Dracula: A Mystery Story

by Bram Stoker

A gripping gothic tale from the majestic Bram Stoker, which led to the birth of a legend and stoked the fertile imagination of film-makers, artists and novelists. When Jonathan Harker visits the remote Transylvanian castle of Count Dracula, little does he know that he will become a captive of the undead! Stalked by inhuman creatures, in a tale dripping with chilling tension that spins us across Europe, Harker and his friends must try to resist falling prey to the ultimate horror, and lead a resistance that converges on a final and devastating battle for survival.

FLAME TREE 451: From mystery to crime, supernatural to horror and fantasy to science fiction, Flame Tree 451 offers a healthy diet of werewolves and mechanical men, blood-lusty vampires, dastardly villains, mad scientists, secret worlds, lost civilizations and escapist fantasies. Discover a storehouse of tales gathered specifically for the reader of the fantastic. Each book features a brand new biography and glossary of Literary, Gothic and Victorian terms.

• ISBN10: 0857754653
• ISBN13: 9780857754653
• Publish Date: 1 August 2013 (first published 26 May 1897)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 7 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Flame Tree Publishing
• Imprint: Flame Tree 451
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

I first read this book over 10 years ago in college. I picked it up again as I had started reading the new sequel, but felt my memory of the original story being challenge.

After ripping through the Twilight series and the Sookie Stackhouse series, it was nice to go back to one of the original vampire books and see where some of the legends and myths began.

A challenging read, but well worth it to get back to the source material.

Oh, and Dracula does walk during the daytime on at least 2 occasions on Stoker's novel. But, he doesn't sparkle.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

Before the Twilight series there were stories about Vampires that actually were good. The most famous of these was the story of Dracula by Bram Stoker. Structurally it is an epistolary novel, that is, told as a series of letters, diary entries, ships’ logs, etc. Literary critics have examined many themes in the novel, such as the role of women in Victorian culture, conventional and conservative sexuality, immigration, colonialism, postcolonialism and folklore. Although Stoker did not invent the vampire, the novel’s influence on the popularity of vampires has been singularly responsible for many theatrical, film and television interpretations throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.

This book was a long one and at times I admit to struggling with it. I was very interested in the origins of Dracula, but I think there was so much involved in this book that at times I don’t think I enjoyed reading it. Overall it was a decent book but I wouldn’t consider it a must read.

[jamiereadthis]

It's a given: dark gothic manors, Draculaen capes and coffins, quite literally every cliché of the nocturnal blood-sucking underworld from the book that is the godfather of all clichés. But here's what it also is: a fantastic, curdling story by those innocent people who unearth the truth in bits and pieces and on the whole cannot begin to reconcile it with the natural world they know.

"That is a good image," [Van Helsing:] said. "Well, I shall tell you. My thesis is this: I want you to believe."
"To believe what?"
"To believe in things you cannot. Let me illustrate. I heard once of an American who so defined faith: 'that faculty which enables us to believe that which we know to be untrue.' For one, I follow that man. He meant that we shall have an open mind, and not let a little bit of truth check the rush of a big truth, like a small rock does a railway truck. We get the small truth first. Good! We keep him and we value him; but all the same we must not let him think himself all the truth in the universe."

No grisly account of silvery sharp fangs or glowing blood-red eyes is as unsettling as what happens to the Jonathan Harkers or John Sewards, when everything you've ever held sacred is turned on its head, to the point it's easier to believe in your own madness than to accept the madness of the world where such things could exist.

The ultimate classic vampire myth and a page-turner if I ever saw one.

[Eve1972]

Loved it!!