Reference

So you think you know all about Dracula? Seen the dozens of movies, including the badly misnamed "Bram Stoker's Dracula". Read the hundreds of vampire novels? Big fan of "Buffy"? Tired of the subject? Even if you can say yes to any of the above, going back to the original novel will be well worth your while. Although the vampire legend goes back centuries in many cultures,it took an obscure writer in late 19th century England named Bram Stoker to create the basis for the most enduring and pervasive of horror characters. At times, the dialogue is almost ludicrous (where in the world did Stoker get the idea of how Americans talk?), the plot drags a little in the middle, the language is often too flowery and ornate for 21st century tastes but if you read this novel with some suspension of our modern tastes (and don't play amateur psychologist and try to overanalyse it), it is a great story. Love, horror, history, culture, suspense, action - this book has it all and even the best movie, book and/or miniseries has yet to fully do it justice. The characters of the Count and Van Helsing are written so well that it is easy to see why they are classics, but most of the other characters - especially Johnathan and Mina Harker - are also memorable. The best of the action and narrative take place in the opening and closing chapters, while in Transylvania, but the entire book is one that any horror fan should add to their collection.

The story of Dracula is a tired subject to modern readers. USA films production of the historic Vlad the Impaler, Hollywood productions of rewritten stories with new twists, and the entire (now hopefully dead) Goth movement have completely clouded the beauty, intrigue, and mystique of the original Dracula.

It begins with a train-ride into Transylvania, but it takes readers far closer to intellectual ecstasy than many other books of its type. It is not a book for mild entertainment, rather it is a work that requires thought. Imagination cannot help but flourish as Stoker vividly describes his characters in appearance, speech, and emotion. Their surroundings are equally portrayed as real, common-place scenes. There is little of a supernatural bent to the work, really. It is the essential frightening look at what could happen to ordinary people in ordinary circumstances when something sinister and something extra-ordinary meets them.

The original story is so far from the modern revisions that one will find it surprisingly fresh. It is like going through an entire genre of multimedia productions before coming to the one gem of them all. In this case, the original. Many are intimidated by the book's size and their preconceptions from modern mistakes. I believe that the real Bram Stoker's, 'Dracula' will excite and please more than people realize. I have bought copies for numerous reading-partners who have equally enjoyed this book when we have disagreed on so many others.

'Dracula' is well worth the consideration.

This is the most famous horror story of all. Based on the bloodthirsty Transylvanian ruler Vlad Tepes, otherwise known as the Impaler because of his practice of impaling enemy prisoners-of-war on stakes, "Dracula" is the tale of an evil count who is a vampire. The story has little to do wuth the historical Vlad, but that makes it no less spine-chilling.

This unusual novel is told entirely through diaries and letters of the main characters. Count Dracula buys a property in England through Jonathan Harker. The count seems to have a taste for English ladies' blood, and when he goes after Harker's fiancee Mina, she narrowly escapes, though her friend Lucy was not so lucky. Hunted and on the run, Dracula himself escapes back to Transylvania, hotly pursued by Harker, Professor Van Helsing, and others. This chase and its climax culminates in a thrilling show-down!

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"