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Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Documentary Journey into Vampire Country and the Dracula Phenomenon

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"Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Documentary Journey into Vampire Country and the Dracula Phenomenon", edited by Elizabeth Miller, is the same book as the Dictionary of Literary Biography 304 "Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Documentary Volume", but in paperback at one-tenth the price of the DLB volume. The list of available books of "Dracula" scholarship, history, criticism, and combinations thereof grows every year, but this volume is among the most interesting and essential for "Dracula" fans and serious scholars. I've read a couple dozen books about the novel and the Dracula phenomenon, and I still found a lot of material that was new to me in this volume. It lives up the high standards of the DLB series in presenting both depth and breadth on its topic.

In her introduction, Elizabeth Miller addresses the question of "why another book about `Dracula'". She answers that "no existing study of the novel encompasses the entire range of it pretextual, textual, and posttextual stages". True enough, but I love the combination of primary and secondary source materials, in quantity and to that stated purpose. There are six chapters, each dedicated to a different facet of Dracula scholarship: the author Bram Stoker, vampires in folklore and literature before "Dracula", literary and cultural contexts for the novel, writing the novel, its publication history and reception, and "Dracula"'s legacy in popular culture. These encompass about 150 articles and 31 facsimiles (of documents), plus many smaller blurbs.

"A Documentary Volume" collects the work of scholars of diverse expertise in one place. "Dracula" fans will recognize Clive Leatherdale's work on Stoker's sources, William Hughes on Stoker himself, Carol A. Senf on literary vampires, J. Gordon Melton on vampires and Christianity, Robert Eighteen-Bisang on editions, David Skal on theatrical adaptations, and, of course, Elizabeth Miller debunking the myths. But there is a lot more here, including primary documents I have not seen in other Dracula books, examples of Bram Stoker's other fiction and nonfiction, and many terrific essays from sources farther afield of typical "Dracula" studies. It's an invaluable reference for "Dracula" fans and a goldmine of interesting tidbits. Thanks to Pegasus Books for making this volume affordable.

This book is indeed a "documentary journey into vampire country"! It's edited by Elizabeth Miller, so you know this is more than a 'vampires are awesome' fluff piece. XD

As a reader you get a background history of Bram Stoker, and learn about how the novel was created(there's a whole section of the book called "Contexts for Dracula"). This book allows you to see what the vampire fiction was like before "Dracula", showing a long literary history existed before the Count was created.

The book is illustrated throughout, with beautiful b/w pictures. There's a picture of Bram Stoker as a seven year old, Jonathan Harker's description of Dracula actually written in Pitman shorthand(which was "in wide use in the United Kingdom in the late nineteenth century"),etc,etc. This is just a small example of the cool stuff this book is full off.

Basically "Bram Stoker's Dracula..." is great for both long time Dracula enthusiasts, and those who want to learn the phenomenon behind Stoker's vampire classic. Definitely recommended.