The Lost Novels of Bram Stoker

By: Bram Stoker

Narrated by: Robin Sachs

Length: 28 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

A new compilation of Bram Stoker’s cult vampire novels for the 100th anniversary of his death.

This delightful new compilation of Bram Stoker's cult classics will be sure to satisfy any lover of vampire fiction, from Dracula to Twilight. All three novels were published after Dracula debuted in 1897. They flirt with vampirism, horror, and human folly in the best Gothic tradition - all attempts to duplicate Stoker's only success.

Included in this anthology are:

The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), a tale about an archaeologist’s dangerous plot to revive Queen Tera, an ancient Egyptian mummy. The book caused a controversy upon publication for what readers called its "gruesome ending". His publisher refused to republish the book until Stoker revised it. The Lost Novels of Bram Stoker includes both the original ending and the lighter, more commercial version.

The Lady of the Shroud (1909), a classic example of early science fiction, although it remains one of his more obscure works. Beginning with a stunning sequence that finds a mysterious lady in a small coffin floating off the coast of a fictional country in the Balkan Peninsula, and beguiling the reader with a beautiful lady in a white shroud who may or may not be undead, this is a not-to-be-missed vampire tale!

The Lair of the White Worm (1911), a camp-horror tale from an acknowledged master of the genre. The great white worm slithers below, seeking its next victim....

©2012 Skyhorse Publishing. Preface and Introductions copyright Stephen Jones 2012 (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Fairly underwhelming

This was my second read of "The Jewel of the Seven Stars" and this original ending is much better than the changed one. The jewel of the seven star is the best of the three though its fairly slow and the ending remains sudden and underwhelming. The lady of the shroud is almost unreadable. After the first third it steps away from Gothic horror and descends into this mind numbing hyper detailed creation of a fake utopia on the back of a perfect 7 foot tall british man made king of a pretend Greek kingdom. Very painful to get through and not interesting once the supernatural elements are eliminated. The lair of the white worm had alot of interesting elements but simply feels incomplete. Its hard to follow and does not feel finished.

Three Classics Brought Back To Life!

I love the old horror classics. These 3 unabridged stories were narrated perfectly, It felt as though I was living through each story, Enjoy!

Racism, sexism, lame scifi.

First story, not bad at all. original ending, though grim, was better. Second story started well as a ghostly adventure, but deteriorated into a way too long and boring rather lame sci fi story with its background the joyful merging of the peoples of the Balkans into a single, heavily armed country. Mainly interesting in contrast to modern history. The third story, which could have been a nice horror story, was ruined by the most virulant and overt racism that I have ever run across in a novel. Makes the racism of some of Twain's characters seem almost warm and fuzzy in comparison. I definitely don't recommend buying this book. It shows the deterioration of what was a fine novelist.

3 uniquely bad novels

1. The Jewel of Seven Stars (ch 1-23) 2*: Promising premise, but totally fumbled at the goal line. The alternate ending was just like, "You don't like the ending? Fine. '... and they all lived happily ever after. The end.'"

2. The Lady of the Shroud (ch 24-36) 1/2*: What's this book about? The supernatural? Legal documents? Crappy relatives? Politics? Radium powered airplanes? The 1992 NBA finals? Who knows? This was the most boring thing I've ever heard.

3. The Lair of the White Worm (ch 37-65) 2*: Many, many uses of the N word with a hard R, and that's sort of the least of the racism. If you can survive that, however, you're rewarded with many (unintentionally) laugh out loud funny moments.

substandard

The first story I found gripping and suspenseful, but with an unsatisfactory ending. The second one was also very suspenseful, but anticlimactic. The third just wasn't very good at all. Disjointed in narrative and lacking in suspense it seemed to rely more on horror, and there wasn't even much of that. Also it had more racist overtones than the other two. Not Stoker's best work. Performance was very good though.

Anthology Format

So glad to experience Stoker's "other" works. This Anthology format is a great value, but for the love of organization - PLEASE label the titles and chapters! The beginning and end of each book, at least. As formatted, it looks like 1 book with 80 chapters. Having listened to many audible titles, I would say this narrator is pleasant but monotone with no inflection and little dynamics. Stories 5 Format and narration 3.

An excellent reading of three lesser known Stoker

The first novel, Jewel of the Seven Stars is quite enjoyable for the most part, as is the third, The Laid of the White Worm. The second, The Lady in the Shroud, was a labor to get through. luckily, the reading is quite good.

Kinda see how they got lost.

last one is best. some interest over all, but none equal Dracula. Read that one for sure. Skip Frankenstein also.

LOVED Dracula. These were impossibly boring.

If you liked Dracula, that doesn't mean you will enjoy these. dull. misogynistic. racist. Narratiom was pretty good, I wonder what he thought of them.

Lost for good reason

If you can even really call them “lost”. That’s a bizarre choice.
I’d read Seven Stars before and liked it. The alternate endings included here are interesting to compare, too.
I feel like that one alone — even more than Dracula — is worth reading, and could be interesting fuel for an adaptation or reworking.

The other two… yeah, lose them.