Last year I began the Vampire Chronicles after reading Christopher Moore’s vampire series. In the Christopher Moore books, which are comedy, at one point the boyfriend of a novice vampire struggles to help her by collecting all the vampire fiction he could find. His comical references to the differences are funny and made me curious. Having completed 4 Anne Rice novels, I thought I’d go back to where it all began and read the classic.

The style is, of course, a bit funny since it is stiff, proper and full of words that are less used today. Never the less, the style of narrative via letters, diary entries and notes is clever and gives the reader the feeling of having stumbled across a secret archive. While there isn’t the blood and gore of some modern horror tales, Stoker creates real ambiance in his lavish descriptions and subtle details. This was a clever writing style and quite enjoyable. Now I know why this caught on and has become so iconic. Like so many classics, characters and phrases have entered the lexicon to the extent that I recognized much of this book. Well written, well read - I highly recommend.

Final Note: I had thought Carfax was a service that faxed reports of cars. In our modern age it seemed quaint that this business would make itself seem older by referencing 80s technology. However, Carfax is the name of Dracula’s estate in England! Could it be that the nice car history report people are actually blood sucker?

A great reading for a classic that has shaped an entire genre of fiction. The performance of the actors is truly amazing and the quality of the audio is likewise stunning (probably the best so far, especially in comparison with

I'm not a fan of Bram Stoker and I don't even like Dracula very much, but it's a classic and I've noted that sometimes books in print get sort of

This story (very familiar to me) is so well performed by the artists reading it, that I cannot listen to it at night--it is simply too frightening. Good to be reminded of the power of Bram Stoker after years of other, lesser vampire books. Prepare to be scared--it's wonderful!

I enjoyed the way the story was constructed. I haven't read another novel that was written in the form of journal, diary, and memos, but I can say this added a really interesting element to the story telling.

I haven't read anything similar that I might compare it too, although I might try now.

Their voices and accents make this listen really fun. I liked each narrator's take on Van Helsing.

Van Helsing for sure. I'm sure he would pay.

Another must listen!

I've listened to several different versions of Dracula and while I don't typically enjoy ensemble audiobooks, this Cummings/Curry version seems to be the way Dracula was meant to be enjoyed.

Listened to this w/ the kids on the way to school for a month. I could probably write a whole piece on how Stoker's treatment of women ticked off my 10-year-old daughter. Mina Harker and Lucy's wedding fixation and Victorian helplessness drove my own little Emmeline nuts. My daughter also couldn't stand the whole: Mina was as 'smart as a man' attitude.

Otherwise, Dracula is still a fascinating piece of gothic fiction that captures the anxieties and stresses of a proto-modernist age (sex, feminism, technology, scientific method, xenophobia, colonialism, etc).

I would definitely recommend this book because of the incredible performances. I read the book several years ago and liked it, but listening to it...I LOVE it! If you've never read Dracula, this is the version you want; if you have read or listened to Dracula before, you still want THIS version. This is sure to be considered the definitive version of Dracula.

Mina Murray was a stand out character. As performed by Katherine Kellgren, Mina was a strong female character who managed to remain feminine. Further, Kellgren voiced the other characters in Mina's narratives very distinctively.

I was particularly struck by Renfield's characterization in this version. In the movie versions and even in my own reading, I had envisioned Renfield as a victim. In this version, Renfield is clearly a manipulative madman, quite creepy even before we find him influenced by Dracula. Looking back, I was surprised to see that no single person voiced Renfield because his character was so well-defined and cohesive across different narrators.

The cast of narrators is like a list of my own favorite narrators. Each one is so good at his or her job that this novel comes to life.

Yes, and over and over. I love this story, and I don't know if I'll ever read it again if I have the option to listen to this reading.

World War Z. They are both epistolary, and have different voices for the different characters. Both are done very well, and talk about a war between the living and the dead.

They were astounding! Each reader really captured their character, and had a large degree of variation in how they read the parts (in a good way, I'm not sure if that conveys what I'm trying to say accurately). This is probably my favorite listening experience so far.

This may be my favorite vamp story since bram stoker’s. This book is fun, well done. It has the feel of the cold and grey conneticut forest. Did you see sleepy hollow with that guy who played the pirate? This book feels like the setting of that film. Like the foggy forest at the beginning. I am a big fan of the fiction that bases itself off history and weives in many facts to enhance the story. Yup. This is a goood book; it went by real fast.
best,
maynard

How wonderful to discover a classic you think you know by heart and be surprised and enchanted by the telling of it. Dracula has become such a common character over the years, with countless movies made featuring famous actors such as Béla Lugosi (1931) and Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins and Keanu Reeves (1992), not to mention all the books based on the title character and vampires in general, and Dracula's ubiquitous little avatars running around, fangs bared every Halloween night for well over one hundred years.

I had always assumed that the story was told from the point of view of Jonathan Harker, the young solicitor who travels to Transilvania at the beginning of the story to meet a client whom he is far from suspecting of being undead, until clear evidence to the contrary plunges him into despair and madness. While we are indeed privy to Harker's journal notes detailing his adventure from day to day, we also get to snoop into his soon-to-be wife Mina Murray's journal, and then that of John Seward as well—a young doctor who is running a madhouse and has a patient under observation who is overly fond of flies and spiders. Adding to my enjoyment was the knowledge supplied to me by a well-informed reader of classics, that the technology mentioned in the course of the story was considered cutting-edge at the time the novel was published.

But perhaps the greatest treat was listening to this latest audio production of this classic, told by multiple narrators, with top billing given to the excellent Alan Cumming as Seward and Tim Curry as his mentor, the dutch professor Van Helsing. Of course, one can't exactly expect any great surprises as we all know what the final outcome is, but all the same, it's a good story very well told.

alan cummings is brilliant. and the range of voices is fantastic

the first time harker sees dracula after he is married

real understanding and it really draws u in farther than ever

The Dark and Twisted Night

wonderful and fantastic