in 1912); however, we can influence future generations to take on the task of reading this hefty volume.This work of fiction has influenced literally the world. Every culture understands the story of Dracula and understands the mythos of the vampire. I remember, as a child, weighing Halloween costume ideas and having Dracula be a perennial favorite.Ultimately this is a literary work that will stand the test of time and continue to be an influence in the world. It is one of those rare books that shapes the darker side of the human experience. I hope many others will pick it up and find satisfaction in the story that shaped all of us.

⭐ I have never desired to read Dracula as the movies were too gory for me to enjoy. However, on a recent trip to Romania my nephew and I decided to read it while making our way through the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania, and I am glad we did! The book was very well written with rich character development. The story was intriguing and after I adjusted to the style of writing, I just wanted to find out what would happen. I rather enjoyed the mystery and adored Van Helsing and Mina. The spiritual themes were a surprise, but made perfect sense. I could easily equate the Count with the evil enveloping our world, and the group led by Van Helsing as the light dispelling the darkness through their deep faith and determination to see good prevail over evil. Although this story had nothing to do with the real Dracula, it was fun to read while traveling through Romania!

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