Shade and Shadow Reviews

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REVIEWS of DRACULA: THE SHADE AND THE SHADOW
From the Bram Stoker Society Newsletter (Dublin, Ireland), July 1999 Most of us in Ireland were unable to attend the Dracula Centennial Celebrations in Los Angeles during August 1997. In a year in which there were many learned conferences to commemorate the first hundred years of Bram Stoker's immortal Gothic creation, that hosted in California was "facile princeps", in terms of its sheer scope, its truly international character, and the quality of its presentations. Over eighty papers from a host of world-renowned Dracula commentators were read during the course of that memorable month. Professor Elizabeth Miller, from Memorial University of Newfoundland, who is President of the Canadian Chapter of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, has edited and compiled twenty of these for Clive Leatherdale's meticulously presented Desert Island Dracula Library. Although the topics are many and varied, Professor Miller has grouped the essays, logically and intelligibly, under broad headings. First into the field is noted commentator Nina Auerbach who posits and addresses the question why is it that Dracula still exerts and enduring fascination in a world so vastly different from that which begot him, through such a huge diversity of styles and forms of presentation. There then follow five discrete sections, each featuring a number of essays: the Germanic influence on Dracula, Dracula's place in Victorian England, Textual Analysis, Historical Analysis and New Perspectives. While all the essays are accessible, some are more tailored to the non-academic reader that others. Accordingly, some are of reasonable length, with footnotes, while others are more succinct, introducing novel analyses or theories without the burden of detailed academic overlay. Members of the Bram Stoker Society are well represented in this collection and several of the titles will be familiar to those attending the annual Bram Stoker International Summer School at Clontarf, where the prototype or modified versions of some of the papers have been presented. Clive Leatherdale's own "Stoker's Banana Skins: Errors, Illogicalities and Misconceptions in Dracula" makes a welcome appearance, and many will be delighted to get their hands on Elizabeth Miller's "Filing for Divorce: Count Dracula vs. Vlad Tepes". Diane Milburn, who made her Irish debut at the 1998 summer school, is represented by "æFor the Dead Travel Fast': Dracula in Anglo-German Context", which resembles the paper she delivered here. There are interesting pieces from William Hughes and Marinella Lorinczi and the insightful wittiness of Bernard Davies's "Inspirations, Imitations and In-Jokes in Stoker's Dracula" will come as no surprise to those who heard him in Dublin last November, at the first Dublin-hosted Gothic Literature Symposium. A delightfully presented collection of essays, well worth acquiring. (Review by Cathy Krusberg for THE VAMPIRE'S CRYPT) Elizabeth Miller's scholarly anthology collects 20 conference papers from "Dracula 97," organized into five broad categories: sources for DRACULA; the light the novel sheds on late Victorian England; analyses of the text itself; aspects of the historical Dracula; and new readings of DRACULA. Preceding these papers is an essay in which Nina Auerbach observes that "as I become increasingly saturated in DRACULA, I find it -- at least, him -- increasingly alienating. I do not want to live in a coffin; ... I do not want to be bitten by a creature who is neither human, friendly, nor communicative." So (she asks) "Why are we giving Dracula a birthday party at all?" Auerbach offers one answer: the twentieth century has in effect redeemed Dracula, changing him from a silence in the middle of his own story to a creature expert at media manipulation of all sorts. But even writers of the century that has seen Dracula's redemption are not blind to the old creature's inhuman, threatening nature. Valdine Clemens writes of "Dracula: The Reptilian Brain at the Fin de Siecle," contrasting the novel's extensive use of modern technological devices (typewriter, phonograph, telephone, hypodermic injection, blood transfusion) with Dracula's reliance on a literally "reptilian" way of thinking. Vampires and reptiles share not only the traits of not caring for their young, lack of sexual bonds, and lack of the mammalian capacity for play, but the primitive "reptile brain's" reliance on instinct and habit. Amanda Fernbach, in "Dracula's Decadent Fetish," explicates another of DRACULA's (or Dracula's) threats: "DRACULA offers a decadent deconstruction of gender, presenting images of feminized men and masculinized women under the sign of vampirism." In "Corruption Becomes Itself Corrupt" Marion Muirhead shows Dracula as a vehicle of entropy, a Victorian-era answer to the late twentieth century phenomenon of the serial killer. Articles on sources for DRACULA include "The German Matrix of Stoker's Dracula" by David B. Dickens and "For the Dead Travel Fast" by Diane Milburn. These two essays show opposite sides of Stoker's use of things German. Dickens portrays Van Helsing as an essentially German protagonist; Milburn, in contrast, finds Dracula a vampire of Germanic extraction representing a threateningly expansionist German empire. Examining the text itself, Pericles Lewis, in "Epistemology of the Victorian Gothic Novel," describes how the metafiction that amounts to the book's introduction undercuts suspension of disbelief and leads the reader to doubt the reliability of the very documents that constitute the narrative. David Schmid explores a similar theme in "Is the Pen Mightier than the Sword? The Contradictory Function of Writing in Dracula." Writing is ubiquitous in the novel (necessarily, since it is told through documents rather than by an omniscient narrator), yet the vampire is overcome by his own weapons -- violence, blood, and money -- turned against him. Writing can record the struggle but ultimately has no effect on its outcome. In the perhaps misleadingly titled "Bram Stoker and the Society for Psychical Research," Stephanie Moss looks at evidence indicating that the novel reflects Stoker's interest in and familiarity with early psychoanalytic theory. Among the more lay-friendly articles is Bernard Davies's "Inspirations, Imitations, and In-Jokes in Stoker's Dracula." Davies reveals how Stoker gave the novel an "impish, cryptic sub-text" in the form of numerous details included for the benefit of relatives or friends, such as Van Helsing and Seward's visit to a hospital in Hampstead ... where Stoker's cousin was a hospital superintendent. These numerous digs show that (1) Stoker was not writing merely driven by an obsessive impulse born of repressed sexuality but was fully in control of his material (if tongue in cheek) and (2) DRACULA could not have been, as H. P. Lovecraft claimed, ghosted for Stoker by an American; only Stoker himself could have included such a wealth of personal detail. In "Stoker's Banana Skins: Errors, Illogicalities and Misconceptions in Dracula," Clive Leatherdale echoes (sometimes more thoroughly, sometimes more concisely) material in his DRACULA UNEARTHED on such topics as "Vlad Dracula versus Count Dracula," Arminius Vambery, "Dracula's Guest," and DRACULA's internal inconsistencies. Elizabeth Miller's own "Filing for Divorce: Count Dracula vs. Vlad Tepes" offers convincing evidence that Stoker did not in fact base his vampire count on a historical character. Stoker was writing a Gothic novel, not a historical treatise; his notes, as well as the novel's careful avoidance of substantial details about the historical Dracula, demonstrate that he knew, and used, little more than the name of the Wallachian warlord. Another historical versus fictional Dracula dichotomy underlies Radu Florescu's article "What's in a Name: Dracula or Vlad the Impaler?" His answer demonstrates that the name "Dracula" was used for Vlad III of the Basarab dynasty by both Vlad himself and his contemporaries (in several nations and languages) and defends its usage in modern times, pointing out that it has fallen out of favor with Romanians and historians solely because of its connection to Stoker's fictional character. Although these articles are not hard reading in terms of vocabulary or style, much of the content, whether historical or literary analysis, is sufficiently technical to be intimidating and/or dull to the non-scholar. Most of the essays are short, however, which could make this volume a good introduction to scholarship for non-academic readers. For those of scholarly inclinations: All articles of course include notes and bibliography and represent a multifaceted cross-section of the type of attention DRACULA is attracting one hundred years into its publishing history.

REVIEWS of DRACULA: THE SHADE AND THE SHADOW

From the Bram Stoker Society Newsletter (Dublin, Ireland), July 1999

Most of us in Ireland were unable to attend the Dracula Centennial Celebrations in Los Angeles during August 1997. In a year in which there were many learned conferences to commemorate the first hundred years of Bram Stoker's immortal Gothic creation, that hosted in California was "facile princeps", in terms of its sheer scope, its truly international character, and the quality of its presentations.

Over eighty papers from a host of world-renowned Dracula commentators were read during the course of that memorable month. Professor Elizabeth Miller, from Memorial University of Newfoundland, who is President of the Canadian Chapter of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, has edited and compiled twenty of these for Clive Leatherdale's meticulously presented Desert Island Dracula Library.

Although the topics are many and varied, Professor Miller has grouped the essays, logically and intelligibly, under broad headings. First into the field is noted commentator Nina Auerbach who posits and addresses the question why is it that Dracula still exerts and enduring fascination in a world so vastly different from that which begot him, through such a huge diversity of styles and forms of presentation. There then follow five discrete sections, each featuring a number of essays: the Germanic influence on Dracula, Dracula's place in Victorian England, Textual Analysis, Historical Analysis and New Perspectives.

While all the essays are accessible, some are more tailored to the non-academic reader that others. Accordingly, some are of reasonable length, with footnotes, while others are more succinct, introducing novel analyses or theories without the burden of detailed academic overlay. Members of the Bram Stoker Society are well represented in this collection and several of the titles will be familiar to those attending the annual Bram Stoker International Summer School at Clontarf, where the prototype or modified versions of some of the papers have been presented.

Clive Leatherdale's own "Stoker's Banana Skins: Errors, Illogicalities and Misconceptions in Dracula" makes a welcome appearance, and many will be delighted to get their hands on Elizabeth Miller's "Filing for Divorce: Count Dracula vs. Vlad Tepes". Diane Milburn, who made her Irish debut at the 1998 summer school, is represented by "æFor the Dead Travel Fast': Dracula in Anglo-German Context", which resembles the paper she delivered here. There are interesting pieces from William Hughes and Marinella Lorinczi and the insightful wittiness of Bernard Davies's "Inspirations, Imitations and In-Jokes in Stoker's Dracula" will come as no surprise to those who heard him in Dublin last November, at the first Dublin-hosted Gothic Literature Symposium.

A delightfully presented collection of essays, well worth acquiring.

(Review by Cathy Krusberg for THE VAMPIRE'S CRYPT)

Elizabeth Miller's scholarly anthology collects 20 conference papers from "Dracula 97," organized into five broad categories: sources for DRACULA; the light the novel sheds on late Victorian England; analyses of the text itself; aspects of the historical Dracula; and new readings of DRACULA.

Preceding these papers is an essay in which Nina Auerbach observes that "as I become increasingly saturated in DRACULA, I find it -- at least, him -- increasingly alienating. I do not want to live in a coffin; ... I do not want to be bitten by a creature who is neither human, friendly, nor communicative." So (she asks) "Why are we giving Dracula a birthday party at all?" Auerbach offers one answer: the twentieth century has in effect redeemed Dracula, changing him from a silence in the middle of his own story to a creature expert at media manipulation of all sorts.

But even writers of the century that has seen Dracula's redemption are not blind to the old creature's inhuman, threatening nature. Valdine Clemens writes of "Dracula: The Reptilian Brain at the Fin de Siecle," contrasting the novel's extensive use of modern technological devices (typewriter, phonograph, telephone, hypodermic injection, blood transfusion) with Dracula's reliance on a literally "reptilian" way of thinking. Vampires and reptiles share not only the traits of not caring for their young, lack of sexual bonds, and lack of the mammalian capacity for play, but the primitive "reptile brain's" reliance on instinct and habit. Amanda Fernbach, in "Dracula's Decadent Fetish," explicates another of DRACULA's (or Dracula's) threats: "DRACULA offers a decadent deconstruction of gender, presenting images of feminized men and masculinized women under the sign of vampirism." In "Corruption Becomes Itself Corrupt" Marion Muirhead shows Dracula as a vehicle of entropy, a Victorian-era answer to the late twentieth century phenomenon of the serial killer.

Articles on sources for DRACULA include "The German Matrix of Stoker's Dracula" by David B. Dickens and "For the Dead Travel Fast" by Diane Milburn. These two essays show opposite sides of Stoker's use of things German. Dickens portrays Van Helsing as an essentially German protagonist; Milburn, in contrast, finds Dracula a vampire of Germanic extraction representing a threateningly expansionist German empire.

Examining the text itself, Pericles Lewis, in "Epistemology of the Victorian Gothic Novel," describes how the metafiction that amounts to the book's introduction undercuts suspension of disbelief and leads the reader to doubt the reliability of the very documents that constitute the narrative. David Schmid explores a similar theme in "Is the Pen Mightier than the Sword? The Contradictory Function of Writing in Dracula." Writing is ubiquitous in the novel (necessarily, since it is told through documents rather than by an omniscient narrator), yet the vampire is overcome by his own weapons -- violence, blood, and money -- turned against him. Writing can record the struggle but ultimately has no effect on its outcome. In the perhaps misleadingly titled "Bram Stoker and the Society for Psychical Research," Stephanie Moss looks at evidence indicating that the novel reflects Stoker's interest in and familiarity with early psychoanalytic theory.

Among the more lay-friendly articles is Bernard Davies's "Inspirations, Imitations, and In-Jokes in Stoker's Dracula." Davies reveals how Stoker gave the novel an "impish, cryptic sub-text" in the form of numerous details included for the benefit of relatives or friends, such as Van Helsing and Seward's visit to a hospital in Hampstead ... where Stoker's cousin was a hospital superintendent. These numerous digs show that (1) Stoker was not writing merely driven by an obsessive impulse born of repressed sexuality but was fully in control of his material (if tongue in cheek) and (2) DRACULA could not have been, as H. P. Lovecraft claimed, ghosted for Stoker by an American; only Stoker himself could have included such a wealth of personal detail.

In "Stoker's Banana Skins: Errors, Illogicalities and Misconceptions in Dracula," Clive Leatherdale echoes (sometimes more thoroughly, sometimes more concisely) material in his DRACULA UNEARTHED on such topics as "Vlad Dracula versus Count Dracula," Arminius Vambery, "Dracula's Guest," and DRACULA's internal inconsistencies. Elizabeth Miller's own "Filing for Divorce: Count Dracula vs. Vlad Tepes" offers convincing evidence that Stoker did not in fact *base* his vampire count on a historical character. Stoker was writing a Gothic novel, not a historical treatise; his notes, as well as the novel's careful avoidance of substantial details about the historical Dracula, demonstrate that he knew, and used, little more than the name of the Wallachian warlord.

Another historical versus fictional Dracula dichotomy underlies Radu Florescu's article "What's in a Name: Dracula or Vlad the Impaler?" His answer demonstrates that the name "Dracula" was used for Vlad III of the Basarab dynasty by both Vlad himself and his contemporaries (in several nations and languages) and defends its usage in modern times, pointing out that it has fallen out of favor with Romanians and historians solely because of its connection to Stoker's fictional character.

Although these articles are not hard reading in terms of vocabulary or style, much of the content, whether historical or literary analysis, is sufficiently technical to be intimidating and/or dull to the non-scholar. Most of the essays are short, however, which could make this volume a good introduction to scholarship for non-academic readers. For those of scholarly inclinations: All articles of course include notes and bibliography and represent a multifaceted cross-section of the type of attention DRACULA is attracting one hundred years into its publishing history.