Helpful Score: 2
Wow! What an intense and thrilling read! The book is a hundred times better than any movie recreation.
Helpful Score: 1
This book was pretty good, but a little hard to follow. I had to read it for a college class and after a group discussion of a book I liked it a lot better.
Helpful Score: 1
Loved this, didn't expect to enjoy the original as much as I did!
Helpful Score: 1
Mandatory high school reading, but it was hard to put down!
Helpful Score: 1
Here is my favorite quote:
"'Euthanasia' is an excellent and a comforting word! I am grateful to whoever invented it." - Dr. Seward
I thought it was a really great book. Mina is my heroine :) The diary entries were very cool. It was like discovering some old documents :P
"'Euthanasia' is an excellent and a comforting word! I am grateful to whoever invented it." - Dr. Seward
I thought it was a really great book. Mina is my heroine :) The diary entries were very cool. It was like discovering some old documents :P
Helpful Score: 1
Wow...what can I say? Very well written. I was sort of let down at the ending. I didn't feel it was quite dramatic enough.
I can see where women would be upset at some of the wording and ideals but then I remind myself of when this was written. Overall, a very good read.
I can see where women would be upset at some of the wording and ideals but then I remind myself of when this was written. Overall, a very good read.
Helpful Score: 1
This particular issue is focussed on a motion picture from Columbia Pictures in the early 90's. This is truly a classic of horror stories, and if you haven't read it, you definitely should!!
I had heard so many great reviews on this book. But it just wasn't for me. I made myself finish it.
This is a horror classic that I have been meaning to read since high school and I finally got around to it this October shortly before Halloween. Dracula was written in 1897 and is the novel from which all subsequent vampire tales evolve. Stoker writes of the ultimate evil in his Dracula, with no redeeming qualities as in some current iterations of the vampire such as the Sookie Stackhouse series and others. Of course, I have seen several of the movie iterations of Dracula, including the most famous as played by Bela Lugosi in the 1930s, who showed little resemblance to the monster in the novel as described by Stoker as a "tall old man, clean shaven, save for a long white mustache and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of color about him anywhere." The novel is written as a series of entries from journals, diaries, and letters, which I thought was a very effective way of telling the story. It starts out with Jonathan Harker's journey to Transylvania where he has been summoned to arrange for some real estate transactions by Count Dracula. This part of the novel is very foreboding and frightening when Harker learns the true nature of the Count. The novel then shifts to England where Dracula has started his evil plan to feed on all of London starting with Lucy Westenra, a friend of Harker's fiance, Mina. Then the novel evolves into a chase to find and kill Dracula and his minions led by Harker, Dr. Seward, and Professor Van Helsing. Mina also plays a key role in this hunt and is vital to the novel's resolution. Overall, this is one of the classics that should be read, especially for any fan of horror fiction. I also have a couple of sequels to Dracula that I need to get to soon.
The original unabridged classic Vampire story by Bram Stoker.
Nosferatu, vrolok, demon---For centuries he has ruled armies of wolves, hordes of rats, legions of walking undead. He becomes a bat, a shadow, a moonbeam. He corrupts the pure and destroys the innocent. He enters dreams and torments minds. Now he means to take our world and feast forever on our blood.
But six people have faced his horror--and lived! Six mortals desperate enough to hunt him, to dare his evil. Mina Harker, whose coruage saved her husband from madness; lawyer Jonathan Harker, who unwittingly set him loose; millionaire adventurer Quincey Morris, Lord Godalming, and Dr. John Seward, who were forced to kill the woman they all loved . . . twice.
And Van Helsing, Professor Abraham Van Helsing, who alone knows his immortal ways, who knows the true danger to the hunters' lives and souls, who alone knows what it means to challenge the evil of DRACULA!
Nosferatu, vrolok, demon---For centuries he has ruled armies of wolves, hordes of rats, legions of walking undead. He becomes a bat, a shadow, a moonbeam. He corrupts the pure and destroys the innocent. He enters dreams and torments minds. Now he means to take our world and feast forever on our blood.
But six people have faced his horror--and lived! Six mortals desperate enough to hunt him, to dare his evil. Mina Harker, whose coruage saved her husband from madness; lawyer Jonathan Harker, who unwittingly set him loose; millionaire adventurer Quincey Morris, Lord Godalming, and Dr. John Seward, who were forced to kill the woman they all loved . . . twice.
And Van Helsing, Professor Abraham Van Helsing, who alone knows his immortal ways, who knows the true danger to the hunters' lives and souls, who alone knows what it means to challenge the evil of DRACULA!
I loved reading this legendary story!
Complete & unabridged version with Introduction and Notes.
Bram Stoker's 1897 classic was a wonderful Halloween reading treat. Told through journal entries, letters, and newspaper clippings, the tale of Count Dracula takes some abrupt twists and turns, especially as Transylvania segues to the shores of England and the quest to destroy the Undead nears its end. I found the plot pleasantly suspenseful (and it would have been even more so if the story had not permeated the popular imagination), and the characters exude a sense of camaraderie. Beyond a good Gothic story, those interested in gender roles, Victorian nationalistic tensions, science versus superstition, and madness will find the story ripe for analysis.
A classic novel-a must read for fans of vampire stories.
Classic story!
Horror
Of the many admiring reviews Bram Stokers Dracula received when it first appeared in 1897, the most astute praise came from the author's mother, who wrote her son: 'It is splendid. No book since Mrs. Shelley's Frankenstein or indeed any other at all has come near yours in originality, or terror.' A popular bestseller in Victorian England, Stoker's hypnotic tale of the bloodthirsty Count Dracula, whose nocturnal atrocities are symbolic of an evil ages old yet forever new, endures as the quintessential story of suspense and horror. The unbridled lusts and desires, the diabolical cravings that Stoker dramatized with such mythical force, render Dracula resonant and unsettling a century later.
Of the many admiring reviews Bram Stokers Dracula received when it first appeared in 1897, the most astute praise came from the author's mother, who wrote her son: 'It is splendid. No book since Mrs. Shelley's Frankenstein or indeed any other at all has come near yours in originality, or terror.' A popular bestseller in Victorian England, Stoker's hypnotic tale of the bloodthirsty Count Dracula, whose nocturnal atrocities are symbolic of an evil ages old yet forever new, endures as the quintessential story of suspense and horror. The unbridled lusts and desires, the diabolical cravings that Stoker dramatized with such mythical force, render Dracula resonant and unsettling a century later.
Forget "Twilight." This is THE original vampire tale, in all its gothic, overly-dramatic glory. The Count's forbidden love of a mortal and her eventual succumbing to him is beautifully told in this book. See where all the hype began by reading this. If you can get past the flowery language, you'll be hooked!
Summary:
Dracula surely needs little introduction, being the most famous tale of vampirism and the one to which all since it was published in 1897 have aspired to. However, with the numerous adaptations and cinematic rejuvenations and rejiggings of the legend (from Nosferatu to Blackula) have come many bastardisations of the original tale and character. The novel is told via the diary entries of the young solicitor Jonathan Harker, his fiancée Mina, Lucy Westenra and Dr John Seward (who is in charge of a lunatic asylum in Essex). We travel to the Transylvanian abode of Count Dracula, a strange and disturbing castle. His purpose is to settle a land deal for Seward but he is drawn into bizarre and horrifying experiences within the castle walls. The action then passes to England as the Count travels in amongst fifty large wooden boxes and on board ship finishes off the entire crew before disappearing at Whitby in the shape of a wolf. Back on land, Lucy is vampirized by Dracula and dies despite the intervention of the wise and knowledgeable Professor Van Helsing. Mina too is in danger and has to be protected from Draculas advances. The adventure concludes with a thrilling and conclusive return to Transylviania. Dracula is not Stokers only novel, and he also wrote short-stories and dramatic criticism but this tale stands apart. It was influenced by the story Carmilla in Le Fanus In A Glass Darkly (1872).
Review:
An excellent and wonderfully written classic. A great read for teens and adults alike.
Dracula surely needs little introduction, being the most famous tale of vampirism and the one to which all since it was published in 1897 have aspired to. However, with the numerous adaptations and cinematic rejuvenations and rejiggings of the legend (from Nosferatu to Blackula) have come many bastardisations of the original tale and character. The novel is told via the diary entries of the young solicitor Jonathan Harker, his fiancée Mina, Lucy Westenra and Dr John Seward (who is in charge of a lunatic asylum in Essex). We travel to the Transylvanian abode of Count Dracula, a strange and disturbing castle. His purpose is to settle a land deal for Seward but he is drawn into bizarre and horrifying experiences within the castle walls. The action then passes to England as the Count travels in amongst fifty large wooden boxes and on board ship finishes off the entire crew before disappearing at Whitby in the shape of a wolf. Back on land, Lucy is vampirized by Dracula and dies despite the intervention of the wise and knowledgeable Professor Van Helsing. Mina too is in danger and has to be protected from Draculas advances. The adventure concludes with a thrilling and conclusive return to Transylviania. Dracula is not Stokers only novel, and he also wrote short-stories and dramatic criticism but this tale stands apart. It was influenced by the story Carmilla in Le Fanus In A Glass Darkly (1872).
Review:
An excellent and wonderfully written classic. A great read for teens and adults alike.
Forget everything you thought you know about Dracula from Hollywood. The original is still the best!
Child's book of Vampires.
The full original version. Excellent reading
Fantastic. I listen to this story every year in my car in month of October while I drive to work. The first time I read it was several years ago in October. I began with trepidation thinking a story so old could not possibly be frightening today, but I was afraid every night. Having become accustomed to the story (in fact, I have it memorized now), I find the male/female interactions interesting. Mostly I find Mina's own sense of her lack of self-worth somehow offensive and the way Van Heilsing refers to her constantly as "little" and "girl" is most disturbing.
Abridged on two cassettes. Nice reading by Richard E. Grant (who played Dr. Seward in the movie)!
A well written, frightening story. Not the kind of frightening that will keep you up at night, but enough to keep you reading. Written in 19th century "language", you really feel transported back to a different time. This was our book club's October read; we found all sorts of things to talk about!
Beware Count Dracula. He has been dead for certuries...yet still he walks the earth. He is a vampire-brilliant, bloodthirsty, and cruel. He hides from the light of day and emerges at night to search for his next victims. His Transylvania castle is a dark and mysterious place, where terror is constant and survival is rare. Visitors are always welcome...to a fate worse than death.
You'll be amazed at how different the story is from the movie! Stoker's writing is wonderfully descriptive.
this was good. interesting. i'm glad i read this, the only "version" i'd read before was the movie tie-in and now i see how much of the story they re-wrote so it would follow the films story-line. as another pbs-er would say, phooey on re-writing the story. because it's written as a series of letters and journal entries it doesn't develop a good rhythm and flow like most novels, but that's part of its charm.
If you have never read the story, it is worth it!
The classic story -- DRACULA: Only six people have faced his horror and lived.
Mina Harker, whose courage saved her husband from madness.
Lawyer Jonathan Harker, who unwittingly set him loose.
Millionaire adventurer Quincey Morris, Lord Godalming, and Dr. John Seward, who were forced to kill the woman they all loved...twice.
Professor Abraham Van Helsing, who alone knows his immortal ways, who knows the true danger to the hunters' lives and souls, who alone knows what it means to challenge the evil.
The classic story -- DRACULA: Only six people have faced his horror and lived.
Mina Harker, whose courage saved her husband from madness.
Lawyer Jonathan Harker, who unwittingly set him loose.
Millionaire adventurer Quincey Morris, Lord Godalming, and Dr. John Seward, who were forced to kill the woman they all loved...twice.
Professor Abraham Van Helsing, who alone knows his immortal ways, who knows the true danger to the hunters' lives and souls, who alone knows what it means to challenge the evil.
Wonderful! Much better than any Dracula movie ever made. :)
100th Anniversary Edition.
Seriously, just as cheesy as the 20s movies. I couldn't believe it, but loved every cliche-ridden page and over dramatized battle between good and evil. I'm very much not a horror story reader, but this was just plain fun.
Classic Dracula. Should read it if you never have.
This is one of my favorite scarey stories. This book is still in really good condition, but, I have to say I have read it more than once.
Finally I finished this long-winded book! The story doesn't really need a synopsis as most people are familiar with the theme, whether or not they have read it. It is fascinating to read the book that spawned a whole genre of its own, but I had to constantly remind myself of the time in which it was written (1897) because so many things caused me to roll my eyes, especially the women. Which wouldn't have been so bad in itself, but the author waxes poetic on the virtues of the saintly protagonists ad nauseum. The book could easily have been cut by a hundred pages by reducing those portions in half. I was intrigued by the blood transfusions done without any typing whatsoever with no adverse effects on the victim, and the madman was also amusing. Van Helsing was a most interesting character, as well as Mina, who was given quite a brain by the author but still relegated to the role of the "weaker sex" by being kept out of the mens' discussions of how to deal with the vampire. I was totally exasperated by Stoker's ploy of maintaining the reader's suspense by Van Helsing's secretive manner, doling out information only bit by bit to his comrades, which really did not come across as very credible. That those characters did not insist on explanations sooner also was unbelievable, and became tiresome. The melodrama was over the top, but perhaps it was normal for the time period, and really brought to mind visions of black-and-white silent movies. I imagine it was pretty titillating to Victorian readers! While I'm glad I read it, I'm even more glad it's over. Now I have to gear myself up for Frankenstein.
Although it comes up listed as a "hardcover", it's really not. It's a graphic novel version of the story in paperback.
