Published – 1897

This version – Audible narrated by Alan Cummings, Tim Curry and an all star cast

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)

Dracula is probably one fo the first monsters I’m aware of through cartoons, films, tv shows and that’s what I saw as a child. A legend in horror everyone knows and yet this was my first time reading the original story (by virtue of my first audiobook!). How does it compare with the multitude of versions I’d seen previously? On the one hand I can see the template for so many later supernatural stories across the genre; while on the other this is a story where its weaknesses also allow it to be freely revised, updated and changed to suit any era’s tastes.

There are three initial plot strands going to collide. Young solicitor Jonathan Harker is going to Transylvania to handle some arrangements for the mysterious Count Dracula and his journey to meet him is as disturbing as his stay in the castle. Jonathan’s fiancé Mina Murray is awaiting his return and is also in correspondence with her best friend Lucy Westenra who is currently handling three potential suitors for her hand in marriage. One of which Dr Seward is a leading expert at one of London’s insane asylums who is mystified with one of his patients Renfield who is eating animals and talks constantly of blood being the life. These strands will all collide into death, the undead and a race across Europe to save a soul.

This is a fascinating experience and one I would recommend but with a few caveats. The best scenes are at the start of the novel. Harker’s diary draws pictures of a strange wild and dangerous country that to the eyes of modern readers in 1897 would have appeared alien. Throw in wolves, peasants throwing wards and strange blue flames you definitely feel like the character is walking into a place outside the modern world. Foreboding mystery draws you in and then this strange apparently deserted castle bar one man the mysterious Dracula – cultured, crafty, cruel and full of secrets even before his true nature is revealed. Harker’s diary gets gradually more desperate and fearful as Stoker throws in the vampire myth and some truly memorable scenes involving the three ‘brides or sisters’. The mixture of dark temptation; horror and a feeling of straying outside the normal world which all good horror can deliver. It pulls you along and in particular the realisation that this horror is now coming across to the heart of the Empire itself.

Transgression is a big theme through the story. Life after Death; the drinking of blood, becoming a vampire and being shunned by God and for many of these men giving sight of their fears as Dracula moves to hurt one of the dearest characters to many – Lucy. This very fun, lively character gets punished by virtue of being in Whitby at the wrong time as we watch her descent into death. Stoker lingers on her decline to make it clear it’s a terrible thing. That sense of Dracula as a corrupter both to Jonathan and Lucy then setting his sights onto Mina is quite palpable.

With scenes of Dr Seward and his trusted mentor Dr Van Helsing studying Lucy’s decline while throwing in concepts as blood transfusion as well as superstition like garlic you get the sense that we are seeing the kind of debate that a hundred years later was commonplace in the X-files. Then with Van Helsing we get the strange mentor sets up their many alternatives you can see in Buffy, Halloween, and myriad other dramas. Science is unusually something that comes across highlighting that at the time this was a modern horror novel. Concepts such as hypnotism, psychology, mental illness and even the recording of Dr Seward by phonograph show a novel that wants to show it is cutting edge. Every supernatural thriller mixing CSI and horror owes a debt here and throw in the roaming geography and cast then saying this is the equivalent of the big airport horror/thriller feels again quite a good fit to describe what it is aiming for.

Where the novel falls over is actually how I think its allowed Dracula to live on outside of pure novel adaptations. Dracula very quickly loses their voice and yet is a fascinating character that Stoker doesn’t really develop in the story. We ae told they are a great warrior, cunning strategist and controls the weather, their shape and many animals plus that sense of constant corruption but after Harker’s scenes he soon falls out of the story apart from a few rapid encounters and is despatched with little fanfare. The reader wants to know his game, his backstory and hear why he is doing this and that has opened up a whole century and more of exploration.

The second half of the story is very weak with all this set-up you’re hoping for a big conclusion for such a big enemy. There are some genuinely good horror scenes as they realise Lucy’s fate and explore her own attacks in London but otherwise the story is in search of a good ending and becomes a weak search for coffins to bless and a way too fast race back to Transylvania that delivers a poorly structured finale. This allows again media to play with it in any form. It’s not surprising that film and tv plus many books have gone for an epic battle that this story really needed to keep drama going and the lack of any memorable scenes here I think has allowed future writers a lot of latitude to improve upon.

The other rather glaring issue is Stoker’s dialogue. The characters that come out best are Jonathan, Mina and Dr Seward all very much narrators of the action and their parts of the story often have pace and a sense of dread but Stoker is very flat at dialogue. There are exposition scenes going into minute detail to caveat and over explain things that often the characters don’t feel like human beings as they’re weighed down with a seemingly fear of Stoker to trust the audience. Again, the lack of a good script has allowed future writers to not to need to keep dialogue in place.

Regards this particular audiobook I was really struck by Alan Cumming’s narration as Seward who does a lot of the heavy lifting across the novel while sadly Tim Curry is more a blink and you miss it Van Helsing missive every now and then.

Overall while a novel like Frankenstein is a weird strange story you can always update to the latest in technology keeping its theme s fresh I think Dracula has survived as a great idea delivered in a flawed manner but delivered to allow so many other writers to give the story and in particular it’s lead Vampire can always be given a different voice and approach that can suit the tastes of the time. It’s a strange novel that sets the template for modern horror thrillers but not I feel one that works on its own two feet. Worth reading to see where horror comes from but you may find other adaptations work best for you!