Dracula

The popular appeal of Bram Stoker's Count Dracula, now over a hundred years old, shows little sign of waning. No other monster has endured and proliferated in quite the same way—even if we now seem to prefer interviewing, rather than staking, our vampires. It is only over the last twenty years, however, that Dracula has begun to receive much serious critical attention. The essays in this book represent the most significant contemporary work on the novel from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives, including Marxist, psychoanalytical, historicist, and feminist, forming a unique collection which engages questions about the psychological and social significance of this highly transgressive and enduringly popular text.

The popular appeal of Bram Stoker's Count Dracula, now over a hundred years old, shows little sign of waning. No other monster has endured and proliferated in quite the same way--even if we now seem to prefer interviewing, rather than staking, our vampires. It is only over the last twenty years, however, that Dracula has begun to receive much serious critical attention. The essays in this book represent the most significant contemporary work on the novel from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives, including Marxist, psychoanalytical, historicist, and feminist, forming a unique collection which engages questions about the psychological and social significance of this highly transgressive and enduringly popular text.

Booknews

Comprises ten critical examinations of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic novel. Among the topics explored are gendered treatments of hysteria, psychoanalytic readings of repression, Dracula as representing the anxieties of the middle class regarding the replaced aristocracy, and vampires as a trope for western attitudes towards death. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

Glennis Byron is Lecturer in English Studies at the University of Stirling.