Dracula: The UnDead

Well I got a copy of this a few weeks ago, and was excited at the prospect. I am sucker for Dracula, hmm, no pun intended, and enjoyed The Historian immensely.

The prospect of Dacre Stoker pairing with a fan of the genre, Ian Holt, captivated me. I read the preface and drooled.

I should have known.

Years ago I picked up a book that was a sequel of Dickens, and it had Tiny Tim as an adult. After a few pages, I decided not to buy the book. It just didn't do anything for me.

I had high hopes for this one, but as good as I'm sure it is, I can't do it. I read the first few chapters, and the characters went a direction that made me sad, and it ached to see them lose their nobility. I saw that they bickered a lot. I had no problem with what they did with Dracula, or his key vampiric protagonist, but again, not for me. I could only scan the rest of the book, and read the last few chapters, too.

I guess what really did it, was - as a horror writer myself - I saw a key story plot telegraphed for me. That vanquished a good portion of the mystery element.

If you read this, or have read it, I hope that you enjoyed it. Kudos for the courage to write it, and many salutes to the Stoker family. But, it wasn't meant to be for me.

Dracula at Actor's Theatre in Louisville

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http://www.facebook.com/ActorsTheatreofLouisville

Fifth Third Bank's Dracula 2010 Special Trailer

My favorite time of year is almost here!



Dracula, Waverly Hills, what more could Louisville want?
Special Dracula Trailer shot on the grounds of Waverly Hills!

Classic Dracula Theme (1931)

The original, scratches and all.

A little Kronos Quartet and Dracula

This should jump start your day!

First Look at DRACULA at Actors Theatre

It's Dracula week at the H P Lovecraft Blog!



Oh, the time is coming to see the annual Dracula performance!

Hijacked!

Dracula ... is coming ... Dracula is coming ...

{Your .....
........... H. P. Lovecraft
................................. blog is now
................................................. Hijacked!}

Stay tuned for Dracula !!!

Not Lovecraft - but very horrific

Every year, me and Mrs. Chris go to see Louisville's Actor's Theater's production of Dracula. It wouldn't be October without it. It is a superb world-class production and we love to see the people scream when they get into it. It's in a very small, intimate theater of about 700 people, and the actors surround you and move in and out of the aisles, and sometimes through the air.

My other favortite place is Waverly Hills, which I've written about many times.

Now, the actors of the play went out to Waverly Hills and did a trailer. It gave me goosebumps, they did such a good job.




You may now return to your regular Lovecraft blog.

:)

Dracula V

Hope you enjoyed this series. :)

Dracula IV

Dracula III

Dracula II

Dracula I

Lovecraft read it. The Hound is a parody of it. This is the edition he probably read. Enjoy these posted images for the next several days. (The posters are a bonus).

A Few Comments About Lovecraft and Werewolves

"Just before his death Lovecraft spoke to me of an ambitious project reserved
for some period of greater leisure, a sort of dynastic chronicle in fictional
form, dealing with the hereditary mysteries and destinies of generations of an
ancient New England family, tainted and cursed down the diminishing generations
with some grewsome variant of lycanthropy. It was to be his magnum
opus, embodying the results of his profound researches in the occult
legends of that grim and secret country which he knew so well, but apparently
the outline was just beginning to crystallize in his mind, and I doubt if
he left even a rough draft of his plan."

Edkins, Ernest A. "Idiosyncracies of H. P. L." In LOVECRAFT REMEMBERED. Ed. Peter Cannon. (Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1998). Pages 94-95.

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Biss, Gerald. THE DOOR OF THE UNREAL. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1920First U.S. edition. Werewolf novel, first published in Britain by Eveleigh Nash in 1919, praised by H. P. Lovecraft in his Supernatural Horror in Literature (1945).



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The Door of the Unreal was inspired by Dracula. It features the same plot structure, a group of brave men trying to save a beautiful woman from the clutches of evil monsters.

H. P. Lovecraft wrote of it in "The Superntural Horror in Literature" : "Dracula evoked many similar novels of supernatural horror, among which the best are perhaps The Beetle, by Richard Marsh, Brood of the Witch-Queen, by "Sax Rohmer" (Arthur Sarsfield Ward), and The Door of the Unreal, by Gerald Biss.

Lovecraftiana: Jeffrey Combs Reads H P Lovecraft

The CD states that Herbert West was "inspired by Frankenstein". Lovecraft often made sly allusions to Mary Shelley (including The Last Man) but it's unlikely he was inspired by the story. He may have parodied it, but HPL was his own man, and Herbert West is no more Frankenstein than The Hound is Dracula. It's cool to see Jeffrey Combs' signature. - CP.

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(From the seller) Jeffrey Combs reads HP Lovecraft Re-Animator (CD is signed, see image). Horror film star Jeffrey Combs signature in red marker on front bottom.VERY RAREDisc Excellent, packaging excellent, replaceable case has a few scratches-From the Cd sleeve-"In 1921 at the age of thirty-one, H.P. Lovecraft officially became a professional writer by agreeing to pen a short horror serial for the weird-action pulp magazine Home Brew. The "Herbert West-Reanimator" serial was six gruesome tales inspired by Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, and was a group of stories Lovecraft considered to be his "poorest work... stuff done to order for a vulgar magazine, and written down to the herd's level." Contrary to Lovecraft's opinion of his own work, Re-animator is a very enjoyable macabre tale filled with suspense and dread. Since the story appeared in serial form, each month's issue featured a new installment with each successive installment beginning with an ever lengthening summary exposition. I've taken the liberty of judiciously editing out most of the repetitions and, in doing so, I took great care not to disrupt Lovecraft's intended rhythm and flow. I hope you enjoy!"
Sincerely Jeffrey Combs

Arabian Nights & Lovecraft

It's well known that Lovecraft adored the Andrew Lang version of The Arabian Nights. But in all place, I ofund in an obscure book (1) on Bram Stoker's Dracula - the movie - this interesting historical anecdote.

"The incident where Mina and Lucy excitedly peruse a volume of the Arabian Nights, we are immediately reminded of ... Stoker's novel. ... Bram Stoker met {Richard} Burton (translater of the Arabian Nights, not the movie star of the mid-20th century} in the 1880's and wrote how impressed he was ... The Arabian Nights comtains a vampire tale. Johnathan Harker comments ... "This diary seems horribly like the beginning of the 'Arabian Nights' for everything has to break off at cockcorw."

Burton scandalized Victorian England, but still the Victorians on both sides of the Atlantic were entranced by the Tales and settings.

Lovecraft was a product of his times - or at least his grandfather's times - and one wonders if he was swept up in the fad for the Arabian Nights and guided there by family members. Hence, Abdul Alhazrad?

It's not Lovecraft, but it is a great comic.

Chrispy is still tied up writing stories and other things. I do have new things in store for you, soon!

A Modern Vampire: Eerily Similar to Mercy Brown

In The Shunned House, HPL thinly veils Mercy Dexter (i.e. Mercy Brown of Exeter, Rhode Island) as a parody of Mercy Lea Brown. Space does not permit the full telling of the tragic story of the Brown family - and the long tradition of attempting to prevent tuberculosis by exhuming bodies and burning hearts in Rhode Island and Connecticutt. Perhaps in a future blog - but one can easily google on the tradition.

However, we know that HPL made use of the 1892 newspaper article raging about the superstition - perhaps found in Sidney Rider's books.

The tradition has a modern outbreak of note. In 2004, a farmer named Petre Toma died. Upon burial, a child in the village became ill and a group of panicked villagers exhumed the body, pried the rib cage open with a pitchfork, burned the heart and made a brew of the ashes and made the sick child drink it.

The story is long, and to save space, I'm putting them in the comments section attached to this post.

The citations are: Massimo Pollidoro [1] & Seattle Times.

Commentary on The Hound Part 3

Holland not only refers to the Dutch Reformed Church in Flatbush, but also van Helsing of Dracula.

"Dr. Van Helsing must be a good man as well as a clever one if he is Arthur's friend and Dr. Seward's, and if they brought him all the way from Holland to look after Lucy. "

The Hound is notable because this is the first mention of Necronomicon and it is referred to as written by Abdul Alhazred. Both Greek and Arabic are aberrations of etymology and construct - as pointed out often by Mr. Joshi, but we like them!

Commentary on The Hound Part 2

Lovecraft is obviously parodying Stoker's Dracula frequently in The Hound.

The whirring of big bats probably derives from this passage, "Between me and the moonlight flitted a great bat, coming and going in great whirling circles. Once or twice it came quite close, but was, I suppose, frightened at seeing me, and flitted away across the harbour towards the abbey. "

Other batty quotes from Dracula are:

But the fact is that whilst the Professor was talking there came a big bat and sat on the window sill.

Then I caught the patient's eye and followed it, but could trace nothing as it looked into the moonlight sky, except a big bat, which was flapping its silent and ghostly way to the west. Bats usually wheel about, but this one seemed to go straight on, as if it knew where it was bound for or had some intention of its own.

But I did not fear to go to sleep again, although the boughs or bats or something flapped almost angrily against the window panes.

One of those big bats that they call vampires had got at her in the night, and what with his gorge and the vein left open, there wasn't enough blood in her to let her stand up, and I had to put a bullet through her as she lay.

Can you tell me why in the Pampas, ay and elsewhere, there are bats that come out at night and open the veins of cattle and horses and suck dry their veins, how in some islands of the Western seas there are bats which hang on the trees all day, and those who have seen describe as like giant nuts or pods, and that when the sailors sleep on the deck, because that it is hot, flit down on them and then, and then in the morning are found dead men, white as even Miss Lucy was?"

We asked Vincent to what he attributed them, and he replied that it must have been a bite of some animal, perhaps a rat, but for his own part, he was inclined to think it was one of the bats which are so numerous on the northern heights of London.