Dracula

By: Bram Stoker

Narrated by: Kevin Foley, Andrea Bates, Jerry Sciarrio, Kris Faulkner, Alex Mickshal, Gene Engene, Cameron Beierle

Dracula begins with the journal of Jonathan Harker, a young solicitor on the way to Transylvania to give information to the mysterious Count Dracula about his new estate in London. Dracula takes the young man prisoner, and Jonathan sees many strange and evil things in the castle before escaping and fleeing into the night. He later decides that he must have been mad.

Meanwhile, back in England, Jonathan's fiancée, Mina, is visiting her friend Lucy. Lucy has just decided to marry the Honorable Arthur Holmwood, having had to choose between him and his two friends, Dr. John Seward and Quincey Morris, the Texan.

Dracula, who is moving to London to feast on more humans, happens to land in the part of England where Mina and Lucy are staying. His first victim is Lucy. Dr. Seward, who, by coincidence, runs the insane asylum next door to Dracula's primary London home, tries to treat Lucy's "illness". He calls in from Amsterdam his friend and mentor Professor Abraham Van Helsing. Van Helsing figures out what is wrong with Lucy, but cannot save her.

By this time, Jonathan has made it home to England and is happily married to Mina. Van Helsing brings together Mina, Jonathan, Arthur, Quincey, Seward and himself and convinces everyone of the reality of vampires and the danger of this particular one, who was in his human life a great warrior and thinker. They have already destroyed the undead Lucy, and they likewise set out to destroy Dracula.

Jerry Sciarrio as Jonathan Harker
Kris Faulkner as Mina Harker
Kevin Foley as John Seward
Rebecca Cook as Lucy Westenra
Reed McColm as Quincy Morris and Renfield
Alex Mickshal as Arthur Holmwood
Andrea Bates as Mrs. Westenra
Cameron Beierle as Count Dracula
Gene Engene as Dr. Van Helsing

Public Domain (P)2008 Books In Motion

Good voice-acting for this rather long classic

This is a classic that is harder to appreciate in light of much better-written novels that have come along since, though they all owe a debt to Dracula for their existence. To a certain extent, Stoker's prose is just typical of the period -- verbosity and melodrama and long, long soliloquies were the order of the day. I enjoyed the story, but it dragged at times and at some points during this audiobook, despite the excellent acting of a varied cast and the sound effects, I found myself tuning out.

Length and problems with pacing aside, this is still an excellent novel to read to get back to the source. No, Dracula wasn't quite the first vampire novel, but it was the big trendsetter, and practically every vampire trope you've ever heard of was popularized (and in some cases, made up) here. Dracula is a cunning, malicious SOB, a good old-fashioned Villain with touches of suave charm and cruel humor, and the race to kill him off in time to save Mina does become quite the nail-biter in the end. You really get a feel for how hapless and underpowered these mere mortals are, trying to take on an ancient, immortal foe with all kinds of inhuman abilities.

Stoker also deserves praise for his descriptions and for evoking the mood of the story at every stage, from the ancient, oppressive gloominess of Castle Dracula to the dark streets of unsuspecting London at night to the cursed seashore where the Demeter washed up, piloted by a dead man's hand. Stoker makes it easy for the reader to visualize everything.

A dark, bloody classic that creaks a bit with age and with the style of the author, but it's the grand-daddy of all vampire novels, so well worth reading (or listening to).

A classic.

Hearing this audiobook makes me wish the 1992 film version was better acted, as it was fairly true to the book.
Well read and interesting.
A classic horror tale

Decent but not great

I'm writing this as a fan of classics (rather than, say, horror genre). First, on performance: I normally don't like multi-voice or dramatized performances. This one is an exception. The style of writing lends itself very well to the format, and the production was extremely well done. Probably the only time I'll ever give 5-stars for performance to a multi-reader production.

The story is OK. As with many classics where one has some notions based on movies and modern interpretations, it's not the same as one might expect going in. I'm OK with that, and I expect that. But where something like Frankenstein turned out to be way better than typical movie re-creations, I found this lacking. Admittedly it's mostly that the pace and style are just slow compared to what a modern audience would expect.

The story is told mostly in the form of diary entries. It's reasonably well done for what it is, and the style is good for telling the story, but there's just not really that much overall story there to tell.

A SUPERB PRODUCTION!

When you search Audible for "Dracula" by Bram Stoker it's easy to get confused; there are almost 30 choices spread over 3 pages. I got lucky. Based on the small audio sample, my choice was this production by "Books in Motion". Their version is based on the 1897 book, and it's a full 18 hours, 11 minutes. AND the downloads (3 parts) are available in Audible's new "Enhanced format" for best sound. I own a hardcover edition of Dracula as well and nothing is missing here. Unabridged, for sure.

The narration is done by a CAST of talented actors, and they live their roles! A personal favorite was the Professor, Van Helsing, but everyone did a great job. Sound effects were handled well also, and the voices of Count Dracula and his voluptuous "brides" are quite chilling. A true classic, and a great adventure!

Brilliant narration of the greatest horror story!

I listen to audible during my long commute at nights.
That commute takes me through lonely, dark roads.
The wonderful, thrilling narration chilled my soul many a times, especially when you are alone in the car, at night, on a new moon day.

The howl of wolves and Jonathan Harker discovering he was alone was so chillingly narrated that i switched it off out of sheer fear.

Kudos to the narration team. Especially Van Helsing's voice, and Dracula's.

It was like a movie/TV Series.