The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

The resonant and awesome figure of Count Dracula, his Transylvanian lair, and his powers of supernatural evil, have imprinted themselves on the popular imagination, largely through the medium of the cinema. And yet, until now, no one has undertaken a detailed analysis of the source of our preconceptions about the greatest vampire of them all -- Dracula by Bram Stoker, first published in 1897.

This is the first in-depth critical study of Stoker's many-faceted novel, which has some claim to be one of the most influential books, at the level of popular culture, of the last hundred years.

Dr. Leatherdale begins by considering the folkloric and historical background of the novel and describes the development of the vampire legend in Europe and the life of the historical Dracula -- the infamous Vlad the Impaler. He also provides a biographical account of Stoker himself and discusses the genesis of his most famous book.

The main part of the study offers five interpretive perspectices, beginning with the pervasive and powerful sexual symbolism of the novel. Stoker's text is then analysed in terms of its Freudian overtones, its religious themes, its relationship to occult and literary myths, and its significance as a poilitical and social allegory.

For the student and general reader alike this is the ideal companion to what the author argues is the cultural myth of the twentieth century

Submitted by SatinMist