Transylvania — filled with popular beliefs about vampires and surrounded by dark forests— seemed perfect, and the Bran Castle presented an excellent starting point. So, Bram Stoker described a castle perched on a steep hill, with a river washing the valley below. Then, inspired by the prevailing supernatural folklore in the region, he masterfully connected countless scattered legends into one single coherent narrative. Il vampiro viene da lontano. E visto che è pressoché immortale, va lontano: sull’argomento consiglio fortemente lo studio di Tommaso Braccini, ricco documentato divertente e appassionante, che dimostra come prima del 1897, nascita di Dracula, i vampiri, prima ancora che pericolosi, fossero mostruosi, schifosi, perfino puzzolenti (fiato incluso), figure relegate al folklore popolare. Belford, Barbra (2002). Bram Stoker and The Man Who Was Dracula. London: Hachette Books. ISBN 0-306-81098-0. Sono numerosi i passaggi che trovo indimenticabili: Dracula che scivola lungo i muri esterni del castello come una veloce “lumaca”; la nave che entra nel porto (di Whitby) governata dal capitano morto che si è legato al timone (quasi novello cristo); Lucy, la prima vittima descritta, è donna, bianca, giovane, e affetta da sonnambulismo, anche lei come il vampiro di notte si trasforma; la lunga lenta trasformazione da umana a vampira, non-morta; l’incontro tra la coppia sposata innamoratissima, lei ormai vampiro; come si elimina un vampiro (paletto piantato nel cuore, classico – con sorpresa, anche testa tagliata e bocca riempita d’aglio)…

Miller presented this article at the second Transylvanian Society of Dracula Symposium, [14] but it has been reproduced elsewhere; for example, in the Dictionary of Literary Biography in 2006. [15]The second half of the book was only slightly more engaging to me, but at least there was a bit of urgency to it at that point. Van Helsing was on to Dracula, so garlic was being thrown over everything, stakes were being handed out like candy, and anything pertinent was being kept from Mina so as not to upset her delicate sensibilities. Demetrakopoulos, Stephanie (1977). "Feminism, Sex Role Exchanges, and Other Subliminal Fantasies in Bram Stoker's "Dracula" ". Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. 2 (3): 104–113. doi: 10.2307/3346355. ISSN 0160-9009. JSTOR 3346355. Schaffer, Talia (1994). " "A Wilde Desire Took Me": the Homoerotic History of Dracula". ELH. 61 (2): 381–425. doi: 10.1353/elh.1994.0019. ISSN 1080-6547. S2CID 161888586. Mulvey-Roberts, Marie (1998). " Dracula and the Doctors: Bad Blood, Menstrual Taboo and the New Woman". In Hughes, William; Smith, Andrew (eds.). Bram Stoker: History, Psychoanalysis and the Gothic. Basingston: Macmillan Press. ISBN 978-1-349-26840-5. Stuart, Roxana (1994). Stage Blood: Vampires of the 19th Century Stage. Popular Press. ISBN 978-0-87972-660-7.

I think I’ve said enough; if I say anything else I will break my “500 words a review” rule. As you can probably tell I’m quite passionate about this book: it is brilliant; at this point, I can honestly say that Dracula is one of my favourite novels of all time: I just love it. I might even write my dissertation on it and Gothic Literature. After it was published as a serial in The Inter Ocean, Dracula was reprinted as a daily or weekly serial in at least three more newspapers across the US. It appeared as follows:Case, Alison (1993). "Tasting the Original Apple: Gender and the Struggle for Narrative Authority in "Dracula" ". Narrative. 1 (3): 223–243. ISSN 1063-3685. JSTOR 20107013. This isn't Twilight, nor is it Buffy the vampire Slayer, there aren't any friendly, helpful, romantic vampires here. (None sparkle either) There is quite probably a reason (or maybe more than one) why we wish so badly to laugh at this book. It does what it does very, very well...and that's be frightening.

This is a classic monster tale I have enjoyed before, but could not wait to revisit as the season is rife with haunted ghouls and bloodthirsty readers!Dracula is also said to be a "folio novel — which is ... a sibling to the epistolary novel, posed as letters collected and found by the reader or an editor." Alexander Chee, "When Horror Is the Truth-teller", Guernica, October 2, 2023 The first film to feature Count Dracula was Károly Lajthay's Drakula halála ( transl. The Death of Dracula), a Hungarian silent film which allegedly premiered in 1921, though this release date has been questioned by some scholars. [132] Very little of the film has survived, and David J. Skal notes that the cover artist for the 1926 Hungarian edition of the novel was more influenced by the second adaptation of Dracula, F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu. [133] Critic Wayne E. Hensley writes that the narrative of Nosferatu differs significantly from the novel, but that characters have clear counterparts. [134] Bram Stoker's widow, Florence, initiated legal action against the studio behind Nosferatu, Prana. The legal case lasted two or three years, [p] and in May 1924, Prana agreed to destroy all copies of the film. [136] [q] Christopher Lee as the title character in Dracula (1958) McNally & Florescu 1994, p.150: "Unfortunately, no correspondence between Vambery and Stoker can be found today. Moreover, a search through all of the professor's published writings fails to reveal any comments on Vlad, Dracula, or vampires."