Dracula [Audible Edition]

By: Bram Stoker

Narrated by: Alan Cumming, Tim Curry, Simon Vance, Katherine Kellgren, Susan Duerden, John Lee, Graeme Malcolm, Steven Crossley

Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award, Distinguished Achievement in Production, 2013

Audie Award, Multi-voiced Performance, 2013

Audie Award Nominee, Classic, 2013

Because of the widespread awareness of the story of the evil Transylvanian count and the success of numerous film adaptations that have been created over the years, the modern audience hasn't had a chance to truly appreciate the unknowing dread that readers would have felt when reading Bram Stoker's original 1897 manuscript. Most modern productions employ campiness or sound effects to try to bring back that gothic tension, but we've tried something different. By returning to Stoker's original storytelling structure - a series of letters and journal entries voiced by Jonathan Harker, Dr. Van Helsing, and other characters - with an all-star cast of narrators, we've sought to recapture its originally intended horror and power.

This production of Dracula is presented by what is possibly the best assemblage of narrating talent ever for one audiobook: Emmy Award nominees Alan Cumming and Tim Curry plus an all-star cast of Audie award-winners Simon Vance (The Millenium Trilogy), Katherine Kellgren (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), Susan Duerden (The Tiger’s Wife), John Lee (Supergods) and customer favorites Graeme Malcolm (Skippy Dies), Steven Crossley (The Oxford Time Travel series), Simon Prebble (The Baroque Cycle), James Adams (Letters to a Young Contrarian), Nicola Barber (The Rose Garden), Victor Villar-Hauser (Fun Inc.), and Marc Vietor (1Q84). These stellar narrators have been cast as follows:

Alan Cumming as Dr. Seward
Simon Vance as Jonathan Harker
Katy Kellgren as Mina Murray/Harker
Susan Duerden as Lucy Westenra
Tim Curry as Van Helsing
Graeme Malcolm as Dailygraph correspondent
Steven Crossley as Zookeeper’s account and reporter
Simon Prebble as Varna
James Adams as Patrick Hennessey
Nicola Barber as Sister Agatha
Victor Villar-Hauser as Arthur Holmwood
Marc Vietor as Quincey Morris
John Lee as Introductory paragraph, various letters

Public Domain (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Listening to this full-cast performance turns out to be remarkably suspenseful and chilling…The superlative cast lends this powerful production the diversity that is required by the structure of the novel…Each actor employs various accents, infusing into the characters vibrant emphasis, urgency, and dread." ( AudioFile)

Full Cast is great, but execution is disjointed

While I understand how Bram Stoker wrote Dracula (through a compilation of letters, diaries, news stories, etc), and the choice to select a full cast with each actor reading the writings of their character counterpart, the execution through the recorded dialogue is frustrating. There are many accents, as many characters are from different countries, but rather than having the voice characters speak their own dialogue recorded in the other character's writings, they have the voice actor of the writing character speak on behalf of all characters recorded dialogue. So you're left listening to 1 actor jump between multiple characters and their corresponding accents. But the accents are not done consistently.
The worst example of this is the character of Dr. Van Helsing, a dutchman who speaks German (voiced very well by TIm Curry), and thus has a German accent. Initially, we only get his dialogue through the writing/speaking of Dr. John Seward, whose accent is mild, but consistent. Eventually we hear Dr. Van Helsing in one of his own writings. But eventually, Mina Harker writes of her meeting with Dr. Van Helsing, and because that voice actor is reading/speaking all the dialogue, she also speaks his words with what should be his accent. And it's HORRIBLE. The voice actor for Mina Harker uses a thick, throaty, Russian-esque accent that is so poor it distracted from the entire recorded interview. She'd have done better speaking as Dracula himself (though I haven't finished the book, that may yet still happen, who knows). In the middle of the chapter (XIV), it goes from Mina's recorded interview with Van Helsing to a letter written/spoken by Van Helsing, and to jump from her terrible Russian accent to his well articulated German accent...to suspend belief that this is supposed to be the same character is impossible. It's so distracting.

I feel it would have flowed much better and had a better character performance continuity if either a) they had just used the voice actors to simply speak their recorded spoken lines in the other characters' writings, or b) instructed the voice actors to not use accents beyond subtle tonal inflection (to differentiate character) in reading from other characters' spoken dialogue.

I really like the book thus far. And am pleased I'm more than halfway through before this terrible and distracting nuisance in the voice acting began ruining the experience for me.

A cornerstone of classics and horror

A wonderful cast presenting a classic book. A must-read for horror and classic lovers. Some dated language and slang for modern readers, definitely to be read with knowledge of the era and its associated vocabulary. Tim Curry as Van Helsing was a treat.

still an amazing story

the story is always good but this cast really brought it to life. I love the dialog between everyone.

Very well done

This was a very well narrated. Thoroughly enjoyed and couldn’t put it down. Thank you.

Almost everyone know this story!

Take the misogyny with the period in which it was written, and you have a wonderful performance of a horror masterpiece.

Phenomenal

The narration brings the story to life.
The performance of the cast was superb. They made the story so exciting and thrilling.

Better than I remembered

It has been a couple decades since I read this book originally. When I saw Tim Curry is part of the cast I had to listen. I enjoyed this immensely, even if I still imagined the characters as they are portrayed in the movie (Keanu Reeves, Anthony Hopkins, Wynona Rider, etc). And because I'm a weirdo, random scenes from Dracula Dead and Loving It popped into my head and gave me a good giggle here and there.

Loved it!

This being an epistolary novel wasn't sure to what extent I'd truly enjoy it, but was not disappointed in the least.

Finally!

I’ve loved the story of Dracula but never have read or listened to the full story. It was a delight and very well done! I would recommend if you want to listen to a classic.

My New Favorite Book

Maybe it was the spectacular performance of the narrators, but this was absolutely amazing. Truly leaves you with a sense of dread and uncertainty. Chilling and at some points disturbing, there are no bounds to Dracula's evil deeds.