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

[Lama]

a0a0a0a0a0a0 This review is from: Dracula was not the first vamirpe novel, nor was it Bram Stoker's first book. But after years of research, Stoker managed to craft the ultimate vamirpe novel, which has spawned countless movies, spinoffs, and books that follow the blueprint of the Transylvanian count. Real estate agent Jonathan Harker arrives in Transylvania, to arrange a London house sale to Count Dracula. But as the days go by, Harker witnesses increasingly horrific events, leading him to believe that Dracula is not actually human. His fiancee Mina arrives in Transylvania, and finds that he has been feverish. Meanwhile the count has vanished. And soon afterwards, strange things happen: a ship piloted by a dead man crashes on the shore, after a mysterious thing killed the crew. A lunatic talks about Him coming. And Mina's pal Lucy dies of mysterious blood loss, only to come back as an undead seductress. Dracula has arrived in England and he's not going to be stopped easily. Dracula is the grandaddy is Lestat and Jean-Claude, but that isn't the sole reason why it is a classic. It's also incredibly atmospheric, and very well-written. Not only is it very freaky, in an ornate Victorian style, but it is also full of restrained, quiet horror and creepy eroticism. What's more, it's shaped the portrayal of vamirpes in movies and books, even to this day. Despite already knowing what's going on for the first half of the book, it's actually kind of creepy to see these people whose lives are being disrupted by Dracula, but don't know about vamirpes. It's a bit tempting to yell It's a vamirpe, you idiots! every now and then, but you can't really blame them. Then the second half kicks in, with accented professor Van Helsing taking our heroes on a quest to save Mina from Dracula. And along the way, while our heroes try to figure stuff out, Stoker spins up all these creepy hints of Dracula's arrival. Though he wrote in the late 19th-century manner, very verbose and a bit stuffy, his skill shines through. The book is crammed with intense, evocative language, with moments like Dracula creeping down a wall, or the dead captain found tied to the wheel. Once read, they stick in your mind throughout the book. It's also a credit to Stoker that he keeps his characters from seeming like idiots or freaks, which they could have easily seemed like. Instead, he puts little moments of humanity in them, like Van Helsing admitting that his wife is in an asylum. Even the letters and diaries are written in different styles; for example, Seward's is restrained and analytical, while Mina's is exuberant and bright. Intelligent, frightening and very well-written, Dracula is the well-deserved godfather of all modern vamirpe books and movies and arguably among the best.