 | edt4 (110)
02/22/2006 |  "Dracula" is probably my favorite horror story of all time (I first read it at the age of 8, although I understood only some of what I read at that point), although Stoker, a conventional Victorian in every sense (he was Irish-Protestant), was a fairly pedestrian author. The opening portion of the book, which takes place in Dracula's castle, is magnificent and wonderfully atmospheric still, but the rest of the book doesn't maintain the same intensity, and can justifiably be considered boring by many. The characters are fairly lifeless (pardon the pun) and it can be difficult to distinguish one from the other. It's been noted by others far more erudite and articulate than myself that "Dracula" symbolized the seething tensions, sexual and otherwise, that roiled beneath the staid, hypocritical and repressive surface of the Victorian society that Stoker was a product and proponent of, although Stoker himself probably wasn't aware of what he had accomplished. As for his other work...I enjoyed the Ken Russell movie version of "The Lair of the White Worm" but found the story itself turgid and nearly incomprehensible (and dull). "The Judge's House" is a fairly interesting and effective short story, but Stoker was not a prolific author and was never able to match the impact of "Dracula" with anything else he wrote.
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 | irishgit (151)
02/16/2006 | Stoker is best known as the author of Dracula which is somewhat unfortunate because it is far from the limit of his work. By no means a great writer, he is nonetheless a very good one, and worth exploring.
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 | oscargamblesfro (81)
02/16/2006 | I haven't read anything but his famous classic, twice, like it a lot. 3.5 stars for that. My girlfriend is into vampire literature much more than I am, I usually rag on the sophisticated, latte sipping, 'trendo' rock star vampires to her chagrin. Tried "The Lair of the White Worm," didn't get far into it though, not because it was bad, just didn't.
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