The vampire bites the woman he desires

hey while i'm in my vampire state of mind, please consider reading Elizabeth Kostova's novel The Historian. May I introduce it as I first met it:

... or near enough. The copy I had was almost entirely white, the lettering merely standing out on the cardboard, no embellishment whatsoever. Or at least that's how I remember it. It was so... nondescript.

I was a bookish teen when I came across this book, and its pale cover and sparse description enticed me. It felt good and weighty in my hands. It promised secrets and mystery. I didn't realise anything was up, for a bit, until a date caught my attention: it was from a panel discussion from... a few years in the future? Surely the date was a typo. I kept going.

Letters. Journal entries. Newspaper clippings. Phone call transcripts. I was about a quarter of the way in before they dropped the name Dracula, and HOLY SHIT suddenly everything made sense. Suddenly the casual records (out of order, missing and replaced later OR recreated from memory) made sense, and the casual background white noise of fear became Front And Centre Terror as I realised who was the focus of the story.

"Child... where is your father?" FUCK. I had NIGHTMARES from that line alone.

I loved it. I kept it overdue from the library and no-one cared, no-one requested it. It's like they didn't realise the gold they had here, in this simple white cover.

A few years later I was out and about, and I saw a copy in a bookstore where someone had decided subtlety was out of style and they slapped THIS GUY on the cover.

Sure. Okay.

They have since re-released with a more understated cover...

... though I miss the white cardboard and the simplicity, the way the story itself was a shock and surprise. Any fans of Dracula are going to love this one. Please enjoy.

I recommend as well. It’s one of my favorite vampire stories. Very well written and not so linear timeline wise, making the storytelling really intriguing.

Vampire aesthetics

fun fact for you all: bram stoker started writing dracula just weeks after oscar wilde’s conviction…….we really are in it now

Dracula! And Oscar Wilde! YES! *drops papers everywhere*

I’ll just casually drop this here–it’s a long (and good) read, but essentially, the author argues that:

Some highlights:

tl;dr:

Oh dude...Dracula’s Guest too... I know that short story is presumed to be like a rough/alternative draft of Dracula...but you wanna talk about a “dreamlike projection”? It’s definitely there too. 👀

Totally want to research this more. I need a biography of Stoker and Wilde and want to connect the dots.

— Bram Stoker, Dracula (via books-n-quotes)

More modern adaptations making Count Dracula more seductive and alluring are good and all but lets not forget how wacky the original Count Dracula was. He climbed up his castle walls ‘lizard fashion’?? He hurriedly made Jonathan’s bed when he left the room so that Jonathan didn’t notice he doesn’t actually have servants, when it’s more than obvious since there’s literally nobody else in the castle. He dressed up as Jonathan to go wreak havoc around Translyvania. He usually takes the form of a really old man but also has super strength. Dresses in the full black gothic fantasy from head to toe and has a long ass moustache but no beard.

op i cant believe u would leave out the fact that it is explicitly said that dracula has hair on his palms. jonathan harker noticed this by concentrating hard on dracula’s hands and he. has hair on his palms

This is why every movie adaptation is traumatic. All the original details are regurgitated and they all just topple over each other. I wish Stoker would’ve allowed us one entry from Dracula. Since epistolary writing can be so intrusive, I would love his opinions on Jonathan, Mina, and the rest. You can imply from the dialogue, but it’s not as intimate as a journal entry.

Monsters to Laugh With #3

(Stan Lee 1965)