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The Man - Or; The Gates of Life
First published in 1905, "The Man" is a Victorian Gothic novel by seminal horror writer Bram Stoker that has also been published under the title: "The Gates of Life." Abraham "Bram" Stoker (1847 - 1912) was an Irish author most famous for writing this novel, as well as the influence it has had upon the horror and vampire genre in print and film. Other notable works by this author include: "Miss Betty" (1898), "The Mystery of the Sea" (1902), and "The Jewel of Seven Stars" (1903). This classic of horror fiction is not to be missed by lovers of the genre and constitutes a must-read of anyone with an interest Victorian literature. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.
230 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 26, 1897
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560 people want to read
About the author
Bram Stoker
2,594 books5,855 followersIrish-born Abraham Stoker, known as Bram, of Britain wrote the gothic horror novel
Dracula
(1897).
The feminist Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornely Stoker at 15 Marino crescent, then as now called "the crescent," in Fairview, a coastal suburb of Dublin, Ireland, bore this third of seven children. The parents, members of church of Ireland, attended the parish church of Saint John the Baptist, located on Seafield road west in Clontarf with their baptized children.
Stoker, an invalid, started school at the age of seven years in 1854, when he made a complete and astounding recovery. Of this time, Stoker wrote, "I was naturally thoughtful, and the leisure of long illness gave opportunity for many thoughts which were fruitful according to their kind in later years."
After his recovery, he, a normal young man, even excelled as a university athlete at Trinity college, Dublin form 1864 to 1870 and graduated with honors in mathematics. He served as auditor of the college historical society and as president of the university philosophical society with his first paper on "Sensationalism in Fiction and Society."
In 1876, while employed as a civil servant in Dublin, Stoker wrote a non-fiction book (The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland, published 1879) and theatre reviews for The Dublin Mail, a newspaper partly owned by fellow horror writer J. Sheridan Le Fanu. His interest in theatre led to a lifelong friendship with the English actor Henry Irving. He also wrote stories, and in 1872 "The Crystal Cup" was published by the London Society, followed by "The Chain of Destiny" in four parts in The Shamrock.
In 1878 Stoker married Florence Balcombe, a celebrated beauty whose former suitor was Oscar Wilde. The couple moved to London, where Stoker became business manager (at first as acting-manager) of Irving's Lyceum Theatre, a post he held for 27 years. The collaboration with Irving was very important for Stoker and through him he became involved in London's high society, where he met, among other notables, James McNeil Whistler, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the course of Irving's tours, Stoker got the chance to travel around the world.
The Stokers had one son, Irving Noel, who was born on December 31, 1879.
People cremated the body of Bram Stoker and placed his ashes placed in a display urn at Golders green crematorium. After death of Irving Noel Stoker in 1961, people added his ashes to that urn. Despite the original plan to keep ashes of his parents together, after death, people scattered ashes of Florence Stoker at the gardens of rest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Stoker
The feminist Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornely Stoker at 15 Marino crescent, then as now called "the crescent," in Fairview, a coastal suburb of Dublin, Ireland, bore this third of seven children. The parents, members of church of Ireland, attended the parish church of Saint John the Baptist, located on Seafield road west in Clontarf with their baptized children.
Stoker, an invalid, started school at the age of seven years in 1854, when he made a complete and astounding recovery. Of this time, Stoker wrote, "I was naturally thoughtful, and the leisure of long illness gave opportunity for many thoughts which were fruitful according to their kind in later years."
After his recovery, he, a normal young man, even excelled as a university athlete at Trinity college, Dublin form 1864 to 1870 and graduated with honors in mathematics. He served as auditor of the college historical society and as president of the university philosophical society with his first paper on "Sensationalism in Fiction and Society."
In 1876, while employed as a civil servant in Dublin, Stoker wrote a non-fiction book (The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland, published 1879) and theatre reviews for The Dublin Mail, a newspaper partly owned by fellow horror writer J. Sheridan Le Fanu. His interest in theatre led to a lifelong friendship with the English actor Henry Irving. He also wrote stories, and in 1872 "The Crystal Cup" was published by the London Society, followed by "The Chain of Destiny" in four parts in The Shamrock.
In 1878 Stoker married Florence Balcombe, a celebrated beauty whose former suitor was Oscar Wilde. The couple moved to London, where Stoker became business manager (at first as acting-manager) of Irving's Lyceum Theatre, a post he held for 27 years. The collaboration with Irving was very important for Stoker and through him he became involved in London's high society, where he met, among other notables, James McNeil Whistler, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the course of Irving's tours, Stoker got the chance to travel around the world.
The Stokers had one son, Irving Noel, who was born on December 31, 1879.
People cremated the body of Bram Stoker and placed his ashes placed in a display urn at Golders green crematorium. After death of Irving Noel Stoker in 1961, people added his ashes to that urn. Despite the original plan to keep ashes of his parents together, after death, people scattered ashes of Florence Stoker at the gardens of rest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Stoker
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 8, 2023
Entertaining boring listening 🎶🔰
This novel is free on Amazon. Oh how I love 💘 those free books 📚! This one did not work out!
I picked this novel because it was free and I wanted to read Bram Stoker. I got about half way and gave up. It is a classic British 🏰👑 romantic relationships novel there is lots of potential but is slow 🐌 boring listening. 2023 👒😤😮🌙
This novel is free on Amazon. Oh how I love 💘 those free books 📚! This one did not work out!
I picked this novel because it was free and I wanted to read Bram Stoker. I got about half way and gave up. It is a classic British 🏰👑 romantic relationships novel there is lots of potential but is slow 🐌 boring listening. 2023 👒😤😮🌙
November 2, 2011
Thoroughly impressed by Stoker’s writing in Dracula, I wanted to see how it carried over in work of a different sort. This book, rarely reviewed or described online, seemed a good choice where nobody else’s perceptions influenced mine. We meet lovely teenager Stephen (her father wanted a boy…) and Harold, approaching manhood, at the outset. We’re to find out about their lives from their births to adulthood. They are beautifully drawn characters, almost too perfect each physically and in terms of integrity and strength. Stephen is given some male characteristics due to the wishes of her father and her being his only child. Harold is a thoughtful and physically superior fellow and becomes The Man of the title. They come to be raised together as trusted intimates, siblings in all but blood. They make errors which alter both of their lives and badly affect the rather adult-like turn their feelings for one another take. Stoker’s descriptive skills that are so vibrant in Dracula show up here too, descriptions of thought processes and feelings in his characters, of setting and mood for his story. The pace is gentle character and story building at the beginning, but the climax brings excitement to a conclusion this reader felt was in little doubt. There are particularly strong secondary characters, the older, wiser folks who come into the lives of both young people. The weight of the propriety required of the times, pre-industrial England, is a millstone for both Stephen and Harold, although Stephen has idealistic young woman’s rather liberated perspectives despite the conventions to the contrary. The slow build-up is rendered with precision and radiance. Coincidences that push credibility’s limits and an ending rather easy to see coming bring the beautiful writing, well-made characters, and late excitement to a rating of four. A pleasure to read, it’s not a work of greatness.
August 30, 2012
THE MAN is not an outstanding book but has its own charm in the descriptions and the character. after reading DRACULA , i had great expectations of a good story line but it turned out to be just average. The only thing that makes it worth a read , is the distinct nature of the character and the impact they have on the reader. Bram Stoker shows his feminist views with the character Stephen.for a man to create a strong feminist character like Stephen quite amuses me. the best part about stoker's writing is that his elaborate description makes the reader completely relate to the characters and transports you to the same era.
November 9, 2021
Stoker finally nails the ending! The previous eight books have suffered from varying degrees of "monster's dead, movie's over" (the closest exception being The Snake's Pass) and here, on his ninth novel with only two more left to go (excluding LotWW) he finally manages to give the denouement an appropriate amount of time relative to the rest of the story. (This may have been an accident, but I'm going to give him credit anyway.)
In this one, he's struggling with the concept of "sexual equality" as our heroine, Stephen, raised as a tomboy and having all the best qualities of a man's logical mind and a woman's intuition (cf. Mina Harker) challenges the notion that it must always be the man who proposes marriage. It is this mad theory in application which causes all the trouble. (And, truly, it is not the theory but the specific application.)
As always, our hero and heroine are terribly good sorts, all bravery and generosity and so on, just frankly kind of dumb about how the male and the female of the species interact. Naïve. There is one bad character—one dissolute wastrel of no account—but Stoker does not care to spend much time on him (as usual) and apart from being a plot point, most of the strife comes from internal struggles and very external struggles, i.e., with Nature, who is always there to provide a chance for The Man to prove himself.
It's a good romance-adventure, and mostly romance, if we're being honest. I think it's clear that's where Stoker was happiest.
In this one, he's struggling with the concept of "sexual equality" as our heroine, Stephen, raised as a tomboy and having all the best qualities of a man's logical mind and a woman's intuition (cf. Mina Harker) challenges the notion that it must always be the man who proposes marriage. It is this mad theory in application which causes all the trouble. (And, truly, it is not the theory but the specific application.)
As always, our hero and heroine are terribly good sorts, all bravery and generosity and so on, just frankly kind of dumb about how the male and the female of the species interact. Naïve. There is one bad character—one dissolute wastrel of no account—but Stoker does not care to spend much time on him (as usual) and apart from being a plot point, most of the strife comes from internal struggles and very external struggles, i.e., with Nature, who is always there to provide a chance for The Man to prove himself.
It's a good romance-adventure, and mostly romance, if we're being honest. I think it's clear that's where Stoker was happiest.
October 26, 2017
The Man by Bram Stoker is a Gothic romance that follows the life of Stephen Norman, the daughter of Squire Stephen Norman, the lord of the manor in Normanstead. Margaret Rowly marries Squire Stephen whom they raise as a tomboy, as the squire had always wanted a male a heir. Margaret dies, but the squire and Margaret's aunt Leatitia Roely, who moves in to help with the child, continue to allow miss Stephen to grow into a headstrong, dominant, free-thinking, and assertive force. Complicating the matter, the Harold van Wolf, son of one of Squire Stephen's friends, moves in with the squire after his father dies. A child mate, Leanard Everhardt, and miss Stephen explore a crypt where her ancestors are buried. Stephen collapses and Leonard carries her from the crypt, after which she is enamored with him. The two male characters lead to complications when Stephen comes of age. So who is "The Man" in the title. It could be any of the three. Will Stephen be a precursor to modern feminists? The story moves along briskly with thrilling action and amazing coincidences to a bit of a disappointing conclusion. Still, the story is decent and worth a read for a view into the societal mores of the period.
June 1, 2023
The worst kind of maudlin Victorian drivel. Hard to believe that the man who wrote Dracula also wrote a book in which the shocking Gothic premise is that a woman has the audacity to propose marriage to a man, potentially dooming all that she holds dear. 🤮
December 30, 2015
Calling this "a rare novel of fear" is a bit misleading: there are some tense moments, but not enough to qualify the book as a mystery or even really a thriller. It's a bit of a hybrid work, falling more on the side of Stoker's romances (like The Snake's Pass and Lady Athelyne) but even then not quite as cloying or over-written. It might best be called a treatise on the "new woman" of the early 1900's that Stoker was intrigued by and populated his novels with even as he struggled to understand and accept them. Stephen Norman shares a good deal of personality with Mina Murray/Harker of Stoker's Dracula, which was published just eight years earlier. Stephen is, from childhood, precocious, forceful, secure in what she wants even if her methods are not always successful. She brooks foolishness from no man, although she occasionally acts foollishly herself. For most of the novel, she is a force of nature in control of her own destiny. Unfortunately, Stoker cannot resist in the final act having Stephen revert to the standard demure "woman waiting for a man to tell her he's interested in her" role that she bucks (with almost disastrous consequences) throughout the rest of the book. As with Mina in Dracula, who ultimately must be rescued by the men in her life, Stoker here can't quite seem to decide what to make of this strong capable woman he's created, and so he falls back on the old tropes. (As a side note, through most of the book Stephen reminds me very much of Katherine, the main character of Ellen Kushner's The Privilege of the Sword: a young girl raised to fulfill a man's role, strong and self-sufficient and head-strong.)
While Stephen is the center of the book and the most well-drawn character, the two main male characters are equally important to the story. Leonard Everard is pretty much the stereotype of a dissolute, entitled Victorian prat but he propels the plot. The book's title, though, comes from Harold An Wolf; a child in the book calls him "The Man," and the name sticks. Harold could have easily have been written as the stereotypical protector role to balance Leonard's villianous one, but Stoker allows his male hero a bit more nuance and fallability than the stereotype typically allows for. And make no mistake: Harold IS heroic, although he is not The Hero of the book (Stephen is clearly that). Throughout the novel, Harold is the one who takes physical chances, jumps in to save the day at the potential cost of his own life -- not once, but several times.
While The Man is not one of Stoker's supernatural novels (all of which are better than his romances, in my opinion), there are some genuinely creepy moments: a childhood visit to a crypt, several encounters between Stephen and Leonard, and Stephen's encounter with a mysterious old Quaker woman all feel like they could be in a supernatural novel. There are also several gripping action sequences, the final of which allows both Stephen and Harold to be equally heroic both physically and emotionally. That scene isn't the conclusion of the novel, which adds a few standard "roadblocks to happiness" to wrap things up, but it is the physical and emotional climax, very cinematically written.
As I write this review, I'm realizing that I liked the book more than I thought I did; my major disappointment comes from the odd turn Stephen takes in the novel's concluding segment, where she seems to lose a great deal of the strength she's displayed throughout the book.
While Stephen is the center of the book and the most well-drawn character, the two main male characters are equally important to the story. Leonard Everard is pretty much the stereotype of a dissolute, entitled Victorian prat but he propels the plot. The book's title, though, comes from Harold An Wolf; a child in the book calls him "The Man," and the name sticks. Harold could have easily have been written as the stereotypical protector role to balance Leonard's villianous one, but Stoker allows his male hero a bit more nuance and fallability than the stereotype typically allows for. And make no mistake: Harold IS heroic, although he is not The Hero of the book (Stephen is clearly that). Throughout the novel, Harold is the one who takes physical chances, jumps in to save the day at the potential cost of his own life -- not once, but several times.
While The Man is not one of Stoker's supernatural novels (all of which are better than his romances, in my opinion), there are some genuinely creepy moments: a childhood visit to a crypt, several encounters between Stephen and Leonard, and Stephen's encounter with a mysterious old Quaker woman all feel like they could be in a supernatural novel. There are also several gripping action sequences, the final of which allows both Stephen and Harold to be equally heroic both physically and emotionally. That scene isn't the conclusion of the novel, which adds a few standard "roadblocks to happiness" to wrap things up, but it is the physical and emotional climax, very cinematically written.
As I write this review, I'm realizing that I liked the book more than I thought I did; my major disappointment comes from the odd turn Stephen takes in the novel's concluding segment, where she seems to lose a great deal of the strength she's displayed throughout the book.
December 9, 2021
I read The Man for the same reason as Steve and agree wholeheartedly with his review. Very well written but it tends to push credibility to the limit. I don’t think anybody would survive that long in the North Sea in a storm….
October 7, 2014
Surprisingly good.
March 30, 2025
Stephen Norman è convinto che sua moglie stia aspettando un maschietto, ma alla nascita scopre che il bambino è in realtà una femmina. Nonostante ciò, decidono comunque di chiamarla Stephen.
Il padre cresce la bimba con grande libertà, senza imporle le rigide convenzioni dell’epoca.
La nostra Stephen crede che le donne debbano essere libere come gli uomini e che debba esserci la parità dei sessi. Pur
senza nascondere la propria femminilità, sviluppa una mentalità aperta e indipendente. Questo però la porta a
vivere un momento difficile che cambia per sempre la sua vita.
Il padre di Stephen, dopo la morte di un suo caro amico, accoglie in casa Harold, e lo cresce come se fosse un altro figlio. Tra
Harold e Stephen nasce subito un rapporto di fiducia reciproca, un legame solido che, però a un certo punto, verrà messo duramente alla prova.
La storia si divide principalmente tra la vita di Stephen e quella di Harold: li vediamo crescere, studiare, soffrire, fare degli sbagli e cercare di rimediare. Diventiamo spettatori delle loro vite.
Bram Stoker è abilissimo nel tracciare le loro
personalità, i loro pensieri e desideri.
La prima parte del romanzo è molto introspettiva, mentre nella seconda, i protagonisti ormai adulti si trovano immersi in una serie di eventi che porteranno
profondi cambiamenti e avventure nelle loro vite.
Entrambi i protagonisti sono buoni, pronti sempre ad aiutare gli altri, ma sono anche molto cocciuti ed è quasi impossibile che cambino idea su qualcosa. Mi è piaciuto molto vedere i loro cambiamenti, come con il
trascorrere del tempo siano maturati e abbiano capito cosa e chi è realmente importante.
Molto interessanti i personaggi secondari, anche loro sono ben caratterizzati e hanno un ruolo molto attivo nelle dinamiche della storia.
È un libro che parla della forza di essere donna, senza seguire le convinzioni di un epoca dove non ci si rispecchia pienamente, ma è anche un libro che parla di uomini che soffrono e che hanno bisogno di tempo per
capirsi. Uomini e donne imparano cosa significa amare e l'importanza di lasciare libero chi si ama.
Il padre cresce la bimba con grande libertà, senza imporle le rigide convenzioni dell’epoca.
La nostra Stephen crede che le donne debbano essere libere come gli uomini e che debba esserci la parità dei sessi. Pur
senza nascondere la propria femminilità, sviluppa una mentalità aperta e indipendente. Questo però la porta a
vivere un momento difficile che cambia per sempre la sua vita.
Il padre di Stephen, dopo la morte di un suo caro amico, accoglie in casa Harold, e lo cresce come se fosse un altro figlio. Tra
Harold e Stephen nasce subito un rapporto di fiducia reciproca, un legame solido che, però a un certo punto, verrà messo duramente alla prova.
La storia si divide principalmente tra la vita di Stephen e quella di Harold: li vediamo crescere, studiare, soffrire, fare degli sbagli e cercare di rimediare. Diventiamo spettatori delle loro vite.
Bram Stoker è abilissimo nel tracciare le loro
personalità, i loro pensieri e desideri.
La prima parte del romanzo è molto introspettiva, mentre nella seconda, i protagonisti ormai adulti si trovano immersi in una serie di eventi che porteranno
profondi cambiamenti e avventure nelle loro vite.
Entrambi i protagonisti sono buoni, pronti sempre ad aiutare gli altri, ma sono anche molto cocciuti ed è quasi impossibile che cambino idea su qualcosa. Mi è piaciuto molto vedere i loro cambiamenti, come con il
trascorrere del tempo siano maturati e abbiano capito cosa e chi è realmente importante.
Molto interessanti i personaggi secondari, anche loro sono ben caratterizzati e hanno un ruolo molto attivo nelle dinamiche della storia.
È un libro che parla della forza di essere donna, senza seguire le convinzioni di un epoca dove non ci si rispecchia pienamente, ma è anche un libro che parla di uomini che soffrono e che hanno bisogno di tempo per
capirsi. Uomini e donne imparano cosa significa amare e l'importanza di lasciare libero chi si ama.
May 17, 2024
3.5
Stoker is a very good writer, but maybe a one hit wonder? This shouldn't be described as a gothic but rather a coming of age. It was interesting to have an Edwardian novel depict a girl/woman who wants to defy societal conventions and basically be the best of two genders, its just a shame she "matures" by accepting her feminine role solely at the end. But hey, it's an interesting take for its time, can't expect a socially conservative man of yesteryear to have interesting opinions about gender for today.
Bonus points for having a couple naming their little girl STEPHEN, and a man who handles rejection very well by changing his name and running away to the other side of the world to live in the wilderness. Loses points because, as novels in those days had different forms and intentions as now so the plot can be drawn and random, but why did we have to spend so many chapters following the efforts to pay off the debts of a man not worthy to kiss STEPHEN'S shoes. A man who was so unimportant by the end too.
Stoker is a very good writer, but maybe a one hit wonder? This shouldn't be described as a gothic but rather a coming of age. It was interesting to have an Edwardian novel depict a girl/woman who wants to defy societal conventions and basically be the best of two genders, its just a shame she "matures" by accepting her feminine role solely at the end. But hey, it's an interesting take for its time, can't expect a socially conservative man of yesteryear to have interesting opinions about gender for today.
Bonus points for having a couple naming their little girl STEPHEN, and a man who handles rejection very well by changing his name and running away to the other side of the world to live in the wilderness. Loses points because, as novels in those days had different forms and intentions as now so the plot can be drawn and random, but why did we have to spend so many chapters following the efforts to pay off the debts of a man not worthy to kiss STEPHEN'S shoes. A man who was so unimportant by the end too.
June 5, 2025
I’d consider this more of a philosophical and moralistic fable than a novel. The story starts out quite strong with an incredibly interesting female protagonist. Stephen is the daughter of a man who ardently hoped for a son, and was subsequently raised in great comfort and relative freedom as compared to her female peers. These freedoms, according to Stoker, proved to be more than her delicate female brain could handle, and led her to some dangerously ‘modern’ ideas, like gender equality (horrifying). Anyway. I actually loved the way this was written, the characters, the descriptions, the grand settings —and despite the regressive moralizing it was still a fun story about two naïve teenagers who have the best intentions but the worst judgment. The bad communication trope was heavy in this one but luckily made up for by the rest of the story which wasn’t too long, so if you’re in the mood for a cute little fairytale, this is the one.
October 7, 2024
вау. откровенно говоря я не ожидала чего-то подобного от автора Дракулы ахах. это было очень феминистично и романтично. местами затянуто, но вполне читабельно и развлекательно. очень понравились главные герои, за исключением ИХ ГОРДЫНИ, которая стала причиной всего этого душевного кошмара, который им обоим довелось пережить. короче, книга про двух ужасных упрямцев, которые из-за miscommunication провели несколько лет в страданиях, когда могли жить счастливо вместе.
August 2, 2018
Great classic
I thoroughly enjoyed this. I don’t tend to like romance as a genre but I do have a soft spot for the classics. In my opinion Dracula was a love story, just as this is...
I thoroughly enjoyed this. I don’t tend to like romance as a genre but I do have a soft spot for the classics. In my opinion Dracula was a love story, just as this is...
August 13, 2024
A sweet, enduring love story of a young lady named Stephen and her childhood friend Harold of whom first she denies his approaches, but after a daring and heroic feat, she sees him in a different light. I enjoyed this story which is, as I hear, completely different from his novel Dracula.
Want to read
July 19, 2020elibrary
June 15, 2021
Too plodding, cumbersome. Not a novel for me. I didn't finish it.
January 5, 2024
3.75 stars*
February 6, 2025
Fue toda una sorpresa conocer este libro de Bram Stoker tan alejada de sus novelas más famosas y que disfruté tanto leyendo
October 10, 2025
Went in blind and had no idea what it was about except that it was by Bram Stoker who I love. Very much enjoyed
March 7, 2016
E' il primo libro che leggo di Stoker, malgrado conoscessi l'autore per il suo famosissimo Dracula, nn sapevo nulla del suo modo di scrivere né cosa aspettarmi da questo romanzo che immaginavo molto più protofemminista di quanto in realtà nn sia. Ne L’uomo la protagonista è una giovanne donna, Stephen, nome maschile di tutti i primogeniti della sua famiglia. Il padre desiderava un erede maschio e la madre, morendo di parto, si fece promettere di averne cura come fosse il bimbo tanto atteso.
Il romanzo affronta, attraverso la sua storia, una tematica molto in voga in quel periodo, quella della New Woman, una donna cioè capace di pensare ed agire come un uomo e che affascinava molto Stoker. Però Stephen, cresciuta in maniera anticonvenzionale, convinta sostenitrice della parità dei sessi, è pur sempre una ragazza impulsiva e romantica che pagherà lo scotto di questa educazione perchè malgrado il suo desiderio di sfidare le convenzioni dell'epoca, la retorica del detto e non detto, una società eccessivamente rigida nell'etichetta, non riuscirà nel suo intento.
Stoker infatti mostrerà al lettore che forse questa è solo un'utopia, che la sua intraprendente proposta di matrimonio ad un uomo di poco valore fatta sotto una forte spinta emozionale allontanerà da lei l'unico vero amore della sua vita condannandola a lunghi anni di infelicità e di riflessione sull'opportunità di certi comportamenti...
Accurate le descrizioni della società vittoriana, molto fine l'indagine psicologica dei personaggi, colpi di scena un po' melò nella parte finale della storia e un lieto fine fanno di questo romanzo una lettura interessante e godibile...
Il romanzo affronta, attraverso la sua storia, una tematica molto in voga in quel periodo, quella della New Woman, una donna cioè capace di pensare ed agire come un uomo e che affascinava molto Stoker. Però Stephen, cresciuta in maniera anticonvenzionale, convinta sostenitrice della parità dei sessi, è pur sempre una ragazza impulsiva e romantica che pagherà lo scotto di questa educazione perchè malgrado il suo desiderio di sfidare le convenzioni dell'epoca, la retorica del detto e non detto, una società eccessivamente rigida nell'etichetta, non riuscirà nel suo intento.
Stoker infatti mostrerà al lettore che forse questa è solo un'utopia, che la sua intraprendente proposta di matrimonio ad un uomo di poco valore fatta sotto una forte spinta emozionale allontanerà da lei l'unico vero amore della sua vita condannandola a lunghi anni di infelicità e di riflessione sull'opportunità di certi comportamenti...
Accurate le descrizioni della società vittoriana, molto fine l'indagine psicologica dei personaggi, colpi di scena un po' melò nella parte finale della storia e un lieto fine fanno di questo romanzo una lettura interessante e godibile...
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January 6, 2013I would've never guessed this was a Bram Stoker novel, especially one written after Dracula. [A bit of a spoiler here, but not really.] The plot is rather predictable and irritating in the manner of certain 18th-century novels: a minor misunderstanding separates the hero from the heroine, who are clearly meant to be together, for the bulk of the novel, and convention and fear of offending each other prevent them from getting back together until the very last moment. I wanted to slap both of them.
However, there are some very interesting themes that would be fun to explore with a class or in research. For example, the nature of submission and domination, the exploration of the nature of masculinity and femininity, and the role of the spinster matron come to mind as possible avenues of inquiry. I'm sure I would find plenty more to discuss if I were teaching this novel.
In short, I'd recommend it to English grad students and professors as something that might be fun to play with. Other readers might find the story charming--and I do admit that there's a climactic scene towards the end that had me on the edge of my seat--but it's nothing like the storytelling in Dracula.
However, there are some very interesting themes that would be fun to explore with a class or in research. For example, the nature of submission and domination, the exploration of the nature of masculinity and femininity, and the role of the spinster matron come to mind as possible avenues of inquiry. I'm sure I would find plenty more to discuss if I were teaching this novel.
In short, I'd recommend it to English grad students and professors as something that might be fun to play with. Other readers might find the story charming--and I do admit that there's a climactic scene towards the end that had me on the edge of my seat--but it's nothing like the storytelling in Dracula.
August 20, 2012
Another great book by Bram Stoker! This book was a lot different than the first two Stoker books that I read: Dracula and Jewel of Seven Stars, but nonetheless is was written in the same style that makes his other books so hard to put down. The ending was a bit predictable, but I didn't mind that too much.
April 30, 2015
A romance story; very dramatic and women's rightist in a way. Predictable.
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