The vampire novel that defined a genre by tapping into our deepest fears and darkest fantasies A junior solicitor travels to Transylvania to meet with an important client, the mysterious Count Dracula. Ignoring the dire warnings of local townsfolk, he allows himself to be seduced by the count’s courtly manners and erudite charm. Too late, the solicitor realizes that he is a prisoner of Castle … of Castle Dracula, his guards a trio of voluptuous young women with sharp white teeth and a taste for blood.
Soon thereafter, the solicitor’s fianc e, Mina, visits a friend on the English coast. The town is full of speculation over a Russian ship run aground nearby, its crew missing, the dead body of its captain, crucifix in hand, lashed to the wheel. A giant dog was seen leaping from the deck before disappearing into the countryside. The ship’s cargo: fifty boxes of Transylvanian dirt. As the beautiful Mina will soon learn, Count Dracula has arrived.
At once a Gothic reflection of the Victorian era and a timeless tale of sinister lust, Bram Stoker’s Dracula has inspired countless adaptations–none with the same power to quicken the pulse as the original.
This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
more
THIS IS GOING TO BE A GREAT GREAT BOOK!!!!
I read this book for the first time probably 20+ years ago. I loved it then, but didn’t pick it back up until recently. It is still as good as it was the first time. If you like horror with a touch of fantasy then I think you’ll enjoy this. It is atmospheric, dark, tense, a page turner. It includes a romance, a friendship, a creepy count with a castle who has some inventive travel accommodations. And a heart pounding race against the setting sun – and so much more! Still a great read.
This is indeed an epic novel and a must read. Written during a weekend with friends that also produced Frankenstein. I wonder what they were eating?!
The book that is responsible for the vampire genre.
It’s a good deal different than I remembered. Slow, even ponderous, the narrative doesn’t move the way I think it should. Still, it is a classic, and the characters are iconic for a reason. It particular, Dracula is hard to come to terms with, I think, because that name is so much more than what is on the page in this book.
A little dated, but still a classic.
Scary!!! Read in the daytime so you won’t have nightmares.
The classic!
If you want to read something scary, this is a great place start. No doubt it scared the readers of its time, and it will still scare readers today, if allowed to.
I’m not sure if it’s because I have been looking forward to this classic, and saving it for around the time of Halloween, but I am loving it! Next to To Kill A Mockingbird, this is easily my favorite of the classics. I have never read it, mostly due to while in school I was told that it was a difficult read and I may not be able to understand it. I get what I was being told, because the book is told mostly through journal entries. Now that I am considerably much older, and supernatural is a genre I have come to love, Dracula is becoming one of my favorites.
What struck me as funny is that the inner geek in me started to compare Van Helsing to Yoda in Star Wars. Maybe mostly due to his accent and English. Van Helsing is a necessary, at times frightening foreigner, professor, but most importantly a guide to those suffering from the vampire.
Once the group hunts the vampire from America, the story gets a bit long. That is the only negative I have to say about it.
Best read late at night in a darkened room. Just hope for no sudden sounds.
Dracula by Bram Stoker 1897
When a solicitor visits a Transylvanian castle, he soon realizes he’s the Count’s prisoner.
https://chadschimke.blogspot.com/2017/11/horror-fiction.html
Dracula
i know everybody has already reviewed this book. I’d just like to highlight one aspect of it, and that is how low-key the horror is. Steven King has a short story vampire that rips people’s heads off. The real McCoy is mostly invisible (maybe that bat fluttering at the window?) and the only mark of its activity is two small holes at the heroine’s throat. No monsters with rows of sabre-like teeth. Just a Victorian gentleman acting strange. It’s all so damned *subtle*. And since my childhood it has scared me half to death.
When I realised I had never read this I at once picked it up…and really enjoyed it. I don’t really need to say much about the story line, as there is so much that stems from this original, but if you haven’t read the original then don’t wait!
One of my all time favorite books!
With all the current vampire novels out, this one is still my favorite. Many readings over the years, yet it is still creepily scary and romantically haunting.
The movies always leave something out. It’s written in an epistolary style.
A completely original format that kept me wanting, on so many levels. The fascination of Dracula and his ilk left shivers, but hungry to find out more of his secrets.
The fact that Stocker chose letters and diary entries as a major form of storytelling makes for an interesting read. Probably the best pro feminist commentary on equality of sexuality ever published.
Ya gotta read the classics. Good, bad, or otherwise, the books that invent a genre must be read.