Customer Reviews

Dracula Unearthed

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"Dracula Unearthed" is the gold standard in critical editions of Bram Stoker's Victorian horror novel "Dracula", edited and annotated by one of the novel's most respected scholars, Clive Leatherdale. It contains about 110,000 words worth of annotations, which, as Leatherdale notes, is only 50,000 words fewer than the novel itself. These annotations take up a significant chunk of each page, and their font is rather small. This is a good way to find out if your vision is declining. Some publishers run extensive annotations in a wide margin beside the main text to avoid having to make the annotations so small, but this necessitates that the book be a larger format. In any case, small and voluminous as they are, the annotations don't detract from the legibility of the novel. In fact, this edition is better-designed for students of "Dracula" than any other.

The annotations are many, but they are not frivolous. Leatherdale explains allusions in the text, defines terms, cites Stoker's sources, quotes the source when available, clarifies confusing passages in the text, points out inconsistencies, makes note of the novel's theatrical structure, and offers interesting analyses of more issues than I could have imagined. Be aware that the annotations do sometimes contain spoilers, as they may reference events further along in the novel. This is a critical edition, intended for students and scholars who are already familiar with the novel. This was the first annotated edition to make use of Stoker's working notes for "Dracula", housed at the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, and Leatherdale sometimes directly quotes Stoker's sources.

In his introductory materials, Leatherdale includes a complete list of Bram Stoker's sources taken from his working notes, a select bibliography, a complete list of the Dramatis Personae, and Stoker's preface to the 1901 Icelandic edition of the novel, which can be found in some other editions as well. In the table of contents, the location where each chapter takes place is added in brackets underneath the chapter title. The chapter title is in the header of each lefthand page, as is traditional, but Leatherdale also places a key quotation from the chapter in the header of each righthand page to aid in navigating the text. And he has added the day of the week to all of the diaries/letters for clarity. In short, there are a lot of unique and thoughtful features in "Dracula Unearthed". It's one of only a handful of books that are an absolutely essential for "Dracula" fans and students. If you can't find it in the US, it is in print in the UK.

I agree with the review above. I got this for sixteen bucks and have been enjoying it thoroughly. Someone in a review of the "the new annotated dracula" said that author (allegedly) helped himself to a lot of the annotations in this one. I don't know if that's true or not but this is certainly a thorough job but not so overdone that it breaks the flow of the novel.

This seems to me to be more thorough than the Wolf version of twenty five years ago (which is also very good) but doesn't fall into some of the excesses of the newer one--which starts on the amusing premise that dracula is a real person and that the events were real. That's a fun idea to a lot of people (which I don't have a problem with) but a lot of people just find it irritating.

So, if you're more of a pure scholar this might be the one for you. My only warning would be that this one is so scholarly that it contains absolutely no artwork (except for the dust jacket). But it is very fun and very illuminating.

But, hark, the Children of the Night are scratching at my screen door.

If you just want to read "Dracula" to know the story, then any paperback edition is fine. But if you want to fully appreciate the depth and scope of Bram Stoker's creation then you simply MUST have this book. It will give you a guided tour through all dark hooks and crannies of the novel and you'll understand why it turned out to be the everlasting book its humble beginnings would not seem to allow.
It is easy to read, serious and tremendously enjoyable.
Do buy it!...

I ordered this book because I love the original "Dracula" by Bram Stoker. I also mostly agree with the other reviews and want to add that this book is especially great if you have already read the original story. I thought the annotations were a bit time consuming at times, although very informative. If you were reading this story for the first time you might find it distracting to be going between the story and the annotations. I would recommend reading the story first and then going back and reading this book (it also helps eliminate any spoiler problems)! This book also helps the reader really grasp what is taking place and I love the references to geographic locations. I actually learned more about each of the charactors including Dracula himself! If you are a literary lover of Bram Stoker's Dracula this book is a must!