Bram Stoker - Dracula

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Billy Farmer
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Bram Stoker - Dracula

Post by Billy Farmer »

I wondered are there any members on this forum, who have read Dracula, I have got the 1958 Hammer film version of Dracula (starring Christopher Lee), and most of the other Hammer Dracula films, I have also got a copy of the following Documentary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88edGlW3DT4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5030494/?ref_=ttep_ep2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have climbed the 199 steps (which featured in the Book), up to Whitby Church - http://www.whitbyonline.co.uk/whitby/wh ... 199-steps/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Domino
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Re: Bram Stoker - Dracula

Post by Domino »

I have read "Dracula". I also have the talking book version, read by Michael Hordern. The 1931 film starring Bela Lugosi and directed by Tod Browning is also very evocative.

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Re: Bram Stoker - Dracula

Post by KEVP »

I certainly have read the novel Dracula. Most fans of the novel seem to say that the 1977 BBC Television version is the most faithful adaptation of the novel. Louis Jourdan as Count Dracula and Judi Bowker as Mina.
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Re: Bram Stoker - Dracula

Post by pete9012S »

I've never read the book Billy,but I intend to.
One thing I've puzzled over:
Dracula's cloak rises from grave

The cloak worn by Christopher Lee in his first role as Dracula has been discovered in a fancy dress shop.

Its owners unwittingly hired it out to the public – on one occasion it was even rented for a children's nativity play.

The black cape was part of Lee's costume for the 1958 Hammer Horror film Dracula, which co-starred Peter Cushing as Dr Van Helsing.

It was made by London firm Angels, which runs a fancy dress shop on Shaftesbury Avenue and also supplies costumes for films.

When the film was completed, it was not expected to be a hit and the costumes went back into the Angels stockroom before finding their way into the shop.

The cloak was used in other films and rented to the public.

Its history was only discovered earlier this year during the store's annual pre-Halloween inventory check.

Lee, now 85, personally verified the cape last month and it has been valued at 25,000.

An Angels spokesman said: "The cape went back into stock and was hired out to other films, and eventually to the public – once, rather bizarrely, it was rented out for a children's nativity play."
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/dra ... -1-2474688" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Are a cloak and a cape the same thing?
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Re: Bram Stoker - Dracula

Post by Lucky Star »

pete9012S wrote: Are a cloak and a cape the same thing?
Yes pretty much. A real sartorial expert might point out a few subtle differences but to all intents nd purposes |I believe they are pretty much the same garment.

I read Dracula many years ago and loved it but strangely enough I have never had any particular urge to re-read it.
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Re: Bram Stoker - Dracula

Post by Stephen »

It's on my Kindle and on my "to read" list. I did start it a couple of years ago, but for some reason only read a few pages. I've seen the 1931 film a few times, and agree it is very evocative. I love the Swan Lake theme tune which somehow seems to fit perfectly. The first person you hear speak, Carla Laemmle only died a couple of years ago aged 104. And the man who played Jonathan Harker lived to a respectable 97. Also, they simultaneously made a Spanish version using the same sets, and the leading lady in that, Lupita Tovar is still alive at 106!

Does anyone remember the board game 'Game of Dracula'? I seem to remember it was very addictive!
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Re: Bram Stoker - Dracula

Post by John Pickup »

I read Dracula about thirty years ago and I've been to Whitby and climbed the steps to the Abbey. Like Lucky Star, I've never felt the urge to read it again.
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Re: Bram Stoker - Dracula

Post by Soenke Rahn »

The first chapter of Dracula is interesting, but often not known: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula%2 ... rd_Stories ;-)
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Re: Bram Stoker - Dracula

Post by Billy Farmer »

I have got a copy of the following Documentary - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0 ... a-business" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4861936/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; a Documentary, which was presented by Daniel Farson, whose great uncle, was Bram Stoker.

In the above Documentary, Daniel Farson, visits Whitby, and Transylvania.

Daniel Farson, wrote a Biography (published in 1975), of his great uncle - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-Who-Wrote- ... iel+farson" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Bram Stoker - Dracula

Post by Ming »

I read Dracula for my Mystery in the Story class, first semester freshman year. While I agree it's a great book, and watching the 1958 film renewed interest in it for me, I found the book tedious while reading it for class - maybe because it was for class! :roll: Even then, though, I was particularly struck by the evocative descriptions of Transylvania, especially when the villagers Harker meets warn him so profusely against going to the castle.
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Re: Bram Stoker - Dracula

Post by KEVP »

What I think is interesting is that Bram Stoker never visited Transylvania. Everything he knew about Transylvania he read about in books.

Some folks say that the opening chapters of Dracula are the scariest--with Jonathan Harker in castle Dracula.
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Re: Bram Stoker - Dracula

Post by Soenke Rahn »

The first chapter was erased from the book by the editor. It plays in the Walpurgis Night in Munich. ;-)

"When we started for our drive the sun was shining brightly on Munich, and the air was full of the joyousness of early summer. Just as we were about to depart, Herr Delbrück (the maître d'hôtel of the Quatre Saisons, where I was staying) came down, bareheaded, to the carriage and, after wishing me a pleasant drive, said to the coachman, still holding his hand on the handle of the carriage door: 'Remember you are back by nightfall. The sky looks bright but there is a shiver in the north wind that says there may be a sudden storm. But I am sure you will not be late.' Here he smiled, and added, 'for you know what night it is.' Johann answered with an emphatic, 'Ja, mein Herr,' and, touching his hat, drove off quickly. When we had cleared the town, I said, after signalling to him to stop: 'Tell me, Johann, what is tonight?' He crossed himself, as he answered laconically: 'Walpurgis nacht.' Then he took out his watch, a great, old-fashioned German silver thing as big as a turnip, and looked at it, with his eyebrows gathered together and a little impatient shrug of his shoulders. I realised that this was his way of respectfully protesting against the unnecessary delay, and sank back in the carriage, merely motioning him to proceed. He started off rapidly, as if to make up for lost time. Every now and then the horses seemed to throw up their heads and sniffed the air suspiciously. On such occasions I often looked round in alarm. The road was pretty bleak ...."

;-)

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10150/10 ... 0150-h.htm ;-)

But I have never read the old theatre play of Stoker to it. :-) Not the time in the moment. :-)
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Re: Bram Stoker - Dracula

Post by number 6 »

Although I used to love watching the old Hammer horror Dracula films as a kid, starring the best ever Dracula...Christopher Lee, I've never got round to reading the original BS book. For some reason, I just can't bring myself to read it! Did the Dracula tour in Whitby years ago with a complete whacko guide! Has anyone else done so? :D
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Re: Bram Stoker - Dracula

Post by KEVP »

I don't think that "Dracula's Guest" was removed from the book by an editor, I think Stoker cut it himself. It would largely be superfluous to the story as we have it today. Probably in an earlier draft, Stoker had a completely different conception of where the story was going. A lot of the individual words and phrases and even ideas of "Dracula's Guest" seem to have found themselves into the early chapters of Dracula as we have it. So if we included "Dracula's Guest" into Dracula, it would make it repetitive.
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Re: Bram Stoker - Dracula

Post by Soenke Rahn »

It was erased of the publisher, often written down e.g. http://www.bramstoker.org/pdf/stories/0 ... 1guest.pdf. (cite: Dracula's Guest was excised from the original Dracula manuscript by its publisher because of the length of the original book. It was published as a short story in 1914, two years after Stoker's death.) If you will read it, you will see that it is the first chapter. There is nothing in the text, which made it incompatible to the rest of the book. ;-) However. I like this chapter, because it's so mysterious. It's one puzzle of his romatic, fragmentic style, he used in the book. It exits no good film to it. To he rest of the novell Bram Stoker's Dracula would be the best. The first Christopher Lee Version is also nice but it's far away of the original. I like also the old German silent movie. Best are the audio dramas. The German Version of Nick McCarthy 1995 produced is fantastic. There exists also a good version with the first chapter. The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jewel_of_Seven_Stars is also great. And I like the Mongoose in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lair_ ... White_Worm. Sad that the Mongoose are not to find in the audio drama http://www.titania-medien.de/cms/hoersp ... wurms.html :-(
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