The Dracula Book of Great Vampire Stories by Leslie Shepard

dj. The first American edition of the collection. New York: A Crime Club Mystery/Hillman-Curl, Inc., 1937. Limited to 1000 presentation copies distributed to those in attendance at the 250 th performance of Dracula at the Prince of Wales Theatre on Sept.

Dust jacket: Harker being attacked by wolf. For a summary discussion of the present state of the continuing debate, see Elizabeth Miller, Dracula Sense and Nonsense (Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, UK: Desert Island Books, 2000, pp. While almost no one today believes that 'Dracula's Guest was all or part of material removed from the manuscript as it was readied for publication, there is a range of opinion as to what it played, from a missing second chapter to simply a freestanding short story with only a vague relationship to the novel. Once the content of Stoker's research notes became known, as well as the content of the copy of the Dracula manuscript discovered in 1984, further arguments against 'Dracula's Guest' being a missing first chapter were marshaled. 'Dracula's Guest' did not seem to fit in style and tone with the book. In the 1980s, however, several scholars who had made Dracula the primary object of their research began to question Florence Stoker's account. McNally and Radu Florescu saw fit, for the first time, too place it at the beginning of an edition of Dracula, their annotated volume, The Essential Dracula, thus to all appearances returning 'Dracula's Guest' to its proper place. the name short story from the collection has been a popular item to include in vampire and horror anthologies. The Dracula's Guest collection would be reprinted a number of times (though far less than Dracula) through the first half of the twentieth century, and after it entered the public domain. Harry Ludlam would in his 1962 biography of Stoker, for example, devote several paragraphs to retelling Florence's account of the lost chapter.

But as fate has entrusted to me the issuing of it, I consider it fitting and proper to let it go forth practically as it was left by him.įlorence Stoker's account of 'Dracula's Guest,' remained unchallenged to the 1980s. Had my husband lived longer, he might have seen fit to revise this work, which is mainly from the earlier years of his strenuous life. The other stories have already been published in English and American periodicals. To his original list of stories in this book, I have added a hitherto unpublished episode from 'Dracula.' It was originally excised owning to the length of the book, and may prove of interest to the many readers of what is considered my husband's most remarkable work. In the Preface to the collection of short stories, Dracula's Guest, Florence Stoker wrote:Ī few months before the lamented death of my husbandI might say even as the shadow of death was over himhe planned three series of short stories for publication, and the present volume is one of them.

The Dracula Book of Great Vampire Stories by Leslie Shepard