Rating: 
Summary: Believe it or not...
Review: PHONOGRAPH DIARY
SPOKEN BY VAN HELSING
November 8 - Ooh...for long time during my old age he remain yonder, as Friend Quincey would say, but now he swell up at thought of Madam Lucy and Madam Mina together. He...Mein Gott! I did not realize I was recording!
This is the story of couragious men, woman with man-brain, and undead with child-brain. From Transylvania to London and back on ship, our heroes traverse much to rid the world of unabiding evil, a most fractious beast. However, I stop now, though my impulse tells me to disclose more, I tell him no.
Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly Fresh
Review: The story of Dracula is a tired subject to modern readers. USA films production of the historic Vlad the Impaler, Hollywood productions of rewritten stories with new twists, and the entire (now hopefully dead) Goth movement have completely clouded the beauty, intrigue, and mystique of the original Dracula. It begins with a train-ride into Transylvania, but it takes readers far closer to intellectual ecstasy than many other books of its type. It is not a book for mild entertainment, rather it is a work that requires thought. Imagination cannot help but flourish as Stoker vividly describes his characters in appearance, speech, and emotion. Their surroundings are equally portrayed as real, common-place scenes. There is little of a supernatural bent to the work, really. It is the essential frightening look at what could happen to ordinary people in ordinary circumstances when something sinister and something extra-ordinary meets them. The original story is so far from the modern revisions that one will find it surprisingly fresh. It is like going through an entire genre of multimedia productions before coming to the one gem of them all. In this case, the original. Many are intimidated by the book's size and their preconceptions from modern mistakes. I believe that the real Bram Stoker's, 'Dracula' will excite and please more than people realize. I have bought copies for numerous reading-partners who have equally enjoyed this book when we have disagreed on so many others. 'Dracula' is well worth the consideration.
Rating:
Summary: the blood is the life
Review: This is the most famous horror story of all. Based on the bloodthirsty Transylvanian ruler Vlad Tepes, otherwise known as the Impaler because of his practice of impaling enemy prisoners-of-war on stakes, "Dracula" is the tale of an evil count who is a vampire. The story has little to do wuth the historical Vlad, but that makes it no less spine-chilling. This unusual novel is told entirely through diaries and letters of the main characters. Count Dracula buys a property in England through Jonathan Harker. The count seems to have a taste for English ladies' blood, and when he goes after Harker's fiancee Mina, she narrowly escapes, though her friend Lucy was not so lucky. Hunted and on the run, Dracula himself escapes back to Transylvania, hotly pursued by Harker, Professor Van Helsing, and others. This chase and its climax culminates in a thrilling show-down! David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"
Rating:
Summary: It's Dracula! How Can You Not Give It 5 Stars?
Review: This was the first Bram Stoker work I had read. I read it a few years ago and try to read it every year around Halloween. I had not really been exposed to works written in the form of letters and journals. I liked the style!
Of course the Francis Ford Copolla movie version closely follows the book, but not completely. For those who are too lazy to read the book, you'll like the movie.
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