Dracula: The Vampire And The Critics

by Margaret L. Carter (Editor), William Veeder (Foreword)

Contains reprints of articles originally published 1956-1987

Genres: Vampires

271 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1988

About the author

Marked for life by reading DRACULA at the age of twelve, Margaret L. Carter specializes in the literature of fantasy and the supernatural, particularly vampires. She received degrees in English from the College of William and Mary, the University of Hawaii, and the University of California. She is a 2000 Eppie Award winner in horror, and with her husband, retired Navy Captain Leslie Roy Carter, she coauthored a fantasy novel, WILD SORCERESS.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dracula received no academic attention before 1956. In this 1988 non-fiction academic book the author takes a close look at slavic folklore, Dracula's politics, sexual symbolism in the bedroom, the genesis of Dracula, women and vampires: Dracula as Victorian novel, the unseen face in the mirror, the Christian heretic, the vampire myth, the Victorian male sex imagination, gender and inversion, the narrative method, Dracula's voyage and for me as a highlight chapter the comparison of Tolkien's Sauron with Stoker's Dracula. At parts a bit academic the author comes up with a terrific analysis of the novel and its characters. Some aspects were new to me. Top job. Highly recommended!

[Kit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good analysis on the novel within the context of the Victorian mindset and its own contemporary theories. The collection was published in 1988, and as such most of the essays were published in the 1970s or early 1980s, and so some of the analysis feels out-dated, particularly the ones which rely on Freudian analysis as Freud has been largely debunked in these contemporary times.

Overall, a great starting point for learning about gothic literature in the late-Victorian era as well as that society's contemporary mindset and criticisms.