Dracula, with eBook (Tantor Unabridged Classics) [Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Bram Stoker (Author), John Lee (Narrator)

Book Description

Series: Tantor Unabridged Classics | Publication Date: December 8, 2008

First published in 1897, Dracula by Bram Stoker has become the standard against which all other vampire stories are compared and the inspiration for countless film and stage adaptations. Indeed, the name "Dracula" has been synonymous with the undead for at least a century, and the original novel still has the power to chill.Come then to Castle Dracula, hidden in the forbidding peaks of the Carpathian Mountains, where an undying creature of evil casts his sights on unsuspecting England. Voyage on the doomed ship Demeter as it carries a monster out of ancient superstition in search of new life and new blood. Tremble as first one woman, then another succumbs to the unholy thirst of the nosferatu, and as a small band of men and women, horrified by the supernatural forces arrayed against them, risk their lives and their very souls to oppose the evil known only as...Dracula.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bram Stoker was born November 8, 1847, in Dublin, Ireland. His father was a civil servant, and his mother was a charity worker and writer. Stoker studied math at Trinity College in Dublin and graduated in 1867, after which he became a civil servant. At this time, he also worked as a freelance journalist, a drama critic, and editor of the Evening Mail. In 1876, he met Sir Henry Irving, a famous actor. Stoker accepted a job as personal secretary to Irving and went to England in 1878. Before he left Ireland, he published his first book, The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland. While working for Irving he met an aspiring actress named Florence Balcombe. They married in 1878 and had one son, Noel, who was born in 1879. In England, Stoker also began writing a series of short stories and novels, the first of which was The Snake's Pass. Although best known for Dracula, Stoker wrote eighteen books before he died in 1912. British narrator John Lee has read audiobooks in almost every conceivable genre, from Charles Dickens to Patrick O'Brian, and from the very real life of Napoleon to the entirely imagined lives of sorcerers and swashbucklers. He has won numerous Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards, and he was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile in 2009. Lee is also an accomplished stage actor and wrote and coproduced the feature films Breathing Hard and Forfeit.

From AudioFile

This is the original text of the classic macabre tale of an attorney who visits a remote castle in the Carpathian Mountains to give legal advice to a count who is something more then he appears. John Lee gives a superb performance of the malevolent Count Dracula, the original vampire. His relaxed low tone, while unexpected for a horror reading, works perfectly. Precise timing and eerie vocal inflections ratchet up the fear factor in each scene. Lee's crisp articulation of Serbian and British accents and the menacing personalities of the female vampires are all distinct. Even Dracula's ghoulish Transylvania accent induces chills and maintains suspense. This haunting performance makes it easy to understand why the story of Dracula has not ceased to thrill after 100 years. A.L.B. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged,MP3 - Unabridged CD edition (December 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400159652
• ISBN-13: 978-1400159659
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,569,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A bit dated, but still pretty good, January 19, 2012

By 

Ash Ryan (Salt Lake City, Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dracula, with eBook (Audio CD)

Some of the more supernatural elements of Dracula---bats flapping against windows, his ability to control and turn into mist, etc.---strike today's reader as rather more silly than terrifying. Stoker seems aware of this, as he includes a lot of nonsense to the effect that there are things of which science is not aware, and we can only rely on faith and tradition in dealing with them. Still, Dracula is in my experience of higher literary quality than the vast majority of the many vampire novels that have come since, even those that downplay or at least try to explain the supernatural aspects of vampire mythology.

There are several interesting characters here, including, of course, Van Helsing, and also the Texan Quincey Morris (who was absent from all of the adaptations I'd encountered before actually reading the original novel), but particularly Mina Harker, who in some respects is almost a sort of proto-feminist character. And the scenes with Renfield in Seward's insane asylum are genuinely creepy.

John Lee's narration in this audio edition isn't his best work, but he's almost always worth listening to, and his voice is well suited to the material.

Three and a half stars.