Bram Stoker Books

Originally published in 1903, some six years after Dracula, Bram Stoker's The Jewel of Seven Stars is a singular work of dark fantasy. It reads as if it were one of the author's earliest writings, espousing a much more awkward style than that which permeates Stoker's most famous novel. The characters are stereotypical of the time, the dialogue is sometimes forced and so Victorian in its manner that it fails to draw the reader fully into the story, and it leaves too many unanswered questions in its wake. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this, Stoker's most familiar novel after Dracula, is its storyline built around the resurrection of an ancient Egyptian mummy. Few people today realize that Stoker not only truly defined the vampire genre, he helped give rise to the mummy genre as well. By far the most fascinating aspect of this tale is its ending, though, which I will discuss below.

The first several chapters of the novel call to my mind the host of whodunit films released in the 1940s and 1950s. Malcolm Ross, a barrister, is called to the home of Margaret Trelawney, a young lady he just recently met and took a fancy to, in the middle of the night. When he arrives at the home, he finds policemen, a doctor, Margaret, and the household staff in a great tizzy over an attack made upon Margaret's father. The man was found on the floor of his room, his left arm slashed in a number of places. The investigation begins, and a constant watch is held over the injured man, who has fallen into a cataleptic state. The next night, under the eyes of Ross, Margaret, and a nurse, a second baffling attack takes place by an unknown assailant. It soon becomes apparent that the person behind the attacks is attempting to gain access to the safe located in the room. Suspicions abound as both the police and the doctor are baffled by the situation. At this point, we begin to learn the history of the Egyptian relics housed in the Trelawney house and hear the story of the ancient Egyptian queen Tera and her apparent plans for reincarnating herself with the help of a beautiful jewel of seven stars, the very item housed in Trelawney's safe. The novel ends with a Great Experiment in which Tera's plans for a rebirth are carried out, the results of which fail to satisfy this reader.

Published in 1903, this novel is steeped in Victorian idealism, particularly in its treatment of Margaret and the courtship between her and Malcolm. Modern readers may find this aspect of the novel either romantic or silly. In addition, the respectful and entirely proper conversations between characters, especially in times of suspicion or fear, may seem strikingly quaint to today's readers. The second half of the novel, which tells the story of the ancient mummy and lays the groundwork for the climax of the Great Experiment, is much more interesting than the preceding pages, yet there are elements to the evolving story that fail to make perfect sense.

The Jewel of Seven Stars is unique in that it features two different endings, neither of which fully satisfies. The accepted version, which you will find in modern publications, is not the original ending but is instead a rewrite first found in the 1919 edition of the novel. It is anticlimactic at best and seems oddly different from the novel as a whole. There is actually some speculation that the final couple of pages of this ending were not even written by Stoker, who was dead and buried seven years prior to this amended edition's release. The original 1903 ending is a much better if rather shocking conclusion to a story that openly hints of ancient horrors; it is a pity that the original ending has been superseded by a questionable and quite dissatisfying rewrite. In any case, though, The Jewel of Seven Stars is an interesting if flawed novel that shows few signs of the literary magic with which Stoker's masterpiece, Dracula, is infused.

The Lure of the Vampire is, as the title suggests, a book about vampires. However, it's not about vampires per se, but rather an analysis of people who admire vampires and everything they stand for, people who have meticulously read every single book by Anne Rice about Louis and Lestat and her other characters, and who live their daily lives closely identifying and relating to the vampire worldview. In other words; hard-core vampire fans. True, some of them have more of a casual interest, while others more or less base their entire worldview, existence, and philosophy on the mythology about those pale, immortal beings who only live at night and drink blood whenever the thirst becomes too strong. But all fans - whether they are completely satisfied with watching the latest vampire-flick or if they choose to spend all their free time online with other devotees - have one thing in common: They're all suckers for vampires.

And this is what Milly Williamson devotes most of the pages in her book to explore and analyze. When she doesn't discuss fans and fandom she explores the origin and evolution of the vampire novel along with extremely popular vampire shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, as I said before, most pages are devoted to fans, not vampires.

(Or at least not "real" ones; quite a few of the fans wouldn't mind turn immortal if Louis or Lestat showed up on their doorstep and offered a quick bite and instant immortality).

Williamson is especially interested in female fans, and argues that the ones more or less devoting their lives to the vampire has done so because they "found in the vampire a figure that expresses painful outsiderdom and love in a way that echoes their own experiences in the world" (pg. 189).

Countless of people all over the world are interested in, and fascinated by, vampires, but The Lure of the Vampire is still not a book for everyone. It's a book written by a scholar, and it soon becomes apparent that its intended audience is other scholars or university students, not the everyday reader. Which obviously doesn't mean it's a bad book in any sense. Quite the opposite actually; as long as you have the necessary patience and training required to deal with it you'll find that Williamson has written a book that's both very informative and interesting, but if you don't and just want a book about vampires in general, then you're probably better off buying a different book.

In the section preceding chapter five, "Vampire Fandom: Rebels Without a Cause? Theorising Fandom in the Field of Cultural Production", Williamson informs the reader that she's about to offer a model to "understanding fandom in contemporary culture" (pg. 96), but in fact the entire book, not just chapter five, is an attempt to do just that.

Now, a thorough analysis is never a bad thing, but why does Williamson - along with many other scholars of contemporary culture - have such a hard time simply admitting that some people appreciates vampires and vampire movies without really considering why? Is it really necessary to analyse every single aspect in meticulous detail? I mean, I'm a vampire fan too, but I'm not sure I could tell you exactly why. I just like them.

Another strange thing, perhaps less important though, is the absence of discussions about films like Underworld, Van Helsing, and the Blade trilogy. On the back of the book these movies are mentioned, giving the impression that they will be discussed in the book, but as it turns out, only Blade is mentioned, and only in a sentence or two. Not that this feels like false marketing, well, in a sense I guess it does but it doesn't really matter that much, but it's still weird.

So now, then, is The Lure of the Vampire a good buy? Yes, as long as you belong to the right group of people who are able to fully appreciate her analysis. But no, not if your interest in vampires is more emotional than it's scholarly. Make sure to figure out what group you belong to before you buy it.

First, let's get something very clear. This is NOT a horror, adventure or mystery book. The back cover of this reprint says "a novel of fear from the author of Dracula." Amazon has reprinted their statements. This book is probably Stoker's most well known ROMANCE books. Why the publisher is trying to pass this off as a horror novel is beyond me.

Now, the review. Though I never read romance, I really liked this book. I have been a fan of Stoker since I can remember and this is certainly a good one. It is interesting to read him in a totally different genre. The characters are similar to his other characters, but there a few additional types that are refreshing and enjoyable.

Final analysis: If you are a Stoker fan, this is a must to read. If you like Victorian-Edwardian literature, this is also a good one. This would also be good, I suppose, for someone who likes romances that doesn't want all the modern vulgarities in the mix.

This is a really nifty collection of Stoker's lesser known works. I contains numerous short stories from different periods of his career as well as some from Sir Henry Irving.

It also contains the original ending to "The Jewel of the Seven Stars." This portion alone is enough to purchase the book in my opinion.

If you are a fan of Bram Stoker or like Victorian/Edwardian literature, this one is for you.

Based on the Bram Stoker potboiler "The Jewel of Seven Stars," this radio play treads the line between mystery and tale of the supernatural. An Egyptologist falls victim to a murderous attack in his own bedroom. A noble young man springs to the aid of the stricken Egyptologist's beautiful daughter. Things continue to go bump in the night as the young man, the daughter, and an ace Scotland Yard investigator attempt to guard the Egyptologist against -- what? Gradually the mystery begins to unfold with the disclosure of a manuscript written by a Danish explorer. As more is revealed, the story becomes less a mystery and more a tale of the supernatural. With the solution of the mystery, the tale becomes a quest for scientific/magical discovery. The climactic scene reminded me somewhat of Indiana Jones.

Refreshingly, no bandage-wrapped zombie staggers around trying to kill people. The play differs greatly from the 1930's vintage Mummy movies with Boris Karloff. It is light years away from the modern Brendan Frazier Mummy opuses.

The plot is well crafted, and the story may have broken new ground back in 1903 when it was originally published, but it seems somewhat tame by today's standards. That very tameness adds to the play's charm. We have a hero who is really heroic; a truly virtuous damsel in distress; no profanity; no sex; no graphic violence; and no heavy-handed moralizing. The play provides an entertaining diversion.

Don't let the subtitle fool you. This book is not just of interest to theatre buffs. The short stories in this book are for the most part quite interesting. Comparing it with Stoker's other collections of short stories I would have to say this one falls in the middle. While it's not as good as "Dracula's Guest" it's better then "Under the Sunset".

The fifteen stories in this collection are:

The Occasion
A Lesson in Pets
Coggins's Property
The Slim Syrens
A New Departure in Art
Mick the Devil
In Fear of Death
At Last
Chin Music
A Deputy Waiter
Work'us
A Corner in Dwarfs
A Criminal Star
A Star Trap
A Moon-Light Effect

I enjoyed reading this book.

While Stoker originally wrote this collection of eight short stores for children, I would be reluctant to read most of the stories to anyone under the age of ten. I found the stories themselves to be a rather mixed bag both in terms of theme and quality. My favorite by far was "The Invisible Giant."

The eight stories in this collection are:

Under the Sunset
The Rose Prince
The Invisible Giant
The Shadow Builder
How 7 Went Mad
Lies and Lilies
The Castle of the King
The Wondrous Child

While definitely not Stoker's best work, I enjoyed reading it all the same.

"The Vampire Film" (second edition) is not an exhaustive study of vampire films. Rather it is a survey of the genre literally from "Nosferatu" to "Bram Stoker's Dracula". It encompasses 70 years of vampire films, through 1992, the second edition of the book being published in 1993. It's not as detailed as those familiar with Alain Silver's books on film noir might expect, but "The Vampire Film" is a solid analysis of the genre for students of film and vampire aficionados. The style is academic. Authors Silver and Ursini analyze the evolution of this horror sub-genre that, although consistently populated by vampires, encompasses everything from romantic expressionist to exploitation films.

The first chapter, "Sources of Vampire Lore in Film", discusses vampire folklore, including hypotheses as to why it is so universal, real people with blood fetishes, from the 15th century's Gilles de Rai to the mid-20th century's John Haigh, and vampires in literature. Chapter 2, "The Male Vampire", talks about the Count Dracula character and films, in particular, as well as Mexican vampire films of the 1950s and 1960s, Hammer Studio films, and sympathetic vampires. In Chapter 3, "The Female Vampire" gets a similar treatment with analysis of the films inspired by the 16th century Hungarian Countess and murderess Elisabeth Bathory and Sheridan Le Fanu's novella "Carmilla", including Carl Dreyer's 1932 expressionist masterwork "Vampyr". Chapter 4, "Emerging Traditions", serves as a segway between the first and second halves of the book. Since, as of 1993, 90 percent of vampire films had been made since 1958's "Horror of Dracula", this chapter discusses some of the characteristics of these modern films. Chapters 5 and 6 have confusing titles. They address vampire films made between 1972 and 1992, as the previous chapters on male and female vampires include films almost exclusively before that period. Chapter 5 is entitled "Dracula A.D. 1992" and talks about the trends toward gothic romance, comedy, teen movies, and vampires who lament their endless, sunless existence in films from 1972-1992. Chapter 6, "Countess Dracula A.D. 1992", explores the various cinematic interpretations of Carmilla, Elizabeth Bathory, and other female vampires 1972-1992. The last chapter, "The Multimedia Vampire", summarizes the state of vampires in modern media other than film: literature, television, and "natural" vampires, meaning people who really drink blood. There is a 45-page Filmography in which films are listed alphabetically by title. Date, studio, and principal crew and cast are included for each film. And there is an index.

The Lair of the White Worm (which is also known as The Garden of Evil) is a classic horror novel by Bram Stoker, who is most famous for Dracula (1897), regarded as the greatest horror novel ever written. It was published in 1911, the year before Stoker's death. In 1988, Ken Russell adapted the novel into a film starring Hugh Grant.

The plot of the novel centers on Adam Salton, originally from Sydney, Australia, who is contacted by his grand-uncle by letter, Richard Salton, in England for the purpose of establishing a relationship between these last two members of the family. Richard Salton wants to leave all his property and assets to Adam, including his estate, Lesser Hill. Adam arrives at the port of Southampton and travels to Richard Salton's house in Mercia, the estate of Lesser Hill, and quickly finds himself in the center of mysterious and inexplicable occurrences. The novel takes place in 1860. He tours the Mercia countryside and travels to Liverpool and becomes familiar with the terrain and its history. He learns that the area has an ancient history going back to Roman times and the time of the Druids. He discovers that Romans had settled the region and had built a temple there.

Edgar Caswall is the new heir to the Caswall estate, Castra Regis, the Royal Camp. Edgar Caswall is obsessed with mesmerism, an early form of hypnotism. Lady Arabella March is a mysterious widow whose husband committed suicide, being found with a gunshot wound to the head. He left no money, only debts. Arabella is haughty and domineering wearing tight white clothes that give her a snake-like appearance.

Adam Salton discovers black snakes on the property and buys a mongoose to hunt them down. The mongoose is able to kill the snakes. He then discovers a child with bite wounds on the neck. The child barely survives. He learns that another child was killed earlier while animals were also killed in the region. The mongoose attacks Arabella who shoots it to death. Arabella tears another mongoose apart with her hands. Arabella then murders Oolanga, the African servant, by dragging him down into a pit or hole. Adam then suspects Arabella of the other crimes.

Adam and Sir Nathaniel de Salis plot to stop Arabella by whatever means necessary. They suspect that she wants to murder Mimi Watford. Her half-sister is Lilla Watford. They are tenants of Caswall on the Mercy Farm estate with their grand-father Michael Watford. Sir Nathaniel is an Abraham Van Helsing type of character who knows the ancient history of the region. Arabella assumes a Dracula-like menace as Adam and Nathaniel track her down to destroy her. Arabella knows about the secret of the White Worm, a gigantic snake-like creature that lives in the pit on her estate, and seeks to exploit it to attain greater power and mastery.

The White Worm is a large snake-like creature that lives in the hole or pit in Arabella's house. The White Worm has green glowing eyes and feeds on whatever is thrown to it in the pit. The green eyes image harkens back to the green eyes of the black cat in "The Squaw" (1892), one of Stoker's best short stories. The White Worm ascends from the pit and seeks to attack Adam and Mimi Watford in a forest.

Adam plans to pour sand into the pit and to use dynamite to kill the giant White Worm in the pit.

Edgar Caswall is a slightly pathological eccentric who has Mesmer's chest which he keeps at the Doom Tower. Caswall wants to recreate mesmerism, associated with Anton Mesmer, which was a precursor to hypnotism. He has a giant kite in the shape of a hawk to scare away pigeons which have gone berzerk and have attacked his fields.

In the final scene, Adam Salton, Mimi Watford, and Nathaniel de Salis confront Arabella and Edgar Caswall. A thunderstorm and lightning destroy Diana's Grove by igniting the dynamite.

The Lair of the White Worm is a surreal horror fantasy novel by one of the greatest horror writers of all time. Dracula is arguably the greatest horror novel ever written in any language. It inspired the German horror classic Nosferatu and the 1931 Universal seminal classic Dracula starring Bela Lugosi. That movie started the horror genre in the US and around the world, being Universal's first horror movie. Dracula proved to be a huge success which convinced Universal to release other horror movies.

Most readers only know Bram Stoker for one work, Dracula. He wrote other novels, however, such as The Lady of the Shroud, Miss Betty, The Jewel of Seven Stars about Egyptian mummies, The Man (or The Gates of Life), The Lair of the White Worm, and short story collections such as Dracula's Guest (1914) and Under the Sunset (1882). The Lair of the White Worm is a short novel, approximately 120 pages in length. It is highly recommended. It has unforgettable surreal images and fantasy horror. The novel has an other-worldly, nightmare quality, alien, unreal feel or ambience to it, like it was set on another world. It is a page-turner and a book difficult to put down. It is well-written and recaptures some of the menace and terror of Dracula but lacks that novel's focus and realism.

The Lair of the White Worm is a must-read and a must-own horror novel for anyone interested in the genre by the foremost horror writer, Bram Stoker. The novel was published one year before Stoker died. He managed to get in one more shocker and thriller.

Adam Salton, born and raised in Australia, is contacted by his granduncle in England, for the purpose of establishing a relationship between these last two members of the family. Adam travels to Richard Salton's house in Mercia, and quickly finds himself in the center of some inexplicable occurrences.

The new heir to the Caswall estate, Edgar Caswall appears to be making some sort of a mesmeric assault on a local girl. And, a local lady, Arabella March, seems to be running a game of her own, perhaps angling to become Mrs. Caswall. There is something strange about Lady March, something inexplicable and evil.

This book has elements that should make it a gripping story. Unfortunately, the tendency of the characters to move on, after a fantastic event, as if nothing unusual had happened gives the story a disjointed, surreal feel. This story just does not come together, but rambles along to its uninspiring conclusion. I do not recommend this book.

A shorter novel. An english uncle calls on an aussie nephew to come and help him out. Strange things are happening, you have a possibly evil hypnotist and the very likely sinister Lady March.

This is all pretty minor compared to the big-arse snake monster or intrepid traveller finds in a cave.

As it turns out, there is not much chance that Lady Arabella March is what she seems.

I read "Lair of the White Worm" many many years ago and this Deodand version is not the original. It has been edited. One word has been changed throughout the book, but only in specific places: The 'good guys' do not say the "N" word, they say "native." The 'bad guys' use the "N" word.

I enjoy the story, mostly because I adore Victorian fiction. I do not, however, enjoy a book that has been edited a century after the author's death in order to save the reader from words that are not acceptable any more.

I am with the publisher, Valancourt Books, and wanted to post a description of the book, since Amazon hasn't done so. This is from the book's back cover:

Arthur Severn, a young Englishman on holiday in the west of Ireland, is forced by a storm to stop for the night in a mysterious village, where he hears the legend of "The Snake's Pass." Long ago, it is said, St. Patrick battled the King of the Snakes, who hid his crown of gold and jewels in the hills near the village.

But it is not only legend that haunts the town. The figure of the demonic money-lender Black Murdock looms over the village, as he searches for the lost treasure while manipulating the townsfolk to his own evil ends.

Even more threatening than Murdock is the shifting bog, personified as a baneful "carpet of death," which will swallow up anything -- and anyone -- in its path. Art and his friend Dick will brave the dangers of the bog to seek out the treasure, but the sinister machinations of Murdock will lead to a deadly conclusion!

Featuring a slow accumulation of terror worthy of Le Fanu, The Snake's Pass was Bram Stoker's first novel. A clear precursor to Stoker's later works of horror, including Dracula, The Lair of the White Worm, and The Jewel of Seven Stars, The Snake's Pass was the only of Stoker's novels set in his native Ireland. This edition follows the text of the first edition published at New York in 1890."

The Snake's Pass is one of those pseudo-minor classics that would have been forgotten if it were not the first novel written by the author of Dracula, one of the greatest of the nineteenth century novels. The book was published in 1890, only seven years before Dracula, yet it is a long way from Stoker's masterpiece in plot and form. A fan of Dracula may not enjoy it, but a literary or Bram Stoker scholar definitely would. It is actually better written than Lair of the White Worm, a later Stoker novel, but up to the quality of The Jewel of the Seven Stars.

What sets the novel off the most from Stoker's other Gothic works is a real lack of the supernatural in the novel. There is a legend of a snake king driven from Ireland by St. Patrick in the book, but nothing supernatural ever actually occurs in the novel's pages. The mysterious shifting bog is not supernatural at all, and frankly, the dullest part of the novel since Stoker goes into great detail of the measuring and study of the bog, which is being analyzed to determine where a lost treasure may be found. The conflict exists between the villain, Murdock, who is willing to do anything to find this treasure, and Arthur Severn and his friends. Arthur falls in love with Nora, whose father is cheated by Murdock to gain control of his land which may have the hidden treasure on it.

The first half of the book is bogged down with descriptions of the bog until Arthur falls in love with Nora, and then a tender, but not terribly exciting love story occurs. The book picks up speed halfway, yet still moves relatively slowly until the dramatic ending scene during a storm where Murdock and the protagonists struggle to find the treasure. This final scene makes the book worth reading, both for itself, and as an example of the talent Stoker had already developed for pacing and drama which he would use consistently in Dracula.

The book is not for the general reader, but I would recommend it to anyone interested in the history of the British or Irish novel--it is the only novel Stoker set in his native Ireland. One wishes Stoker, as a more mature writer, had written another novel of Ireland, perhaps with vampires included.

- Tyler R. Tichelaar, author of Iron Pioneers and The Queen City, available on Amazon.

`The Snake's Pass,' the first novel written by Bram Stoker, was published in 1890, about seven years before his Dracula.' You may expect from this title something very bizarre and weird, some strange tale Poe would have written, but the truth is `The Snake's Pass' is fairly orthodox love romance set in the mountains of Ireland.

The story is simple. It is about one Arthur Severn, young and rich Englishman traveling around Ireland. After one stormy night, he encounters a beautiful girl named Norah living with her father Joyce, who was ill-treated by Black Murdock, greedy `gombeen' man (Irish name for moneylender) who had mercilessly taken away their land. There is sub-plot about the hidden treasures of French army, and the local legend about the confrontation of Saint Patrick and The King of the Snakes.

Though the folklore surrounding the evil `King of the Snakes' plays the significant role in the earlier chapters of the book, the story is basically about the adventures of the hero and narrator Arthur, whose love for Norah plays the central role of the novel. Unfortunately Arthur is not engaging enough as character because he is just a rich gentleman from England, whose success is guarantees by his social status. There is no real conflict in his story. Things go too smooth for him.

Bram Stoker effectively captures the gloomy atmosphere of the rain-swept land of west Ireland, but these vivid descriptions of the swamp and slime are often forgotten before the more ordinary story about the hero and his love. Obviously Stoker intended to use the macabre legend of the snakes as sort of metaphor like Shakespeare's Birnam Wood, and the idea of the moving mountain bog might have been more interesting if he had introduced the snake legend with more subtlety.

As it is, Stoker, who had not found the right voice suitable for his supernatural tales yet, sometimes spends too many words on the long geological descriptions, but these prosaic details are painfully tedious, slowing down the actions and weakening the supernatural undercurrent of the novel. Stoker also minutely describes the slimy bogs and incessant raining in the mountains, both of which suggest the dark force affecting the people there, but Stoker's touch could hardly be said imaginative. He surely draws the rocks and trees in the landscapes, but his vision does not have the evocative power of the Whitby cemetery scene, later seen in `Dracula.'

As love story `The Snake's Pass' is nothing remarkable, and as macabre tale it is not simply macabre enough. The book is a romance but flatly told, and most of all, few things are really unpredictable. Not a bad novel at all, but not a great one either.