Dracula
Bram Stoker, 1897
A solicitor's business trip, a seaside storm and a doctor's case notes, told through diaries, letters and telegrams so that dread reads like found evidence.
Bram Stoker
1847–1912
Stoker's territory is the moment ordinary paperwork starts recording something wrong: a letter that arrives too late, a diary entry written in a hurry, a doctor's notes that don't quite add up. In «Dracula» the ordinary becomes uncanny through that documentary calm, and the shorter pieces in «Dracula's Guest» work the same way, with haunted judges, sea rescues and quicksand doubles arriving in quick, sharp doses. Start with «Dracula» if you want the full, slow build; go to «Dracula's Guest» when you'd rather have the uncanny in short bursts.
Feels like dread, death and unease.
Start with Dracula.
Stoker was Henry Irving's business manager at London's Lyceum Theatre for about 27 years, and wrote Dracula while holding that job.
Boredom turns to terror when your host leaves by the window.
What I saw was the Count’s head coming out from the window. I did not see the face, but I knew the man by the neck and the movement of his back and arms. In any case I could not mistake the hands which I had had so many opportunities of studying. I was at first interested and somewhat amused, for it is wonderful how small a matter will interest and amuse a man when he is a prisoner. But my very feelings changed to repulsion and terror when I saw the whole man slowly emerge from the window and begin to crawl down the castle wall over that dreadful abyss, face down with his cloak spreading out around him like great wings. At first I could not believe my eyes. Books by Bram Stoker
Dracula's Guest
Bram Stoker, 1914
A posthumous collection of Stoker's uncanny tales: haunted judges, sea rescues, quicksand doubles and one very patient cat. Gothic horror in short, sharp doses.
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