Bram Stoker

The Penguin English Library Edition of Dracula by Bram Stoker 'Alone with the dead! I dare not go out, for I can hear the low howl of the wolf through the broken window' A chilling masterpiece of the horror genre, Dracula also illuminated dark corners of Victorian sexuality. When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to advise Count Dracula on a London home, he makes a horrifying discovery. Soon afterwards, a number of disturbing incidents unfold in England: an unmanned ship is wrecked at Whitby; strange puncture marks appear on a young woman's neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the arrival of his 'Master', while a determined group of adversaries prepares to face the terrifying Count. The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.

Dracula

With an essay by John Sutherland. 'Alone with the dead! I dare not go out, for I can hear the low howl of the wolf through the broken window' A chilling masterpiece of the horror genre, Dracula also illuminated dark corners of Victorian sexuality. When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to advise Count Dracula on a London home, he makes a horrifying discovery. Soon afterwards, a number of disturbing incidents unfold in England: an unmanned ship is wrecked at Whitby; strange puncture marks appear on a young woman's neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the arrival of his 'Master', while a determined group of adversaries prepares to face the terrifying Count. The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.

Emily

'You are early tonight, my friend.' The man stammered in reply:-

'The English Herr was in a hurry,' to which the stranger replied:-

'That is why, I suppose, you wished him to go on to Bukovina. You cannot deceive me, my friend; I know too much, and my horses are swift.' As he spoke he smiled, and the lamplight fell on a hard-looking mouth, with very red lips and sharp-looking teeth, as white as ivory. One of my companions whispered to another the line from Burger's 'Lenore:'–

This Norton Critical Edition presents fully annotated the text of the 1897 First Edition.

Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, Reviews and Reactions, Dramatic and Film Variations, Criticism

oh my god?? what is he?? a vampire in the making?? stefan is that you??

Atli 💗🧚🏽‍♀️

“My belief is, doctor,” he said, “that he has eaten his birds, and that he just took and ate them raw!”

He disgusted me much while with him, for when a horrid blowfly, bloated with some carrion food, buzzed into the room, he caught it, held it exultantly for a few moments between his finger and thumb, and before I knew what he was going to do, put it in his mouth and ate it. 

“Ye don’t see aught funny! Ha-ha! But that’s because ye don’t gawm the sorrowin’ mother was a hell-cat that hated him because he was acrewk’d, a regular lamiter he was, an’ he hated her so that he committed suicide in order that she mightn’t get an insurance she put on his life.

Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make! 

did he just ddlg lucy?? red flag lmaooo. good riddance, cause wdym "little girl"?? boy byee pfft

“Little girl, I hold your hand, and you’ve kissed me, and if

these things don’t make us friends nothing ever will. Thank

you for your sweet honesty to me, and goodbye.”

Why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble? But this is heresy, and I must not say it.

And then, my dear, before I could say a word he began pouring out a perfect torrent of lovemaking, laying his very heart and soul at my feet. He looked so earnest over it that I shall never again think that a man must be playful always, and never earnest, because he is merry at times.

I sympathize with poor Desdemona when she had such a stream poured in her ear, even by a black man

girlhood !! but ugh men suckk. if he hurts my lucy i 

Oh, Mina, couldn’t you guess? I love him. I am blushing as I write, for although I think he loves me, he has not told me so in words.

Do you ever try to read your own face? I do, and I can tell you it is not a bad study, and gives you more trouble than you can well fancy if you have never tried it.

Tell me all the news when you write. You have not told me anything for a long time. I hear rumours, and especially of a tall, handsome, curly-haired man???

 and shows you off in front of his weird friends >>>>

‘How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast eyes on him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me! Beware how you meddle with him, or you’ll have to deal with me.’

It is nineteenth century up-to-date with a vengeance. And yet, unless my senses deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere ‘modernity’ cannot kill.

this is written so beautifully, i actually feel what johnny feels

I feel the dread of this horrible place overpowering me; I am in fear—in awful fear—and there is no escape for me; I am encompassed about with terrors that I dare not think of…

nay, let me warn you with all seriousness, that should you leave these rooms you will not by any chance go to sleep in any other part of the castle. It is old, and has many memories, and there are bad dreams for those who sleep unwisely.

this is some godly behavior lmaoo slayy i guess 

Whenever he spoke of his house he always said ‘we,’ and spoke almost in the plural, like a king speaking.

prisoner! prisoner! locked up, can't get you off my mind, off my mind sjwjwodb

But I am not in heart to describe beauty, for when I had seen the view I explored further; doors, doors, doors everywhere, and all locked and bolted.

my intrusive thoughts would've won, i'm sorry 😭😭

A stone falling from the window would fall a thousand feet without touching anything! 

But there was no reflection of him in the mirror!

I am no longer young; and my heart, through weary years of mourning over the dead, is not attuned to mirth.

“water sleeps, and enemy is sleepless.”

okaaayy Drac!! i see you with your manicure! okaayyy

The nails were long and fine, and cut to a sharp point.

The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor.

Greta Keller

I really liked the story, but found the form quite hard to get through

Lili

I understand that it’s iconic but the diary entries are sooooo tiring I mean just stick to one pov or two if you want but I got so confused in the end 

Ahsoka

Didn't know it was a series of journal entries going in, so that was a fun surprise. A lot of flowery diatribes, but tis the season. Good background for the other vampire books I will be reading soon.

Jenny Engel

When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase a London house, he makes horrifying discoveries in his client's castle. Soon afterwards, disturbing incidents unfold in England: an unmanned ship is wrecked; strange puncture marks appear on a young woman's neck; and a lunatic asylum inmate raves about the imminent arrival of his 'Master'. In the ensuing battle of wits between the sinister Count and a determined group of adversaries, Bram Stoker created a masterpiece of the horror genre, probing into questions of identity, sanity and the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire.

For this completely updated edition, Maurice Hindle has revised his introduction, list of further reading and notes, and added two appendices: Stoker's essay on censorship and his interview with Winston Churchill, both published in 1908. Christopher Frayling's preface discusses Stoker's significance and the influences that contributed to his creation of the Dracula myth.

mina harker deserves just as much attention in the modern dracula/vampire/monster zeitgest as van helsing.

Acadia

Molly M

i love this book so much
i think i will read it hundreds of times before i die

"if it is to be that I must meet death at any hand, let it be at the hand of him that loves me best"



yes i get a lil tired of The Perfect Woman but hehe i love the story sm

The classic tale of the bizarre Carpathian count, who drank human blood to stay alive, and the Englishman who knew his secret.

Kiersten Hepditch

Dracula (The Classic Collection)

Village folk: don’t go there, you’ll die, the devil will take you

Jonathan: mmmh damn this chicken paprikash so goood

Eugene

Village folk: don’t go there, you’ll die, the devil will take you

Jonathan: mmmh damn this chicken paprikash so goood

If you read contemporary reviews of Dracula, you'll find it was critically panned by the average reader. Some of the other names of the day considered it a sleeper classic but otherwise the real cultural value of Dracula comes from its Hammer incarnations. Which is entirely understandable, as the weight of Stoker's laborious prose prevents any sort of impression to form in the reader's mind beyond the desire to sleep -- or strangle the heroines for their stupidity. 

In some sense I wish Dracula from the page had had more of an impact than the cinematic Dracula. The heavy mustache, the fierce Stygian features...they make for a much for evocative vampiric archetype than what we've in fact been left with.

The Essential Dracula

Rebecca C Wright

This is one I skip around in just to read the annotations. Wolf is one of my favorite Dracula writers.

Tobias V. Langhoff

I recently went on a week-long stay in different parts of Transylvania, and of course chose this classic as my travel companion. It was great to visit small villages in the foggy Carpathian mountains and other landmarks mentioned in the novel while reading it. It’s a beautiful country. Most English-speaking Romanians we met had read the novel or were at least intimately familiar with it and the folkloric legend of Vlad the Impaler on which it is based, which made for some interesting discussions. I also returned home with a fair amount of mosquito bites, which I guess are kind of miniature vampires in their own right. All in all I recommend reading the book in Transylvania for an authentic experience.

Not too long ago I also read 'Salem's Lot, which is more or less a modern retelling of this classic tale. Its nosferatu character seems to succeed a bit more easily than Count Dracula does here, however; for a centuries old supernatural noble man, Dracula sure didn’t lay down fool proof plans when intending to conquer England.

The story itself is at times very gripping and exciting. It has its lull moments, however, The epistolary format is interesting, but sometimes it results in info dumps where one narrator recounts another narrator’s explanation of some events, even though we’ve already heard them from that other narrator first hand, for example. Mostly it works well and gives us insight into characters who, because of Victorian culture and customs, are described by others in only superficial and positive tones.

While Professor Van Helsing and his pupil Dr. Seward take a 19th century scientific approach to the whole matter, to the extent possible when dealing with the supernatural, it’s funny how they still remark that Transylvanian people are so extremely superstitious when it comes to vampirism, even though vampires are totally real and all the classic folkloric means of repealing them actually provably works – all the while the main cast are all devoutly Christian. Another element that clearly dates this book is how none of the characters realize that their adversary is obviously a vampire! I mean, all the signs are there. Do they not follow popular culture at all? I jest, but it’s interesting how the concepts from this book are pretty much all still present in contemporary vampire fiction. Stoker pretty much created the lore of an entire horror sub-genre single-handedly.

After contracting an eye infection in Transylvania, however, I had to finish the book as an audiobook. I picked 22543648, which has a full cast. It was pretty good! Tim Curry does a great Abraham Van Helsing (which must have been one of his final performances before suffering his stroke?). His accent is believable and he comes across as a sage old man full of wisdom. Because of the epistolary format, however, Van Helsing has as many accents as there are narrators, as he features pretty heavily in all chapters, not just the ones he narrates himself. All the narrators do a fine job – I didn’t much care for Lucy Westenra as portrayed by Susan Duerden, but I think it’s more the ditzy and naive character I dislike, and Duerden gets that across well. Simon Vance (Jonathan Harker) and Katy Kellgren (Mina Murray) in particular impressed me when they lapsed into rural British accents when narrating conversations. I wish Marc Vietor had more narrating chapters as the American character Quincey Morris, though, as the British narrators didn’t really manage a believable American drawl.

Dracula (Classic Collection (Brilliance Audio))

Ah yes, two out of the three things the British are the most afraid of - the LGBT community and Eastern Europeans <3

There were bits of the novel I really enjoyed but overall it felt so very long; it nearly put me in a reading slump and this was an audiobook. It is clear why the novel is such a key text in British literature and has provoked such enduring interest and obsession. But at the same time I cannot help but feel it could have been more tightly plotted out and written. I know Stoker did a lot of research on it which makes me think he just got a little carried away writing it.

I am glad I picked this up as a full-cast audiobook as this made the novel that much easier and more interesting to follow.

For me, worth noting is also that the female characters often seem to be done a disservice in the discussion around the novel, I feel. I found both Lucy and Mina to be interesting characters and I believe I enjoyed their entries the most (alongside Jonathan's).

Ah yes, two out of the three things the British are the most afraid of - the LGBT community and Eastern Europeans <3

There were bits of the novel I really enjoyed but overall it felt so very long; it nearly put me in a reading slump and this was an audiobook. It is clear why the novel is such a key text in British literature and has provoked such enduring interest and obsession. But at the same time I cannot help but feel it could have been more tightly plotted out and written. I know Stoker did a lot of research on it which makes me think he just got a little carried away writing it.

I am glad I picked this up as a full-cast audiobook as this made the novel that much easier and more interesting to follow.

For me, worth noting is also that the female characters often seem to be done a disservice in the discussion around the novel, I feel. I found both Lucy and Mina to be interesting characters and I believe I enjoyed their entries the most (alongside Jonathan's).

I didn't finish it because it was so slow and perhaps it's my expectations that led me through the pages unsatisfied. Dracula wasn't even 

in most of the book. The suspense was dragging and thus, DNF'd. 

Lana Andrea

I didn't finish it because it was so slow and perhaps it's my expectations that led me through the pages unsatisfied. Dracula wasn't even really in most of the book. The suspense was dragging and thus, DNF'd. 

Ayla Hawthorne

goodbye to jonathan harker from my emails <3

reading this in chronological order was interesting. i'll never forget the solid six weeks of radio silence interspersed with ship logs as all the crew slowly disappeared.

i literally don't care about any of these people's diary entries

Virginia L

Brutto rapporto quello con Dracula. Molto più ridondante e solenne di quel credevo.

Kath

If you want to know more about Van Helsing and the other characters who were lost in the re-interpretations and adaptations of this novel into other forms of media, then give this a try. Surprisingly, this isn't a tale of the world's most infamous vampire - its focus is on the consequences of his existence: how his victims lived through life after coinciding paths with the titular creature.

Also, I really love Renfield. It's a shame Stoker did him like that.

Marie

Well, actually not as bad as I remember from 10 years ago. It's certainly very verbose and the truly interesting events are few and far between. But it does a good job at establishing the mysterious atmosphere.

Jaden Nelson

Listened to the audiobook in one sitting while I worked on my purple prickly pear painting. Pretty entertaining story, kind of hard to follow especially on audiobook and when I wasn’t giving it my full attention. Decent overall, I don’t really know if there was a “hype” around this book being amazing, maybe more that it is just a classic, but it was just pretty average besides the fact that it was cool to see a lot of the things in vampire movies and TV shows now originated from this novel (probably).

Geoffrey Froggatt

The progenitor of modern vampire fiction and vampire media. I have been trying to read this story for years but always had trouble jumping into the story. Dracula's writing style and format is epistolary, which means the novel is composed of diary entries, telegrams, letters, and memos. While Stoker utilizes several different first-person narrators, their narrative styles often sound remarkably similar, but their different characterizations and individual voices can be distinguished if you pay attention to their writing styles. I highly recommend any of the full cast audiobooks that have been produced over the years for readers who have had trouble getting into the story. It begins with Jonathan Harker, a young English lawyer, as he travels to Transylvania. Harker plans to meet with Count Dracula, a client of his firm, in order to finalize a property transaction. When he arrives in Transylvania, the locals react with terror after he discloses his destination: Castle Dracula. Despite being published in 1897, the writing is surprisingly accessible and the story itself still holds up after all this time. While I enjoyed this story, it was definitely bloated in some places (Stoker is very repetitive in some passages) and the story itself began to lose my interest after the conclusion of Lucy’s storyline. The ending fizzled out for me. Had this book been traditionally published today, I suspect that 20% of the novel would have been edited down, to its benefit. 

As someone who has seen many adaptations of this story and many incarnations of these characters, I didn’t expect many surprises from this book, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the original text still felt fresh and there were still some surprises for me to uncover. After reading a few stories set in the Victorian era, it was nice to read something authentic to that era with characters correctly written and represented within that time period. It was so interesting seeing the original characters that created the infamous archetypes for so many beloved characters from popular gothic, supernatural and paranormal fiction and media. Some scholars have suggested that the character of Dracula was inspired by historical figures like the Wallachian prince Vlad the Impaler or the countess Elizabeth Báthory, but there is widespread disagreement. Stoker's notes mention neither figure. He found the name Dracula in Whitby's public library while holidaying there, picking it because he thought it meant “devil” in Romanian. The novel's disparate accounts approach a kind of narrative unity as the narrative unfolds. In the novel's first half, each narrator has a strongly characterized narrative voice, with Lucy's showing her verbosity, Seward's businesslike formality, and Harker's excessive politeness. Dracula was not the first piece of literature to depict vampires, but the novel has nonetheless come to dominate both popular and scholarly treatments of vampire fiction. Count Dracula is the first character to come to mind when people discuss vampires. Dracula succeeded by drawing together folklore, legend, vampire fiction and the conventions of the Gothic novel. The action of Dracula takes place in the late 1800s and switches between two geographic settings. The novel begins in Transylvania (modern day Romania), and then moves to England before returning to Transylvania for its conclusion. The two settings act as foils to one another, with Transylvania representing a less advanced and more “primitive” society dominated by religion and folklore. Transylvania, with its reliance on superstition above reason, is positioned as the place where a vampire can originate and gain power; as the count explains, “We are in Transylvania and Transylvania is not England. Our ways are not your ways, and there shall be to you many strange things.” 

The themes of this book are very much products of their time, with focus on the consequences of modernity, the fear of outsiders, the threat of female sexual expression, science versus the supernatural, the promise of Christian salvation, etcetera. Most critics agree that Dracula is, as much as anything else, a novel that indulges the Victorian male imagination, particularly regarding the topic of female sexuality. In Victorian England, women’s sexual behavior was dictated by society’s extremely rigid expectations. A Victorian woman effectively had only two options: she was either a virgin—a model of purity and innocence—or else she was a wife and mother. If she was neither of these, she was considered a whore, and thus of no consequence to society. The female characters are also products of their time in this novel, with Mina’s character being a conservative Victorian male fantasy, while Lucy is punished for her adventurous sexuality and desires. Much like this Victorian ideal, the overtly promiscuous and sexual female characters of Dracula are depicted as evil and monstrous, while the pure and chaste women are displayed as strong and heroic. When reading this book, some readers may want to read into the historical implications surrounding this story (Count Dracula and vampires themselves as a representation for “primitive” people who are othered entering and “corrupting” Victorian society, the message this book sends about female sexuality and women’s place in society, the propagandistic promise of Christian salvation) and while exploring those implications may be interesting for some, I recommend that most readers just read the story as it is and take it as a story depicting literal vampires set in the Victorian era, knowing that the themes and characters are products of their time. I will always be thankful to this book for setting the foundation for modern vampire stories and tropes, and for everything it has done for the horror genre itself. I recommend this book for readers who are curious about horror classics and for those who want to read about the origin of modern vampire fiction.

Dracula is a book which I have looked forward to reading for a long time and I’m glad to have finally finished it. It was however a book which grew tedious at times and in parts had whole chapters that I don’t think was necessary and seemed to repeat great chunks of information!

 The 1st third of the book was well enough paced, however the 2nd seemed to go on too long and was a bit back and forth and as for the final third and conclusion, it again seemed to have you for brief moments before once again getting over burdened with repetitive storytelling. 

The ending itself was a bit of a let down to me, and after the entire journey we had taken with the cast of characters seemed far too simple of an ending! 

That aside it is a classic for a reason, a fine example of gothic horror, written in the style of diary entries and logs, which I guess was something of a triumph for the time of writing.

Dracula is a book which I have looked forward to reading for a long time and I’m glad to have finally finished it. It was however a book which grew tedious at times and in parts had whole chapters that I don’t think was necessary and seemed to repeat great chunks of information!

 The 1st third of the book was well enough paced, however the 2nd seemed to go on too long and was a bit back and forth and as for the final third and conclusion, it again seemed to have you for brief moments before once again getting over burdened with repetitive storytelling. 

The ending itself was a bit of a let down to me, and after the entire journey we had taken with the cast of characters seemed far too simple of an ending! 

That aside it is a classic for a reason, a fine example of gothic horror, written in the style of diary entries and logs, which I guess was something of a triumph for the time of writing.

The story dragged on at moments and felt repetitive but overall entertaining. I loved Mina's character. 

Jovana Gjekanovikj 

I'm unsure if it is just me but this felt kind of laborious? Bram Stoker loves to repeat himself at times and I found that the first 150-200 pages I was gripped, the sweat upon my upper lip was present and I was incredibly invested and then it turned a complete 180, the nights started repeating themselves and the monologues kept happening and as much as I loved the start I found myself losing interest. 

Nevertheless I loved the start, I was lost and bored in the middle but it pulled together and I enjoyed. 

If you enjoyed Dracula I urge you to read "Carmila" as it was the original story that inspired Bram Stoker to make this novel.

jaz ☁️

I'm unsure if it is just me but this felt kind of laborious? Bram Stoker loves to repeat himself at times and I found that the first 150-200 pages I was gripped, the sweat upon my upper lip was present and I was incredibly invested and then it turned a complete 180, the nights started repeating themselves and the monologues kept happening and as much as I loved the start I found myself losing interest. 

Nevertheless I loved the start, I was lost and bored in the middle but it pulled together and I enjoyed. 

If you enjoyed Dracula I urge you to read "Carmila" as it was the original story that inspired Bram Stoker to make this novel.

weenie ♡

Would have been 4 stars if Lucy and Mina got to be vampires at the same time and bonded gayly about their vampirism.

Dracula

Reviews

Highlights