Though Dracula was published in 1897, it is difficult to detach the novel from its vigorous twentieth-century life: we tend to superimpose on Bram Stoker's enigmatic monster Bela Lugosi's intonations or Frank Langella's sinuous seductiveness or Gary Oldman's tears. Stoker's vampire story is far more important to us than it was to its contemporary Victorians, who relished it as a good potboiler but never made Brain Stoker or Iris monster famous. A novel that seemed commonplace in its time unfnrled into a legend haunting and defining the next century.

When it was published in 1897, Dracula became one of the many contemporary titles that pitted humans against monsters. Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kinling, and H. G. Wells. among others, all published in the same genre at about the same time. Yet it is Dracula that readers cannot forget. The text of this Norton Critical Edition is that of the 1897 first edition; it is fully annotated.

A rich selection of background and source materials is provided in three areas. "Contexts" includes probable inspirations for Dracula in the earlier works of James Malcolm Rymer and Emily Gerard. Also included are a discussion of Stoker's working notes for the novel and "Dracula's Guest," the original opening chapter to Dracula. "Reviews and Reactions" reprints five early reviews of the novel. "Dramatic and Film Variations" focuses on theater and film adaptations of Dracula, two indications of the novel's unwavering appeal. David J. Skal, Gregory A. Waller, and Nina Auerbach offer their varied perspectives. Checklists of both dramatic and film adaptations are included.

"Criticism" collects seven theoretical interpretations of Dracula by Phyllis A. Roth, Carol A. Senf, Franco Moretti, Christopher Craft, Bram Dijsktra, Steven D. Arata, and Talia Schaffer.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

Preface

A Note on the Text

The Text of Dracula

Contexts

Emily Gerard · From Transylvanian Superstitions

James Malcolm Rymer · From Varney the Vampyre:

   Or, The Feast of Blood

Christopher Frayling · Bram Stoker's Working Papers

   for Dracula

Brain Stoker · Dracula's Guest

Reviews and Reactions

The Daily Mail · Review (June 1, 1897)

Athenaeum · Review (June 26, t897)

Spectator · Review (July 31, 1897)

Bookman · Review (August 1897)

San Francisco Chronicle · New Novels and Holiday Books

   (December 17, t899)

Dramatic and Film Variations

David J. Skal · "His Hour Upon the Stage": Theatrical

   Adaptations of Dracula

Dramatic Adaptations: A Checklist

Gregory A. Waller · [Tod Browning's Dracula]

Nina Auerbach · Vampires in the Light

Fihn Adaptations: A Checklist

Criticism

Phyllis A. Roth · Suddenly Sexual Women in

   Brain Stoker's Draeula

Carol A. Senf · Dracula: The Unseen Face in the Mirror

Franco Moretti · [A Capital Dracula]

Christopher Craft · "Kiss Me with Those Red Lips":

   Gender and Inversion in Brain Stoker's Dracula

Brain Dijsktra · [Dracula's Backlash]

Stephen D. Arata · The Occidental Tourist: Dracula

   and the Anxiety of Reverse Colonization

Talia Schaffer · "A Wilde Desire Took Me": The

   Homoerotic History of Dracula

Brain Stoker: A Chronology

Selected Bibliography