Contemporary Reviews of “Dracula”
Bram Stoker
Availability: Out of Print – Booklet
“Over the decades, as with so many other iconic stories, Dracula has fallen prey to numerous popularly held misconceptions. Until recently we had ourselves laboured under one such misconception: that Dracula was not well received by the reading public when it was first published. We believed it to have been something of a disappointment where sales where concerned; an overlooked treasure, ahead of its time, destined to be rediscovered at a later date… we also assumed that some of the subtler aspects of the novel, which give the post-modern reader satisfaction, might have gone over the heads of the nineteenth century audience. How could a stuffy Victorian possibly get pleasure from this book in the same way a twenty-first century reader might? Needless to say—as this volume of reviews demonstrates—we grossly underestimated not only the horror reader of 1897, but also, to some degree, Mr. Stoker himself.”
Contemporary Reviews of “Dracula” collects together a selection of reviews of Stoker’s seminal work shortly after it was published in England in 1897 and in America in 1899. These reviews—both complimentary and critical — give insight into Dracula‘s initial public reception, unmarred by decades of misconceptions, academic scrutiny and literary legendry. Assembled from the list provided by Richard Dalby and William Hughes in their Bram Stoker: A Bibliography, these reviews appeared in many of the leading publications of their day, including The Spectator, Punch, Vanity Fair, and The Athenaeum. The booklet includes an insightful introduction by Leah Moore and John Reppion, who faithfully adapted Dracula as a graphic novel; and also reproduces first edition US and UK covers, as well as two short reviews of Dracula’s Guest and Other Weird Stories (1914).
- More on Bram Stoker can be found in various issues of The Green Book
This limited edition booklet is sold out.
Please check with our Booksellers for remaining copies.
Bram Stoker Series #4
Cover design by Brian J. Showers
Introduction by Leah Moore & John Reppion
ISBN: N/A
Bram Stoker
Bram Stoker (1847-1912) was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College. As a young man he worked as a civil servant at Dublin Castle, and as an unpaid theatre critic for local newspapers. He is best remembered today for his classic novel Dracula (1897), but during his lifetime he was known as the personal assistant of actor Henry Irving, and business manager of Irving’s Lyceum Theatre in London. Other notable works include The Jewel of Seven Stars and The Lair of the White Worm.
- More on Bram Stoker can be found in various issues of The Green Book
Contemporary Reviews of “Dracula” (Bram Stoker Series #4). Cover design by Brian J. Showers; introduction by Leah Moore & John Reppion; selected and edited by Brian J. Showers; copyedited by Jim Rockhill.
021a. First Printing: Published in January 2011; A5-sized booklet; limited to 125 copies; 150 gsm card wraps (daffodil); endpapers (semi-transparent tissue); 36 pages; digitally printed on 80 gsm white paper; hand-sewn, saddle-stitched binding (Gütterman Heavy Black); printed by Swan River Press, Ranelagh, Dublin; no ISBN assigned.
