Under the Sunset

by Bram Stoker

Far, far away, there is a beautiful Country which no human eye has ever seen in waking hours. Under the Sunset it lies, where the distant horizon bounds the day, and where the clouds, splendid with light and color, give a promise of the glory and beauty that encompass it. Sometimes it is given to us to see it in dreams. This Country is the Land Under the Sunset. This is the story of that Country, and what happened when evil came to abide there. It is a story all of us must hear. (Jacketless library hardcover.)

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, Gothic, Audiobook

140 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1881

About the author

Irish-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

Reviews

[Krodì80 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definiti fiabe macabre, i racconti che compongono Il paese del tramonto di Bram Stoker anticipano - più o meno sottilmente - atmosfere e personaggi che costelleranno altre sue opere, di ben altro peso e successo. Pur attraversate da creature misteriose, paesaggi ombrosi, incursioni in un grigio, malinconico aldilà e da un denso armamentario macabro-esoterico, nella loro pregevole (e un tantino acerba) fattura queste pagine non riescono a trasmettere al lettore-estimatore di Dracula e di altri racconti del terrore la qualità dei brividi o degli spunti di opere successive dell’autore irlandese. Forse per questo suddetta raccolta è rimasta a raccogliere la polvere a lungo… eppure come un revenant, è tornata sorprendentemente in vita - ma per suggestioni a corto raggio.

[Isa Lot · Rating 1 out of 5]

No me ha gustado, es uno de los libros más tediosos que he leído en mi vida. He leído otras cosas de Bram Stoker y me han gustado, pero este libro es diferente, el autor era un gran fanático de su religión y basó todo el libro en esa fe, llenandolo de patetismo, de personas que en vez de luchar o enfrentarse a sus problemas, arreglan todas y cada una de las situaciones arrodillándose, sometiendose y humillándose antes el dios cristiano. Es un libro infantil, un libro aleccionador cristianamente hablando, con unos valores absurdos, anticuados y patéticos. Es una fabrica de lloricas y pusilánimes. A decir verdad, lo he terminado por cabezonería, porque casi me tiraba de los pelos con algunos capítulos.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book requires intestinal fortitude. As amazing and groundbreaking as Dracula was, Stoker’s collection of maudlin and overly sentimental Christian fairy tales feel forced and trite. Only the tale “when 7 went mad” merits a close read, as it is funny and evocative of Edgar Allen Poe’s shorter work.

I suppose part of my issue with this collection stems from the impression that Stoker took a number of pagan or other non-Christian folk tales and shoe-horned them into a bowdlerized morality tales. One story reminds one of Gulliver’s travels; another hearkens back to Beowulf, and many feel like they were transplanted from Arabian Nights into JM Barrie’s London. Altogether, a difficult slog.

[Daniy ♠ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 28 / 30 days challenge

Im not sure if the info for this book is correct?
This is a mix of short stories, who are... reaaaaaaaally heavy on the religion side which I didnt expect tbh.
Under the sunset 4*
The Rose Prince 3*
The Invisible Giant 3*
The Shadow Builder 4*
How 7 went mad 4*
Lies and lilies 1*
The castle of the king 3*
The wondrous child 3*

[Aracne Mileto · Rating 2 out of 5]

* El país del ocaso 2 estrellas - 17-04-2020

[Դավիթ Սամվելյան · Rating 4 out of 5]

Գրքի հայերեն տարբերակը` «Արևամուտի ներքո», որի հեղինակ Բ­րամ Ս­թո­քե­րին գրեթե բոլորը ճանաչում են միայն «Դրակուլա»-ով։ Սա հեղինակի ա­ռա­ջին պատմ­վա­ծա­շարն է՝ բաղ­կա­ցած ի­րար փոխ­կա­պակց­ված ութ կարճ պատ­մութ­յու­նից և ի տարբերություն «Դրակուլա»-ի` լուսավոր է ու հեքիաթային։ Հեղինակը գիրքը նվիրել է իր որդուն, սակայն պատմությունները ոչ միայն մանկական են, ավելին, դրանցում քննարկվող բարոյափիլիսոփայական հարցերը այժմեական են։
Պատմվածքները ներ­կա­յաց­նում են մարդ­կութ­յանն ան­հայտ մի աշ­խարհ, ո­րի բնա­կիչ­նե­րը բախ­վում են չար ներ­խու­ժող­նե­րի հետ: Գր­քի լե­զուն պոե­տիկ է, իսկ հե­րոս­նե­րը՝ խիստ բազ­մա­զան՝ հրեշ­տակ­ներ ու չար հսկա­ներ, դպրո­ցա­կան ար­կած­նե­րով ապ­րող ա­շա­կերտ­ներ ու թա­գա­վո­րա­կան ըն­տա­նիք­ներ:
­Պատմ­վածք­նե­րի այս շար­քը ներ­կա­յաց­նում է չարն ու բա­րին, քա­ջութ­յունն ու վա­խը, ազն­վութ­յունն ու սու­տը, ման­կան հա­սու­նութ­յունն ու միամ­տութ­յունը ի­րենց ա­ռօ­րեա­կա­նութ­յան և ­բա­ցար­ձա­կութ­յան մեջ: Այս գրքի յուրահատկություններից մեկն այն է, որ թեեւ առանձին պատմվածքներ են, բայց հասկացութային առումով փոխկապակցված են։ Եվ հեղինակը փորձել է ցույց տալ սերունդներին բաժին ընկնող փորձությունների շղթան, ու թե ինչպես են հերոսները դրանց միջով անցնում։

[LucianTaylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most beautiful and gloomy fairy tales. It contains my favorite short story of all times untill now: the Shadow Builder. Can't believe they made a movie with that name and the plot has absolutely nothing to do with the original Bram Stoker story. As the Shadow Builder is some sort of powerless God that observes the destiny of humanity. It is also a very sad story but soo amazingly beautiful. So surreal and seen from the eyes of an entity that exists beyond the Universe

[Viji (Bookish endeavors) · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first read of Bram Stoker after Dracula.. A well-written fantasy is what I felt about this story.. I especially liked the part where the angel of light is asked to go along with the sons of evil, to give light to those who are good at heart and darkness to those who are bad.

[Timothy Ferguson · Rating 1 out of 5]

A collection of fairy tales, I chose not to finish. The first few have pallid little morals, coupled to weak, obvious, endings. I may go back to it, if I here excellent reviews elsewhere.

[Quirkyreader · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was half expecting Randolph Carter to show up in this story. It was very much a Kadathian story.

[Billy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plot:
Bram Stoker gives us a collection of horror short stories in this novel.

1. Under The Sunset
Two Angels that guard the Portal to a land Under The Sunset, talk to a young angel about God's will and why soon the Children of Death must come to the Land. They will bring evil, but more importantly, they will teach the people why they should be thinkful of what God gives them and not to be completely corrupted by sin.

2. The Rose Prince
As the Giant Lo heads toward the castle of King Mago and his Kingdom Under The Sunset. He sends an army to take care of the Giant, but after none of them return, his only son Prince Zephir decides to take on the giant alone. Will the Rose Prince be victorious, or will he parrish as well.

3. The Invisible Giant
Decades after King Zephir died, the kingdom had gone corrupt. They stopped caring for one another and started only caring for themselves. They also stopped believing in Giants, so when the Giant named Plague hit their town, and no one could see him except for a girl named Zaya, will they escape before its too late.

4. The Shadow Builder
Sometime after the Invisible Giant attacked the Kingdom under the sunset, Zaya ends up having a son, whom she names Knoal after the old man who took her in, all those years ago. As Knoal grows he gets brave and joins the Navy, but after his ship is destroyed in a blast, Zaya must stop at nothing to bring him home, meanwhile a sad dark shape known as The Shadow Builder watches from the darkness.


5. How 7 Went Mad
A boy named Tineboy had a raven he loved more than anything, after hearing a story in class about how the number 7 went mad, the raven decided to get rid of all the 7's in the class. But will the class find out why they are all jumbled up the next day, or will they also go mad.

6. Lies and Lilies
Claribel is a young girl who has never told a lie. Her parents are also very truthful people. But one day, while having troubles with her math problem, she decides to draw a Lily instead. When the teacher asked if all she did was think about the math problem, Claribel told her first lie, now she feels dread, will she be able to repent and admit her lie or will she continue her lying ways.

7. The Castle of the King
How far would you go for love, would you walk the dark road of Hell and Purgatory, with beasts and monsters at your back, to get to her. A young poet does just that. After his wife died of an illness, he joins her in death but has to walk a treacherous path out of Hell to get to her in Heaven.

8. The Wondrous Child
Sibold and his sister May are expecting a little brother, so they prepare for his arrival and decide to go get flowers for him. While picking the flowers, they fell asleep and dreamt that they sailed to a magical place, with every flower and babys being born there from plants, and giant Animals roam the area.

My Thoughts
I read this for Shadow Builder. Before I watched the movie and I was disappointed in the story, it had nothing to do with what the plot of the movie sounded like.

But what I will recommend is Rose Prince and The Castle of The King as those are two pretty solid stories, but the rest I'd skip if I was you. I did not enjoy this collection as a whole. But I did enjoy 2 stories out of 8.

My Current Bram Stoker Ranking
1. 5* (1897) Dracula
2. 4* (1890) The Snake's Pass
3. 3* (1895) The Watter's Mou
4. 3* (1887) The Dualitists
5. 3* (1881) Under The Sunset

[Milciades · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's my first one after Dracula. I like some of the stories like Under The Sunset, The Rose Prince, The Shadow Builder, and How 7 went mad, Lies and lilles which is not that good, but I couldn't say is bad either. and others I got bored reading like The Wondrous Baby which was the most boring of all and devoid of meaning (at least I didn't find one), The Invisible Giant which was interesting in the beginning but then it lost its appeal, and The Castle of the King.

All stories are intended for children, and they try to give some message, but from a religious standpoint, where the idea of heaven and sin is always present in almost all the stories. I give three stars, because I understand the stories are for children but out of all the stories the only ones I find worth-reading a second time are maybe The Shadow Builder, and how 7 went mad. I wouldn't count First chapter: Under the Sunset, because it's like an introduction to the world you're about to know, which is a sort of land in your dreams. All the other stories are either bad or not that good.

[blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Odd collection of children's stories by Mr. Stoker. The land "Under the Sunset" is sort of like a "Far, Far Away" deal, and there seems to have been—well, either a editing of some previously existing material to fit it into UtS, or at minimum a very free notion of what the whole thing was. Some, like the title story, are traditional-feeling fairy-tales, others are more like folktales ("The Wondrous Child" is about an angel who reads to these eyes like an Irish faerie), and others still are comfortable in the "weird" category, like "The Shadow Builders" (now! an exciting TV movie starring Michael Rooker!).

And then there's "How 7 Went Mad" which is almost Carroll-ian.

Hey, it's not boring. Would I read it to my kids? Well, some of 'em.

[MichaelaP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Čítalo sa to dobre. Nebolo to postavené na nejakom konkrétnom ucelenom deji, skôr na postavách a ich charaktery a opise prírody a prostredia. Osobne také zdĺhavé opisy až tak neobľubujem, ale boli tam použité zaujímavé slovné spojenia. Dej sa zameriaval hlavne na charakter a malo to duchovný náboj, čo nemusí každému sedieť, ale podľa mňa to bolo príjemné a niektoré príbehy končili prekvapivo nečakane. Slovenský preklad chválim. Nebolo tam nič, čo by ma vyrušovalo a nespomínam si ani na žiadne preklepy.

[Miria TheBookHunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dracula è Dracula e non c'è nulla è simile, di sicuro Racconti al Tramonto è di un genere completamente diverso che ha messo Bram Stoker in una luce differente: quella di un padre affettuoso che racconta storie ai figli perché di questo si tratta, una grande fiaba divisa su più racconti ambientati nello stesso mondo, quello del Tramonto in cui vivono personaggi magici, giganti, costruttori di ombre e angeli. Il tema principale è il vivere in pace, condividere la serenità, poi non sottovalutare l'amore e la matematica da un punto di vista particolare.

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Granted I didn't really pay much attention to these stories, but that's partly their fault for not sustaining it. Overall though, my opinion was that this was only a mediocre book, and even that is being generous. The stories aren't bad at all, they're just far from notable, do not offer enough variety and are not what I had expected from Bram Stoker, who can write some very scary stories - and I'm not referring solely to Dracula.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing set of short stories from a usually intriguing writer, which for the most part fails to offer any surprises or any sense of consistency. It's not even coherently aimed at any particular audience, shifting between biblical retellings, childish morality fables and proto-weird fiction (the only story worth turning up for)

Full review pending.

[Glenn Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled across this by accident. I didn't know that Bram Stoker wrote early fantasy or mythology. This reminded me very much of Lord Dunsany's Gods of Pegana, except Under the Sunset preceded that book by about 20 years.

I have a soft spot for these type of books (Gods of Pegana, The Silmarillion etc), so that why I rated it slightly higher). Beautifully written.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ostensibly a book of 8 stories for children, this was a collection of fantasies, some of them strangely poetic, others grim and frightening yet containing a wealth of beautiful prose.

Under the Sunset 4⭐
The Rose Prince 4⭐
The Invisible Giant 4⭐
The Shadow Builder 4⭐
How Seven Went Mad 4⭐
Lies and Lilies 3⭐
The Castle of the King 4⭐
The Wondrous Child 3.5⭐

[Karla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Arguably, I wasn't fully engaged as I listened to this book being read to me. Having read the original Dracula, I understood Stoker to have a moral tale in his writings, so I felt like I was waiting for that to appear. It did near the end. I liked the message of hope that came along with the darkness, I just didn't much enjoy the story itself.

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short story by Bram - that's Bram Stoker, to you.

[Niklas Zenius Jespersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Godt fortalt, men bryder mig ikke meget om den kristne idé om at lidelse er en nødvendig straf for en befolkning.

[Matthew Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rich, warm and inviting short story through Bram Stoker offers a brief mythology of evil entering a dreamlike world.

[Forked Radish]

Under the Sunset: ⭐⭐
When 7 Went Mad: ⭐⭐

[Andy Raptis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Half the stories are decent, the other half are hard to get through.

[Lynn H · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short story that was far too religious for my taste.

[Eve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seems to be a metaphor for heaven. There is alot of world building for a short story. Definitely a Christian fairytale.

[Jake Kilroy · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an odd place. (Only read the title story.)

[Menno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute fairy tale collection

[Mike Lisanke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written but not certain I understood the point.