Product Description

An adulterous young woman - Her husband's affair with an evil French temptress - A violent murder - A sensational trial - Mesmerism and trances - A lunatic asylum - Jealousy - Revenge

These are just some of the plot elements of The Fate of Fenella. But even stranger and more sensational than its wild and fast-paced plot is the novel's composition.An experimental novel, featuring twenty-four chapters, each written by a different bestselling Victorian novelist without collaboration with the other authors, The Fate of Fenella remains as fascinating today as when first published in 1892.

This edition, the first since 1892, includes a new introduction by Andrew Maunder placing the novel in the larger context of the 1890s publishing marketplace, as well as extensive notes, and biographies of the twenty-four authors.In addition to its interest as a thrilling tale of mystery and murder, The Fate of Fenella is the ideal introduction to the late Victorian popular novel and two dozen of its most famous practitioners.

Contains chapters by: Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, Helen Mathers, Justin H. McCarthy, Frances Eleanor Trollope, May Crommelin, F. C. Philips, "Rita", Joseph Hatton, Mrs. Lovett Cameron, Florence Marryat, Frank Danby, Mrs. Edward Kennard, Richard Dowling, Mrs. Hungerford, Arthur à Beckett, Jean Middlemass, Clement Scott, Clo. Graves, H. W. Lucy, Adeline Sergeant, George Manville Fenn, "Tasma", F. Anstey ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Astonishing Victorian literary stunt
The magazine business was fiercely competitive in the 1890s. And readers addicted to sensation fiction were always looking for new thrills. In this volatile literary marketplace, London publisher Joseph Snell Wood came up with a great promotion: The Fate of Fenella.

There would be twenty-four chapters, each written by a different well-known novelist, half of the contributors men and half women. There would be no pre-conceived plot. Each author would have to deal with the plot as she or he found it - and move it forward.

Not surprisingly, with an arrangement like this, the story is wholly improbably, every chapter building up to a climax and ending with a cliffhanger. The reader is treated to murder, bigamy, adultery, fraud, kidnapping, hypnotic trances, near fatal illnesses and a shipwreck - all involving persons in the highest society.

The plot kicks off with a marriage in ruins. Lord Francis Onslow has been having an affair with a French femme fatale of vicious character. His wife Fenella retaliated by engaging in flagrant (though innocent) flirtations. What happens next? Just about everything you could imagine.

Contemporary critics either praised the book as "an ingenious success" or condemned it as "a literary crime." I found the admittedly absurd story surprisingly fun and readable. Most of the once popular authors are unknown today, yet the quality of their writing is quite good.

Short bios of the writers are included, and add to the charm of the book. One overworked author, for example, had a nervous breakdown directly after submitting her chapter. And the well-written introduction puts the novel nicely in context. There are some interesting reflections on how the storyline tied in with contemporary attitudes to "the woman question."

I'd recommend the book to anyone fascinated by Victorian time and literature. ... Read more

Product Description
The most complete version ever published.
The story is about an archaeologist's plot to revive Queen Tera, an ancient Egyptian mummy.
When The Jewel of Seven Stars was first released in 1903 the publishers received a great deal of criticism from both critics and readers because of its gruesome ending. Shortly before his death in 1912 when Stoker attempted to republish the book he was told that he would have to change the ending if he didn't want it to go out of publication. As a result, Stoker removed Chapter XVI "Powers - Old and New" and gave the book a new and happier ending. For many years the original ending was unavailable to most readers.Now, for the first time ever, we have included the endings from the first and second editions in this volume. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not for the first time
In 1996 ,Oxford University Press published in its OXFORD POPULAR FICTION series,Bram Stoker's THE JEWEL OF SEVEN STARS ( a paperback edition with cover illustration by Paul Slater).A good edition with an enlightening introduction by David Glover( at the time,Lecturer in English at the University of Southampton), author of a wonderful book,"Vampires,Mummies and Liberals:Bram Stoker and the Politics of Popular Fiction"(1996).Well,this Oxford University Press edition included both versions (the 1903 original version and the 1912 revision with the alternative ending as an appendix ).So,it is not true that this is "the most complete version ever published" of Bram Stoker's "Jewel of Seven Stars". ... Read more

Product Description
Superb selection of 14 spine-tingling stories by author of Dracula. "The Squaw," "The Burial of the Rats," "The Crystal Cup," "The Chain of Destiny," "The Castle of the King," "The Dualitists" (probably Stoker’s most horrifying story), "A Dream of Red Hands" and 7 more. Called by Stephen King "absolutely champion short stories." Introduction by Richard Dalby.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A useful set of stories for the Stoker fan.
At times the writing is sensual and evocative as one would expect from Stoker. The story themes range from legendry and quests to evils in both familial associations and on the dramatic stage. A range of stuff capitalizing on the eclectic knowledge of Bram Stoker. But what makes it a good buy? How is it especially useful? It would be indispensible for anyone needing an economical edition, as it contains The Crystal Cup, The Chain of Destiny, The Castle of the King, The Dualitists, and A Star Trap: five stories that appear in addition to some nine stories previously collected in editions of Dracula's Guest.

sorry
bram stoker is most famous for dracula. not hard to believe. some of the stories here have even a dull plot. but mostly the problem is that stoker dwells at completely irrelevant things, like melodramatic dialogues going on and on, the building of friendship, etc. he could have done better, he is a good enough writer. but he has a melodramatic string, which destroys. the judge's house is the only story really worth reading.

BEST GHOST AND HORROR STORIES BRAM STOKER
THESE STORIES CONTAIN SUCH CHILLING, CREATIVE DEPTH. I DO BELIEVE STOKER WAS A GENIUS, NOT JUST ON THE BASIS OF DRACULA BUT ON WORK LIKE THE STORIES PRESENTED IN THIS BOOK. IT'S A PITY THAT HE PROBABLY DIDN'T REALISE THAT HE WAS THE BLUEPRINT FOR THE GREAT MASS MARKET HORROR WRITER, A SORT OF VICTORIAN STEPHEN KING. AN ASTOUNDING COLLECTION OF WORK, VERY CLEVER AND SOPHISTICATED 10 -10

this book is great
this book truly scared me and i beleive it should get an award ... Read more

Product Description
A spine-tingling collection of terrifying classics with anintroduction by horror master Stephen King. The mesmerizing story of ademented scientist's monster creation; the horror masterpiece that hasled to countless vampire novels and films; and the ultimate tale ofthe never-ending battle between good and evil--these frightening workscontinue to enthrall even the boldest readers. Reissue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Incredible Value!
The three most famous titles of horror are now available in a single mass market paperback! Frankenstein, Dracula, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are presented in full. The stories speak for themselves they are absolute classics and are great reads even today. This was perfect for the college student who would need one of these titles and hopefully encourage them to read the others! Pick this one up for great reading.

Good deal
This is a good deal being three books in one.Frankenstein exposes the dangers of playing God, an timely lesson for embryonic stem cell research advocates.Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde explorers our dual natures and how our carnal side cause shame and hatred.And Dracula is just a story with no particular over-arching theme but is fun to read being the original vampire novel.

Great Reads!
If you've never read Frankenstein, Dracula, or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde before now is your chance!All three of these amazing books in one collection.After once though you won't believe how many contemporary pop-culture references can be attributed to these great works.

Three in One Classics
Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde / 0-451-52363-6

Foundational works of horror, and the inspiration for dozens if nor hundreds of movies, the classic three are packaged here together in an attractive tight package.

Frankenstein is something of a love-it-or-hate-it work and I will confess of falling on the more heretical side of that equation - there's a strong didactic feel to the work and Shelley comes off a little too hand-wringing and pearl-clutching for my taste. All well and good to create a monster who is turned evil by society, but the author really must trust the reader to understand this on their own, without little "this means, of course..." moralizing asides every five pages. However, if you can get past Shelley's distracting narrative lurches, the story itself is quite superb.

Dracula, arguably *the* foundational vampire novel, is included here and shows off the diarist form of narration so popular at the time. ("Dear diary, you won't BELIEVE who just materialized in my room...") This is always an interesting tact for a horror novel because it can mean that the suspense is lost (if you're alive enough to write the diary entry, then where is the drama?) but Stoker bypasses this problem nicely - the race here is not to "stop the vampire" or "stay alive" but rather to hunt and destroy the vampire forever, before Mrs. Harker can be completely corrupted. The hunt is a superb one, although I am biased - Dracula is one of my favorite classics.

Last, but never least, is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This short story is surprisingly short indeed, and it is a testament to how superbly the story is written that this short story has inspired so many movies and dramas. This is a wonderful addition to any collection and it is delightful that it is included here.

Three Pillars
Back in 1992 I was forced to buy this little paperback for a class called Literature of Terror. The class turned out to be pretty lame, but the book remains with me to this day -- battered, dog-eared and beloved. Most college textbooks are nothing more than extortionately priced trash, but this one packs a three-punch combination: three of the Great horror novels of English literature in one binding.

For openers we get Bram Stoker's DRACULA, arguably one of the ten most famous books ever written. Despite being written in the epistolary style -- that is, as a series of letters penned by various characters in the books -- the novel is highly entertaining, especially the opening chapters, which are set in Transylvania and achieve a remarkable atmosphere of brooding intensity. We are so inundated with vampires nowadays -- the BLADE trilogy, the television shows BUFFY and ANGEL, the UNDERWORLD series, not to mention Anne Rice's seemingly endless parade of Lestat novels -- that it is sometimes difficult to remember that Stoker's book, while not the first vampire tale, singlehandedly invented the genre -- not only the immortal Dracula character, but most of the lore that surrounds vampires generally.

Next up is the book everybody knows about but nobody has read, Mary Shelly's FRANKENSTEIN, which if it had been called FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER would have spared everyone of that name a lot of suffering as children ("Frankenstein was the scientist, you bastards, not the frickin' monster!"). Shelly's ornate, very 19th century prose is not easy on the reader, although there are passages which are so beautifully written they
resemble poetry ("I collected bones from charnel houses, and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame") and there more than a few preposterous plot developments and tedious Victorian asides; but as a moral tale about the price of hubris and the desire to play god, it hardly has an equal. In any case, readers will be interested to see that Shelly's monster is not the mute, shovel-headed zombie of the black-and-white films, but an intelligent being whose desire for revenge, rather than the manner of its creation, makes it a monster.

The closer is Robert Louis Stevenson's DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, the shortest and, in my opinion, the easiest read of the three novels. Like FRANKENSTEIN, HYDE is a moral tale, rendering a harsh verdict on Victorian hypocrisy and on the human desire to have one's cake and eat it too. Poor Dr. Jekyll is handcuffed by convention; he cannot satisfy his ungentlemanly appetites without ruining the angelic public image he has worked so hard to create. So like an American politician, he spends his days kissing babies and his nights (as Mr. Hyde) chasing babes, only to discover that his nifty little potion has a nasty drawback ("Side effects may include shape-shifting and homicidal mania. Do not take the potion if you are evil, or have a tendency to become evil.") Though he lived in an ornate era, Stevenson resists the urge to gild his story in purple prose or to indulge in the long, often tedious passages which make FRANKENSTEIN so relentlessly gothic. Nor does he allow the novella to bog down as DRACULA does in mid-story. What we get is a tersely written, highly effective bit of genius.

So there you have it. Three horror classics in one softcover edition. It is truly unfortunate, and stupid, that this little gem is out of print, because anyone wanting to take a gander at the foundation stones of all modern horror should start by reading this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Dracula: Complete, Original Text written by legendary author Bram Stokeris widely considered to be one of the top 100 greatest books of all time. This great classic will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, Dracula: Complete, Original Text is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, this gem by Bram Stokeris highly recommended. Published by Classic Books America and beautifully produced, Dracula: Complete, Original Text would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone's personal library. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

CLASSIC
THIS IS WHERE IT ALL BEGAN. THERE IS NO COOLER VAMPIRE THAN DRACULA. THAT WAS BACK BEFORE VAMPIRES WERE SO MUSHY AND FALLING IN LOVE ALL THE TIME. BRAM STOKER WAS A MAN AHEAD OF HIS TIME. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Correction
Eiko is a woman, not a man

This is an excellent book
It has full page color pictures of all the costumes from the movie and some of the original sketches.It also explains Eiko's inspiration for his Academy-Award winning costumes. ... Read more

Product Description
Cause for international celebration—themost important and complete edition ofDracula in decades.

In his first work since his best-sellingThe New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Leslie S.Klinger returns with this spectacular, lavishly illustrated homage to BramStoker'sDracula. With a daring conceit, Klinger accepts Stoker's contentionthat the Dracula tale isbased on historical fact. Traveling through two hundred years of popularculture andmyth as well asgraveyards and the wilds ofTransylvania, Klinger's notes illuminate everyaspect of this hauntingnarrative (including adetailed examination of the original typescript of Dracula, with itsshockingly differentending,previously unavailable to scholars).Klinger investigates the many subtextsof theoriginalnarrative—from masochistic,necrophilic, homoerotic, "dentophilic," andevenheterosexual implications of the story to its political,economic, feminist, psychological,and historical threads. Employing the superb literary detective skills for which he has become famous, Klinger mines this 1897 classic for nuggets that will surprise even the mostdie-hard Dracula fans andintroduce thevampire-prince to a new generation ofreaders.

Customer Reviews (30)

Loser Leslie Linger
If you can't create excellence yourself, parasitize off those who have done.

That's what the editor/contributor of this Norton edition has done.

Shame on Norton for publishing Klinger's trash.
Advice to the publisher. Don't be so damn camp and treat good literature with more respect.

Beautifully presented
Just a short review to say I was so impressed with this beautifully presented edition of this book that I ordered a 2nd copy from Amazon as a gift for a friend who was equally impressed by it.
Very informative annotations with sometimes justly critical ones too, this lushly illustrated edition is a must. And Hey if the great Neil Gaiman gave it the thumbs up by writing a forward for it...well that says it all.

Disappointing book and a wasted opportunity
Bram Stoker's Dracula, of course, needs no introduction. It's a great book that, even though it's been pretty much been run to the ground with countless movies, sequels, merchandising, etc, still holds up today. Despite it's age, it's still accessible and, believe it or not, quite scary at times. There's some really dark stuff in here, from Dracula feeding children to his wives to his 'rape' of Mina in which he cuts open his chest and forces her to drink his blood. It's definitely required reading for any serious fan of horror/Gothic literature.

This book, however, is not the way to experience it.

For what it's worth, it's clear Klinger is an expert on the text. He's done a lot of research, even going as far as to obtain 'deleted scenes' for Stoker's early draft which shed new light on aspects of the novel. The amount of sheer information here could likely fill a book by itself. The problem, however, is how Klinger presents it.

Leslie Klinger, prior to this, had annotated Sherlock Holmes in an huge three volume set. There, he employed the "Sherlockian game" of treating the stories as "gentle fiction"; that Holmes and Watson really existed and that the stories were records of the pursuits. It's apparently a little game that Sherlock fans like to play, and for the most part, it really didn't interfere with the enjoyment of the stories.

So when he annotated Dracula, he decided to play the same game, treating the story of Dracula as a factual account based on a series of documents called "The Stoker Papers"--that Stoker knew the cast personally and had published a series of their documents for the public. It doesn't work. I hope I don't have to explain why it's easier for the reader to suspend their disbelief that Sherlock Holmes was a real person over the Count.

Treating Dracula as non-fiction would have been distracting enough, but Klinger goes even further and derails the story by suggesting that what Stoker wrote isn't what "really" happened. For example, Klinger states the story didn't take place in Transylvania, and Dracula wasn't really killed. He reasons that Dracula forced Stoker to change the story to protect himself (or something along those lines). Imagine if you were reading Lord of the Rings, and someone said what Tolkien wrote isn't what REALLY happened--that Sauron was triumphant, and that there was a conspiracy by the forces of darkness to prevent Tolkien from letting the public know the 'truth'.

Klinger is clearly more of a Sherlock fan than a Dracula fan--whereas he often treated his Sherlock annotations with good humor and a respect for the text, he seems to be almost snidely condescending towards Dracula's flaws and inconsistencies. I.E. "Seward's clearly not a good doctor, or else he would have..." or "One wonders why Van Helsing acts so brashly, doesn't he realize..." You get the picture. It quickly grows annoying, and it's not hard to see why people here have assumed that Klinger dislikes the book despite all the research he put into it.

What makes this such a disappointment is that this could have been a great book. It's very handsomely designed and would look good on any shelf. Had Klinger treated Dracula as a work of fiction and discussed it as such, it could have been a fascinating read. It's clear that he knows a lot about the original text. If he had simply explained the history behind the novel, relevant information about the time it was written and its relevance to the story, and a discussion of the literary criticism that it has received over the years this could have been the definitive presentation Dracula. Instead, it's a underwhelming literary exercise from an editor who thinks he is cleverer than he really is.

Annotator's "fiction" is a pain in the a**
I have to admit that I've just started reading this annotated edition of Dracula, but I've become so annoyed at the annotator I wanted to go ahead and vent.However, I see two very fine reviews here on Amazon -- M.Bean of 22 Feb 2009, and Andrew Babino of July 7, 2009 - that I'll just say that they are both right on the money.The annotator's "fiction" that Dracula really happened is just silly, and really confuses many of the annotations - as one of the aforementioned gentlemen wrote, you have to spend much more time than you'd like trying to "decode" Klinger, the annotator.I also thought I would love all the wonderful detail and minutia in the notes - but there's just too many; too many of them are rather boring, and too many just go to reinforce Klinger's "fiction." Also, after reading the preface material, I am totally confused about which of the first two editions of Dracula is presented in this edition - the original first version (which is the version I'd prefer to read), or the second abridged version (which Klinger says Stoker bowdlerized under pressure from the "real" Dracula).If I hadn't already purchased this version, I'd switch to the Norton Critical Edition of Dracula.

A gorgeous, invaluable edition, but still...
"The game of Dracula is afoot!"

This may the sound like cover copy for yet another "Sherlock Holmes meets Dracula" pastiche, but instead it's on the back cover of Leslie Klinger's New Annotated Dracula.The reason it appears there is that Klinger, also responsible for the recent, well-reviewed New Annotated Sherlock Holmes in three volumes, has extended the Sherlockian game to Bram Stoker's famous vampire novel, indulging the "gentle fiction" that the novel is Stoker's modified version of real historical documents.That he has done so is, if I may be forgiven a perhaps inapt computers metaphor, simultaneously a bug and a feature.

As Klinger notes, there have been several previous annotated versions of Dracula.I can't help but feel that part of the reason he has introduced the Sherlockian game for his edition is to give it a new "hook," something that sets it apart from previous versions.This is all well and good.Unfortunately, there's another "hook" for this edition, and it bumps up against the use of the Sherlockian game in ways that demonstrate some of the limits of applying this device to Dracula.

Klinger was able, as no previous scholar has been, to examine a manuscript version of Dracula (it is evidently such a patchwork of different materials that it's hard to tell how far along in the process this version was produced, but it's later rather than earlier), and his annotations record variations between this manuscript and the final printed volume.Joan Acocella's dismissive comments in her oddly grumpy New Yorker review notwithstanding, some of them are rather interesting. Now, of course the historical Bram Stoker (or someone else) made these alterations for various reasons, which would be interesting to speculate on.Unfortunately, the way Klinger plays his game means that Stoker's actual role in the authorship of the novel has to be ignored, and so these variations, when analyzed at all, are discussed in terms of how the "real" Van Helsing might have wanted some detail changed, and so on.This is good fun up to a point, although at times Klinger strains to imbue these alterations with more meaning than they seem to possess.But it's rather disappointing that the first substantive treatment of the manuscript is chained to this game, which blunts its impact.

Indeed, it's not hard to feel disappointed that Klinger couldn't break out of his game mode once in a while and include occasional discussion of the writing process of the actual novel.In addition to the manuscript, there are some notes on the novel's early development, and a later abridged text of the novel that may well have been prepared by Stoker himself.Klinger dutifully notes variations among these phases, and just as dutifully treats all this material as factual.When a character from the notes doesn't make it to the novel, it's not because Stoker decided he didn't need her, but because her involvement was "suppressed."This is charming, but a little of it goes a long way, and I would have liked to see more treatment of the actual background of Stoker's writing of Dracula.

Other aspects of Klinger's game of Dracula are more fun.There are so many holes in the narrative logic of Dracula that a more sober style of annotation would just have been depressing: you might start to wonder whether Stoker was actually all that talented.But when Klinger turns every changed premise or erroneous date into a sign of a cover-up, it's a more enjoyable experience altogether.At times he does seem to be straining to question aspects of the protagonists' story, or to find an excuse to call them shallow, cold, arrogant, or the like, but it's all part of the game.

But back to that tagline.It underlines the fact that is a device from Sherlock Holmes scholarship.When Klinger played this game in the New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, there was a lot of precedent for it, and therefore a lot of other material he could refer to.Dracula has not often been so discussed (though of course any detailed examination of a work of fiction's narrative logic implicitly treats its as being real), and the artificiality of the device shines through more.I wouldn't call it a failure, but it's not as much of a success as I had hoped.

If I've been so down on the book thus far, why have I given it five stars?Because, even with these quibbles, it's a gorgeous, delightful edition of the novel that anyone interested in the history of vampire fiction ought to own.Even setting aside the "Draculaic game" annotations, there's a wealth of information on the late Victorian context of the novel: historical, social, geographical, and otherwise.There's rather a lot about train stations, which seems excessive even in light of the importance of modernity to the book's narrative, but the level of detail is enjoyable even when the specific information is not.There's a great deal to be learned from this edition of Dracula, and an extensive bibliography points readers in the direction of more information if they desire it.In light of all this, I can't really complain about wanting more on my own preferred topics.

And finally, there's the novel itself.Whatever its flaws of narrative logic, Dracula is an elegantly-structured, endlessly fascinating horror tale; the first half in particular builds in a wonderfully subtle manner, as the readers draws connections not obvious to the authors of the various documents.The second half is a bit long, and the soppy-stern (thank you, Philip Larkin) sentimentality wears a bit, but the novel remains compelling.I read it in a day, and then went back to start on the annotations.The game of Dracula was indeed, well, you know... ... Read more

Product Description

This collection was designed for optimal navigation on Kindle and other electronic devices. It is indexed alphabetically, chronologically and by category, making it easier to access individual books, stories and poems. This collection offers lower price, the convenience of a one-time download, and it reduces the clutter in your digital library. All books included in this collection feature a hyperlinked table of contents. The collection is complimented by an author biography. Author's biography and free stories in the trial version.

Customer Reviews (2)

A great e-book collection
The MobileReference collection of works by Bram Stoker is overall an excellent resource for Kindlers and other e-book fans.It includes not only the famous "Dracula" but also most of Stoker's short stories and hard-to-find novels.The texts contain some of the usual e-book flubs (most notably, an ampersand almost any time an em dash or ellipsis appeared in the originals), but otherwise they're very readable, with a clickable table of contents that can be sorted by title or chronologically (hooray for that!), and a separate clickable table of contents for each novel.Recommended for lovers of Victorian horror, "second-wave" gothic lit, and fiction dense with pre-Freudian sexual overtones.

Dracula
Works of Bram Stoker. (25 Works) Includes Dracula, The Lair of the White Worm, The Jewel of Seven Stars, The Lady of the Shroud, Under the Sunset and more. ... biography and stories in the trial version.

Bram Stoker's Dracula is a great gothic novel. Nicely done ebook. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

The spirit of the original story is maintained while being abridged and told in a more modern English style
Given the legend of Dracula as portrayed in the movies, comic books and other venues, I firmly believe that all people would be served by reading the original story by Bram Stoker. It is a classic dark tale of legend and superstition, which ironically, began with the life of a real Count known to history as Vlad the Impaler.
This book, an abridged version written in a more modern English style, is the next best read to the original. From it, the reader can acquire the sense of the classic, the combination of terror with descriptions of the human Slovaks and Gypsies who worked for Dracula and allowed him to survive in human society.
I have read the original Stoker book several times and have always preferred it to the simplistic caricatures of the Dracula movies. While this book is not as good as the original, it retains the spirit of the original far better than any movie possibly could.

A FAST READ, I REALLY LIKE IT AND IT WAS A CLASSIC!
THERE ARE MORE IN THE CLASSIC START SERIES, I WANT THEM ALL!20,OOO LEAGUES WAS ANOTHER GOOD ONE, SPEAKING OF BOYS.... ... Read more

Product Description
While sexual writing today is popular, it pales in comparison to the steamy and graphic, yet romantically inviting works authored during the 19th century. EROTIC TALES includes selections by such renowned authors as Emile Zola, Sir Richard Burton, Bram Stoker, Frank Harris, Charles Devereaux, and of course the inimitable Anonymous. A volume filled with passion with panache. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Anthology
Naturally, as an anthology, you get a mixture of styles.Some steamy and some langsamweilig.One is a direct excerpt from Dracula.One is more a Victorian translation of an Arabian erotic tale (probably not from 1001 nights).

Amazing...
I am very interested in the history of sex.That is one course I'd like to teach after I get my PhD.This book just took me back a little further into sexual history.I was surprised at how old some sexual terms and parts of the body are.I was also surprised with certain actions the characters performed.Today, many of these sexual acts are fully accepted.However, I would have figured the Victorians would have been uptight even in sex.A major misconception.

Finally I'm finding out one poem is even older than I thought."This is my pistol, this is my gun.This one's for fighting, this one's for fun."I'm trying to find erotica and sexual information even older now.It'll be funny to see just how old that poem might be.

Not for the faint at heart
I studied the true Victorian Era for 2+ years and am still intrigued with books relating to the ways of that time. Finally mustering enough nerve to read something provocative, I purchased this book. Lets just say it is exceptionally capable of "stirring" one.

Victorian Tales
Stories are well written by known authors. Many people might love this book. I am not one of them, however.

Erotica at its Best
If you want real erotica instead of the so-called erotica of today, then this is the book for you.Steamy, steamy, steamy! ... Read more

Product Description
From Longman's Cultural Edition series, this new edition of Dracula, edited by Andrew Elfenbein, recovers the cultural complexity of Bram Stoker's novel and offers a wide array of contextualizing documents, including contemporary reviews and articles about Eastern Europe, science, gender, and media. Rather than tracing Dracula through all his later incarnations, this edition offers ways to understand the late Victorian origins of Bram Stoker's remarkable book.While Dracula never simply reflects contemporary trends, reading it with knowledge of contemporary events and debates can clarify what may otherwise seem puzzling. Throughout, Stoker emphasizes that his vampire story takes place not in a hazy, fictional past, but in a sharply realized England of the 1890s. The materials in the sections of Cultural Contexts illuminate the references to Victorian culture in Stoker's version of this seemingly timeless story. ... Read more

Product Description
Since its publication in 1897, Dracula has enthralled generation after generation of readers with the same spellbinding power with which Count Dracula enthralls his victims. Though Bram Stoker did not invent vampires, and in fact based his character’s life-in-death on extensive research in European folklore, his novel elevated the nocturnal creature to iconic stature, spawning a genre of stories and movies that flourishes to this day. But a century of imitations has done nothing to diminish the power of Stoker’s tale. As his chilling, suave monster stalks his prey from a crumbling castle in the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania to an insane asylum in England to the bedrooms of his swooning female victims, the drama is infused with a more and more exquisite measure of sensuality and suspense.

Dracula is a classic of Gothic horror, an undying wellspring of modern mythology, and an irresistible entertainment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

"For the dead travel fast"
Surprisingly "Denn die Toten reiten schnell" or "For the dead travel fast" is more than an opening line to this tale of love in the dangerous moon light. After watching several Drac movies and a few Nosferatu's, I pretty much though I had a handle on the genera.Little did I know what a wonderful world of mystery and suspense that Bram Stoker opened up for me.

The story is told mostly third party though the papers, diaries, and phonograph recordings (on wax cylinders) of those people involve in a tale so bizarre that it almost defies belief.The general story line is that of a Count that plans to move to a more urban setting (from Borgo Pass to London) where there is a richer diet. There he finds succulent women; something he can sing his teeth in. Unfortunately for him a gang of ruffians (including a real-estate agent, asylum director, Texas cowboy and an Old Dutch abnormal psychologist) is out to detour his nocturnal munching.They think they have Drac on the run but with a wing and a prayer he is always one step ahead.

Of more value to the reader is the rich prose chosen by Stoker as he describes the morals and technology of the time. We have to come to grips with or decide if we can perform the rituals that are required to eliminate vampires verses the impropriety of opening graves and staking loved ones. The powers in the book differ from the movie versions in that they are more of persuasion and capabilities to manipulate the local weather. At one point the Dutch Dr. Van Helsing, is so overwhelmed by a beautiful vampire laying in the grave that he almost for gets why he is there and may become vamp chow.

All in all the story is more in the cunning chase. And the question as to will they succeed or will Dracula triumph.Remember "For the dead travel fast."

Dracula

Fun to read
I found that if I put aside all of my preconceived notions of vampires, movies, etc from pop culture, and took this book on its own terms, it was great.The ending is a bit hurried compared to the set up, though, but otherwise a nice read.

For the dead travel fast
"Dracula" was not the first vampire novel, nor was it Bram Stoker's first book.

But after years of research, Stoker managed to craft the ultimate vampire novel, which has spawned countless movies, spinoffs, and books that follow the blueprint of the Transylvanian count. Eerie, horrifying and genuinely mysterious, "Dracula" is undoubtedly the most striking and unique vampire novel yet penned.

Real estate agent Jonathan Harker arrives in Transylvania, to arrange a London house sale to Count Dracula. But as the days go by, Harker witnesses increasingly horrific events, leading him to believe that Dracula is not actually human. His fiancee Mina arrives in Transylvania, and finds that he has been feverish. Meanwhile the count has vanished -- along with countless boxes filled with dirt.

And soon afterwards, strange things happen: a ship piloted by a dead man crashes on the shore, after a mysterious thing killed the crew. A lunatic talks about "Him" coming. And Mina's pal Lucy dies of mysterious blood loss, only to come back as an undead seductress. Dracula has arrived in England -- then the center of the Western world -- and intends to make it his own...

"Dracula" is the grandaddy of Lestat and other elegantly alluring bloodsuckers, but that isn't the sole reason why this novel is a classic. It's also incredibly atmospheric, and very well-written. Not only is it very freaky, in an ornate Victorian style, but it is also full of restrained, quiet horror and creepy eroticism. What's more, it's shaped the portrayal of vampires in movies and books, even to this day.

Despite already knowing what's going on for the first half of the book, it's actually kind of creepy to see these people whose lives are being disrupted by Dracula, but don't know about vampires. It's a bit tempting to yell "It's a vampire, you idiots!" every now and then, but you can't really blame them. Then the second half kicks in, with accented professor Van Helsing taking our heroes on a quest to save Mina from Dracula.

And along the way, while our heroes try to figure stuff out, Stoker spins up all these creepy hints of Dracula's arrival. Though he wrote in the late 19th-century manner, very verbose and a bit stuffy, his skill shines through. The book is crammed with intense, evocative language, with moments like Dracula creeping down a wall, or the dead captain found tied to the wheel. Once read, they stick in your mind throughout the book.

It's also a credit to Stoker that he keeps his characters from seeming like idiots or freaks, which they could have easily seemed like. Instead, he puts little moments of humanity in them, like Van Helsing admitting that his wife is in an asylum. Even the letters and diaries are written in different styles; for example, Seward's is restrained and analytical, while Mina's is exuberant and bright.

Even Dracula himself is an overpowering presence despite his small amount of actual screen time, and not just as a vampire -- Stoker presents him as passionate, intense, malignant, and probably the smartest person in the entire book. If Van Helsing hadn't thwarted him, he probably would have taken over the world -- not the Victorian audience's ideal ending.

Intelligent, frightening and very well-written, "Dracula" is the well-deserved godfather of all modern vampire books and movies -- and its unique villain still dwarfs the more recent undead. ... Read more

Product Description
The Jewel of Seven Stars (Also published under the name: The Jewel of the Seven Stars) is a horror novel by Bram Stoker first published in 1903. The story is about an archaeologist's plot to revive Queen Tera, an ancient Egyptian mummy.

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