Dracula climbing like a lizard

As Elizabeth Miller mentioned in comments, here is the image of that great scene with Dracula climbing down the castle wall, from the cover of the first paperback (abridged) edition (1901) of the novel:

(thank you, Elizabeth!)

Comments

[Leslie S. Klinger]

Not only is the image fascinating, the entire edition has interesting points. Published in 1901 with about 15% fewern words, it is unclear who did the abridgment. Raymond McNally and Robert Eighteen-Bisang, in the 1994 reprint, assert that Stoker shortened the narrative. A similar view is taken by Richard Dalby and William Hughes in thier bibliography. Elizabeth Miller argues that it may have been the work of an editor. I like to think that it was Stoker himself, with the guidance of the Harkers, Dr. Seward, Van Helsing, and Lord Godalming, for if one examines the abridgments carefully, each of them comes out looking better--more noble, more steadfast, more articulate--than in the original published narrative!

[Elizabeth Miller]

While it may have been an editor who made these changes, I am now more inclined to think Stoker did it - without any help from his friends.

Items/passages that were cut include the following:

- the line from "Lenore" ("For the dead travel fast")
- references in Ch 1 to the "leiter-wagon", the meal of "robber steak" and references to the "blue flame"
- several Shakespearean allusions
- Mina's playful journal entries about the "New Woman"
- Lucy's declaration re being able to marry three men
- "The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East" (Ch 1)

Many, many more. Thankfully, this text did not replace the 1897 Constable edition, as teh deletions negatively affected the texture and richness of the book. You can find my full article about this at the Dracula Research Centre (www.blooferland.com/drc and check under "Stoker, Vampires & Dracula: Miscellaneous Articles")

[Bryan Alexander]

In the age of DVDs, I can imagine Stoker issuing a director's cut, with the deleted bits.

Leslie, I beg to differ. My notes suggest one "Renfield." Perhaps he felt guilty.

[cosmetic dentist in los angeles]

Cool! the dracula's climbed like a lizard, I also like to think that it was Stoker himself is it a dracula have a bad breath? for sure they have,lol! :-)

by: florence