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Pocket Books Enriched Classics present the great works of world literature enhanced for the contemporary reader. This edition of Dracula was prepared by Joseph Valente, Professor of English at the University of Illinois and the author of Dracula's Crypt: Bram Stoker, Irishness, and the Question of Blood, who provides insight into the racial connotations of this enduring masterpiece.

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Questioning "the other"

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While this is definitely a Should Read novel-- after all, the character of Dracula is firmly entrenched in our culture-- I came away from it mildly disappointed. While the epistolary quality is a fun way to get inside the minds of the various characters, I never became comfortable with its inherent misogyny. The women are either pillars of virtue or shameless vixens, and the men's responses to female sexuality are either to possess the woman, kill her, or protect her. This is clearly a response to the time in which it was written, when women were beginning to show their discontent with being merely decorations. Stoker also shows his (or perhaps his culture's) fear of the other through the constant assertions that London is the center of the civilized world and those places further east are barbaric and backwards. However, this is still essential reading as it's important to get this influential story from the original source and not one of several over-sexed, over-dramatized Hollywood versions.

A True Classic

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Bram Stoker's influential late-Victorian novel remains a dominant presence in the realm of horror and vampire literature. While some modern readers may have difficulty with the late 19th-century writing style, the novel itself is a rewarding experience for anyone willing to consider the work, and the use of language should not be held against its brilliance. Though not the first word in vampire literature and mythology, Stoker's novel is, in a way, the last word - and one very much so worth reading.

Amazing, Thrilling Tale	Customer Rating:
I loved this novel; the story was well written and I was even frightened at times as to the detail and the images of the greatest vampire of all time. I would strongly encourage evertbody to read this wonderful classic.

a vampire too industrial

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This is a sort of a compendium of all tales about vampires surely the author was able to find at his times. And although I don't know English deeply, it seems only a regular novel, mediocre in strict literary sense. But a novel isn't only literary language, and "Dracula" has some valors not to disdain. First, there are a collision between old delayed continental Europe, origin of Dracula, symbol of evil, and modern England in full industrial revolution. Gramophones, telegraphs and other machines hardly exits in Transylvania, but abounds in Britain. It's said Bram Stoker wrote this novel with a typewriter, by then a novelty. But Stoker lacks romanticism. In this sense, some of the several films about Dracula surpasses this novel in that. However, the author does hit in some facets; one is disquieting: Dracula only is able to enter in your house if you invite him to do. Another is the forces of goodness, as professor Van Helsing, Lucy, never resource to official authorities as police. Very British I think, as Dracula is a big peril, but... is his own private peril an enemy, and they achieve well the problem by themselves.

Simply a brilliant novel

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The greatest testament to Stoker's work is that it remains uniquely compelling despite popular conceptions shaped by some appalling cinematic adapdations. Even now, it is possible to understand the enthusiatic response of contemporary readers to his sensational tale of "the Undead" and the hardy souls who take on the eponymous Count. From the chilling opening in the Carpathians, Stoker relates his grimly fascinating tale mainly through diary extracts, also managing the tricky task of creating authentically different narrative voices. Add to the equation some masterful prose, a relentless pace and some genuinely shocking moments and the result is a novel that genuinely deserves the title of "classic".