Iāve always loved horror stories. At the age of 7 or 8, Iād be reading The Pan Book Of Horror Stories or Aidan Chambersā Haunted Houses by flashlight with the bed sheets pulled over my head (not because I should have been asleep, but to guard against vampires creeping up on me!) I always found these stories strangely comforting, a world of adventure into which a shy kid like me could retreat. Ghosts and monsters became part of my cultural DNA, constant companions through life. Thatās why I write horror today, to make my own tiny contribution to the genre, which has given me so much.
Well, you have to start with Stokerās blockbuster, right? Reading it today gives you a fascinating window into the Victorian mind and the sort of things people found shocking or upsetting in those days. The Count himself, although a genteel character, is very, very different from the āstandardā Dracula we think of today, thanks to the likes of Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee.
Stoker is the one who introduced all the mirrors, garlic, and crucifix stuff to vampire loreānone of that was present in the old legends on which he based his story.
30
authors picked
Dracula
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.
This book is for kids age
17.
What is this book about?
'The very best story of diablerie which I have read for many years' Arthur Conan Doyle
A masterpiece of the horror genre, Dracula also probes identity, sanity and the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire. It begins when Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase a London house, and makes horrifying discoveries in his client's castle. Soon afterwards, disturbing incidents unfold in England - an unmanned ship is wrecked; strange puncture marks appear on a young woman's neck; a lunatic asylum inmate raves about the imminent arrival of his 'Master' - and a determined group of adversariesā¦
This is an absolutely brilliant pastiche of Victorian literature, starring the eraās two greatest fictional characters.
It weaves Holmes and Watson into the basic plot of Dracula, with Watson grumbling about setting the record straight because that āspurious monographā by some fella called Stoker missed out on Holmesās involvement in the case!
The discovery off the coast of England of a crewless ship, whose only passenger is a mysterious black dog, leads to a confrontation between Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula
A witchy paranormal cozy mystery told through the eyes of a fiercely clever (and undeniably fabulous) feline familiar.
Iām Juno. Snow-white fur, sharp-witted, and currently stuck working magical animal control in the enchanted town of Crimson Cove. My witch, Zandra Crypt, and I only came here to find her missingā¦
This is the first in a series of alternate history stories, set in 1888 (later volumes run right through the 20th century), in a world in which Count Dracula triumphed over his arch-enemy Professor Van Helsing. Heās now married to Queen Victoria and ruling over a London full of bloodsuckers!
A very clever idea which neatly ties in all sorts of vampire-related fictional strands.
It is 1888 and Queen Victoria has remarried, taking as her new consort Vlad Tepes, the Wallachian Prince infamously known as Count Dracula. Peppered with familiar characters from Victorian history and fiction, the novel follows vampire Genevieve Dieudonne and Charles Beauregard of the Diogenes Club as they strive to solve the mystery of the Ripper murders.
Anno Dracula is a rich and panoramic tale, combining horror, politics, mystery and romance to create a unique and compelling alternate history. Acclaimed novelist Kim Newman explores the darkest depths of a reinvented Victorian London.
If youāre interested in the literary roots of vampires, and Dracula in particular, Iād heartily recommend this nonfiction title. It delves into the origins of characters like the Count in earlier 19th-century texts and examines how and why Dracula became such a long-lasting cultural influence. Itās also very good on Bram Stokerās life and less famous works.
Christopher Frayling has spent 45 years exploring the history of one of the most enduring figures in the history of mass culture - the vampire. Vampyres is a comprehensive and generously illustrated history and anthology of vampires in literature, from the folklore of Eastern Europe to the Romantics and beyond. Frayling recounts the most significant moments in gothic history, while extracts from a huge range of sources - including Bram Stoker's detailed research notes for Dracula, penny dreadfuls and Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber , new to this edition - are contextualized and analysed. This revised and expanded edition bringsā¦
This is the fourth book in the Joplin/Halloran forensic mystery series, which features Hollis Joplin, a death investigator, and Tom Halloran, an Atlanta attorney.
It's August of 2018, shortly after the Republican National Convention has nominated Donald Trump as its presidential candidate. Racial and political tensions are rising, and soā¦
This is a comprehensive anthology of non-Dracula short stories (although it does include Bram Stokerās Draculaās Guest!) covering the whole of the nineteenth century and beyond, including John Polidoriās The Vampyre and Sheridan le Fanuās influential Carmilla.
It even has an extract from the hugely popular Victorian āpenny dreadfulā Varney The Vampire, which is so awful that itās hilarious.
They're lurking under the cover of darkness and between the covers of this book. Here, in all their horror and all their glory, are the great vampires of literature: male and female, invisible and metamorphic, doomed and daring.
Their skin deathly pale, their nails curved like claws, their fangs sharpened for the attack, they are gathered for the kill and for the chill, brought frighteningly to life by Bram Stoker, Fritz Leiber, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, Charles L. Grant, Tanith Lee, and other masters of the macabre. Careful they are all crafty enough to steal their way into your imaginationā¦
Summer, 1868. London's West End is a place where high society and the criminal underworld meet. A valuable box from Transylvania sealed tight, falls into unscrupulous hands. Its opening releases a vampyr, a wraith-like parasite that hides inside a hostāwhether young or old, man or womanāand thirsts for human blood.
If you like the old Hammer films and Universal horror classics, youāll love this.
In an underground coal mine in Northern Germany, over forty scribes who are fluent in different languages have been spared the camps to answer letters to the deadāletters that people were forced to answer before being gassed, assuring relatives that conditions in the camps were good.Ā
