Saturday, October 29, 2016

31 Days of Halloween - Day 29



Something In the Blood by David J. Skal

Liveright Publishing Corporation. 2016

Dracula expert, Skal, concludes his defining explorations of Dracula from novel to play to movie with this massive biography of Dracula's creator, Bram Stoker. Skal's excellent storytelling ability and attention to detail makes this an engrossing read, but Stoker often vanishes into the shadows of his more flamboyant contemporaries such as Oscar Wilde and the theatrical star to whom Stoker devoted his life, Henry Irving, but their story illuminates his own. This is probably the greatest scholarship we'll see on Stoker barring a large discovery of important missing letters which could provide any real revelations still unknown. Like all of Skal's other books, this one is excellent.




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