Dracula (Norton Critical Editions) [Paperback]

Bram Stoker (Author), Nina Auerbach (Editor), David J. Skal (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 17, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0393970124 | ISBN-13: 978-0393970128 | Edition: 1st

This Norton Critical Edition presents fully annotated the text of the 1897 First Edition.

A rich selection of background and source materials is provided in three areas: Contexts includes probable inspirations for Dracula in the earlier works of James Malcolm Rymer and Emily Gerard. Also included are a discussion of Stoker's working notes for the novel and "Dracula's Guest," the original opening chapter to Dracula. Reviews and Reactions reprints five early reviews of the novel. "Dramatic and Film Variations" focuses on theater and film adaptations of Dracula, two indications of the novel's unwavering appeal. David J. Skal, Gregory A. Waller, and Nina Auerbach offer their varied perspectives. Checklists of both dramatic and film adaptations are included.

Criticism collects seven theoretical interpretations of Dracula by Phyllis A. Roth, Carol A. Senf, Franco Moretti, Christopher Craft, Bram Dijsktra, Stephen D. Arata, and Talia Schaffer.

A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography are included.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Dracula is one of the few horror books to be honored by inclusion in the Norton Critical Edition series. (The others are Frankenstein, The Turn of the Screw, Heart of Darkness, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Metamorphosis.) This 100th-anniversary edition includes not only the complete authoritative text of the novel with illuminating footnotes, but also four contextual essays, five reviews from the time of publication, five articles on dramatic and film variations, and seven selections from literary and academic criticism. Nina Auerbach of the University of Pennsylvania (author of Our Vampires, Ourselves) and horror scholar David J. Skal (author of Hollywood Gothic, The Monster Show, and Screams of Reason) are the editors of the volume. Especially fascinating are excerpts from materials that Bram Stoker consulted in his research for the book, and his working papers over the several years he was composing it. The selection of criticism includes essays on how Dracula deals with female sexuality, gender inversion, homoerotic elements, and Victorian fears of "reverse colonization" by politically turbulent Transylvania.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up?A naive young Englishman travels to Transylvania to do business with a client, Count Dracula. After showing his true and terrifying colors, Dracula boards a ship for England in search of new, fresh blood. Unexplained disasters begin to occur in the streets of London before the mystery and the evil doer are finally put to rest. Told in a series of news reports from eyewitness observers to writers of personal diaries, this has a ring of believability that counterbalances nicely with Dracula's too-macabre-to-be-true exploits. An array of voices from talented actors makes for interesting variety. The generous use of sound effects, from train whistles to creaking doors, adds further atmosphere. Lovers of mysteries and horror will find rousing entertainment in this version of a classic tale.?Carol Katz, Harrison Public Library, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (December 17, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393970124
• ISBN-13: 978-0393970128
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #30 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Mythology & Folk Tales > Fairy Tales

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

83 of 92 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Full-Featured Critical Edition for Fans and Students. October 16, 2004

By mirasreviews HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I'll comment on the features of the Norton Critical Edition of "Dracula", as reviews of the novel can be found elsewhere. The novel, itself, is reproduced from the 1897 British edition that was published by Archbald Constable and Company and is preceded by a short but useful Preface that discusses the contexts in which "Dracula" was written and received over a century ago. The text of the novel is amply footnoted. Not only are terms defined, but allusions are explained, and passages of particular interest are treated with some commentary. The footnotes are worthwhile, but easy to ignore if you prefer. I had reservations about the footnotes in the early chapters of the book. Too many of them referred to points later in the story, acting as minor spoilers. I found this stopped after the action moved to England, so it only applies to a small portion of the book. Following the text of the novel are sections on Contexts, Reviews and Reactions, Dramatic and Film Variations, and Criticism.

"Contexts" includes some 19th century source material on vampires, Bram Stoker's working papers for the novel annotated by Christopher Frayling, and "Dracula's Guest", which was originally to be the novel's opening chapter, before Bram Stoker decided to situate the novel in Transylvania. The working papers are thoroughly uninteresting, and "Dracula's Guest" is not as chilling as the introduction that replaced it. "Reviews and Reactions" includes 5 reviews of the novel written shortly after it was published, in 1897 and in 1899, three of which are favorable.

"Dramatic and Film Variations" contains an essay about "Dracula"'s theatrical adaptations, including a list of major plays, by David J. Skal, who wrote "Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen" and is one of this edition's editors. An essay by Gregory Waller discusses Tod Browning's 1931 film "Dracula". Editor Nina Auerbach gives "Dracula" a feminist reading in her essay about the later film adaptations of the novel: the Hammer films of the 1950s and 1960s and John Badham's 1979 film. There is also a list of major film adaptations.

"Criticism" includes 7 essays that represent widely varying interpretations of Bram Stoker's novel, including Oedipal, Marxist, sexual, gender reversal, xenophobic, and homoerotic interpretations. These essays vary in quality a great deal. The best, in my view, are Christopher Craft's "Gender and Inversion" and Stephen D. Arata's "Reverse Colonization" essays. But, taken together, all of the essays give insight into "Dracula"s continuing -in fact, ever-growing- popularity. The novel can be interpreted through virtually any doctrine. There is a chronology of events in Bram Stoker's life at the end of the book.

If you plan to purchase a copy of "Dracula", this Norton Critical Edition provides the most material for your buck and the best footnotes that I've seen in any edition currently in print.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars ONE OF THE BEST EDITIONS OF THE NOVEL July 14, 2001

By [e-mail]

Format:Paperback

Everything I've read in the Norton Critical Editions is always very good. It of course includes the text of the work, usually complete (Herodotus was an exception). But most useful is a selection of critical opinion over time so that the reader is able to compare his own evaluation with that of others. And it is amazing what a non-professional (like me, in the field of literature) misses and how professional critics can deepen understanding. But read the novel first, and then the critics.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Original Vamp September 6, 2000

By Kellyannl

Format:Paperback

This is the horror novel that launched a thousand vampires.

Actually, it's not really a novel - it's a collection of letters. Two women, best friends Mina and Lucy, are happily sharing their love lives with eachother on paper. Mina is about to marry her beau Jonathan Harker; and Lucy is trying to choose between Dr. Arthur Seward and Quincey Morris, true-blue good guys both. Suddenly, a stranger from Transylvania comes to town and Lucy becomes gravely ill. Seward writes to his mentor, Dr. Van Helsing for help. The good doctor does indeed know what they're dealing with, but he's too late to save Lucy. The group barely has time to grieve before strange things start happening, and by the time they realize that the stranger,Dracula, is in fact a vampire, he's set his malevolent eye on Mina...

Some people find the letters tedious, and that there's far less of Drac around than they'd expected - but try to read them as if you also don't know what he is yet. The "news clipping" about the Ghost-ship's arrival from Transylvania, for example, is still chilling - and the final chase scene, in which the friends lose one of their own, still packs an emotional and adrenaline punch.