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104th out of 810 books
—
1,273 voters
Dracula in Love
by
Karen Essex (Goodreads Author)
In this wonderfully transporting novel, award-winning author Karen Essex turns a timeless classic inside out, spinning a haunting, erotic, and suspenseful story of eternal love and possession.
From the shadowy banks of the river Thames to the wild and windswept Yorkshire coast, Dracula’s eternal muse, Mina Murray, vividly recounts the intimate details of what really transpi...more
From the shadowy banks of the river Thames to the wild and windswept Yorkshire coast, Dracula’s eternal muse, Mina Murray, vividly recounts the intimate details of what really transpi...more
Hardcover, 384 pages
Published
August 10th 2010
by Doubleday
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Beach Vacation Read #6: My habit of borrowing any ebook that sounds remotely interesting does not always pay off. DNF.
This is dire. It starts off with high purple prose in its pseudo-Victorian way, and it only gets worse from there. The heroine is sexually assaulted by page 11 and spends half her time during the assault fretting about what other people would think of her morals, in particular what her fiancé would think:
This is dire. It starts off with high purple prose in its pseudo-Victorian way, and it only gets worse from there. The heroine is sexually assaulted by page 11 and spends half her time during the assault fretting about what other people would think of her morals, in particular what her fiancé would think:
In my mind, I saw Jonathan receive the news, his stricken face turning white...more
4-ish.
Dracula in Love isn't just a fill-in-the-gaps retelling of Dracula, fleshing out the story from Mina's point of view. No, it is a sort of feminist retelling in which Mina asserts that the story that everyone knows, the story that's been told by men, is false. True to their Victorian beliefs and morés, the men have cast the women of the story as either saints of harridans, relegating them to sidelines to seethe or swoon as they may. But thinking, feeling, intelligent Mina isn't having it. T...more
Dracula in Love isn't just a fill-in-the-gaps retelling of Dracula, fleshing out the story from Mina's point of view. No, it is a sort of feminist retelling in which Mina asserts that the story that everyone knows, the story that's been told by men, is false. True to their Victorian beliefs and morés, the men have cast the women of the story as either saints of harridans, relegating them to sidelines to seethe or swoon as they may. But thinking, feeling, intelligent Mina isn't having it. T...more
I think Karen Essex has some beautiful prose. She has a sensual, seductive, and wonderfully descriptive way of writing that lured me in and made me think this would be a wonderful book. I love gothic books, and “Dracula in Love” is definitely that.
The problem with this book is there isn’t much of Dracula in it. Two-hundred words in, and he still hadn’t made much of an appearance The book wasn’t really about him, or his love. Yes, I got caught up in the rather fascinating story about the horror o...more
The problem with this book is there isn’t much of Dracula in it. Two-hundred words in, and he still hadn’t made much of an appearance The book wasn’t really about him, or his love. Yes, I got caught up in the rather fascinating story about the horror o...more
8 likes · like · see review
First off, the title is misleading. There is no love involved in this story. There's a lot of lust, but no evidence of stronger feelings. And since this is told in Mina's first-person POV, we don't get to know Dracula or his feelings at all. I wanted to put this down around page 50 after reading an awful, cringe-worthy description of masturbation, but I felt obligated to keep reading. The whole novel is like one long mindtrip, and in the end it just didn't make a lot of sense to me--and there we...more
13 likes · like · see review
Truly enjoyed this read. At first I was unsure as the book seemed to be a bit slow getting started but as the story unfolded I found myself eagerly turning the pages. This tale encourages me to return to Dracula by Bram Stoker which I put down after about 100 pages because I couldn't get into it and/or my imagination was getting the best of me. Or, perhaps I just wasn't in the mood for it. At any rate Karen Essex explains how she came to be interested in Mina enough to write this tale. She found...more
Karen Essex did an incredible job retelling Bram Stokers Dracula. Dracula In Love was told from Mina's perspective, and I loved it just as much as the original.
Review from www.bookflame.blogspot.com
The first half of the novel was a lot of background information on Mina, which I found interesting. The novel really picked up for me when we got to the asylum. I was reading Dracula In Love in the middle of the night so yes, I was slightly creeped out but couldn't stop myself from turning the page. E...more
Review from www.bookflame.blogspot.com
The first half of the novel was a lot of background information on Mina, which I found interesting. The novel really picked up for me when we got to the asylum. I was reading Dracula In Love in the middle of the night so yes, I was slightly creeped out but couldn't stop myself from turning the page. E...more
Jan 30, 2012
Slayermel
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anyone wanting another perspective on Dracula
Shelves:
ebook,
female-authors,
library,
2012,
21st-century,
american,
faeries,
fantasy,
fiction,
historical-fiction,
historical-romance,
mystery,
paranormal,
romance,
vampires
I really enjoyed this story. It is a retelling of Bram Stokers Dracula but from the perspective of Mina. Apparently the true story was covered up by certain men in the story to hide their dastardly deeds. I really enjoyed the spin on the story and it made me look at some of the characters differently :0)
It really wasn’t farfetched to see women put into the rolls of the mentally imbalanced for that period of time just for having sexual cravings or feelings of lust and love. I thought it was quit...more
It really wasn’t farfetched to see women put into the rolls of the mentally imbalanced for that period of time just for having sexual cravings or feelings of lust and love. I thought it was quit...more
Oh, what I can I say? I didn't like this one at all, despite the author trying very very hard to come up with a new angle on the Dracula story. If I had not read this on my nook, I would have made a deep hole in the living room wall with it.
For the complete review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/review/Karen_...
For the complete review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/review/Karen_...
1 like · like · see review
The Short of It
Every story has many different perspectives.
The Long of It
Dracula, oh how I loved thee. Seriously. I’m sure you’re familiar with the story. It’s eerie. It’s all about Otherness. And maybe some love. With a bit of chivalry and propriety thrown in for Victorian sprinkles. I’ll not recap it, but you can read it for free here (amongst many other places). Move along please.
The Thoughts about It
I find myself being completely on the fence with this book. There was a point in reading it w...more
Every story has many different perspectives.
The Long of It
Dracula, oh how I loved thee. Seriously. I’m sure you’re familiar with the story. It’s eerie. It’s all about Otherness. And maybe some love. With a bit of chivalry and propriety thrown in for Victorian sprinkles. I’ll not recap it, but you can read it for free here (amongst many other places). Move along please.
The Thoughts about It
I find myself being completely on the fence with this book. There was a point in reading it w...more
This book tells the story of Dracula from Mina Harker's perspective. As the story unfolds you see the connection between Mina and the Count unfold from the time she was little til he revealed himself when she was older. We learn of their life together not only in this time setting but also in the past. How they have been connected over many lifetimes as soul mates. It was a love that didn't know the boundaries of time. We also see the cultural changes taking place with women during this time in...more
1 like · like · see review
I am most of the way through DRACULA IN LOVE now and am just flabbergasted. I've been a fan for ages (I have KLEOPATRA and PHARAOH in hardback) but I have never before seen Karen Essex hit these depths of horror. It blew me away, the way she described the "treatments" of the day: it gave me chills! At a time when feminism is just beginning to emerge, men still hold absolute sway over their wives' lives and deaths. The way Essex shows what goes on "backstage," if you will, is sheer genuis; in the...more
1 like · like · see review
Dracula in Love is told from Mina Murray Harker's point of view. The premise of the book is that the novel Dracula, written by Bram Stoker, is a misrepresentation of the true events. Mina tells the reader from the beginning that "[her] story has been written by another, sold for money, and offered to the public for entertainment." She goes on to explain how the writer claims to be above reproach in his documentation of the true story, but that the "records are falsified documents, based on the l...more
Karen Essex frees the Dracula legend from its total staleness as more and more vampire novels flood the market.I myself don't read them, other than "Interview With the Vampire," which remains the one true masterpiece of the genre. I would place Dracula In Love alongside that one. Somehow Essex manages to recast Dracula in a completely fresh way, as a timeless spirit tormented by an impossible love. The narrator and object of desire is Mina, and she too has been reconceived as a strong complex Vi...more
Geez...a lot of people didn't really care for this book...well, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Yes, there were a couple problems here and there (someone else had a problem with the heroine saying, "Quit following me!" and I have to admit, I found that jarring, too...just didn't sound Victorian in the least little bit...) And I wasn't quite sure what the story was with Mina's friend Lucy...up until the end of the book, it really seems as though she, too, was being seduced by Dracula (or another vampire...more
Yes, there were a couple problems here and there (someone else had a problem with the heroine saying, "Quit following me!" and I have to admit, I found that jarring, too...just didn't sound Victorian in the least little bit...) And I wasn't quite sure what the story was with Mina's friend Lucy...up until the end of the book, it really seems as though she, too, was being seduced by Dracula (or another vampire...more
Riadattamento del Dracula per menti pigre di cui non sentivo bisogno - CONTROVERSY INSIDE! - Perch� prendere un opera come il Dracula di Bram Stoker e riempirla di pezzi inutili e scritti male? In pratica il libro � stato riscritto per adattarlo ai gusti odierni, stravolgendo a caso alcuni personaggi (Quincey e Van Helsing) ritenuti forse troppo rigidi, aggiungendo scene gratuite di sesso, riempiendo quei silenzi narrativi suggestivi che di solito il lettore riempiva con la propria immaginazione...more
This novel started with a bang and whimpered out quickly. Essex could not decide exactly what she wanted to do with the book: re-tell the Dracula story from Mina's point of view and bring in the issues Victorian doctors had with female sexuality or write an erotic novel about the coupling of a seductive vampire and Mina. The Victorian prose that I enjoyed in the start of Dracula in Love soon gave way to a disjointed, unstructured novel with main charactering disappearing from the novel for pages...more
Dracula in Love is set in the midst of the Victorian era - a time when the purity of women was highly emphasized and women who did not meet this standard were considered mentally ill - and could be institutionalized for expressing their sexuality. This is also the era of spiritualism, mediumship, and ghost photography.
Enter Mina Murray, as pure as can be, who teaches deportment, etiquette, and and elocution at an all-girls "finishing" school. However, she dreams of a man - who speaks to her sens...more
Enter Mina Murray, as pure as can be, who teaches deportment, etiquette, and and elocution at an all-girls "finishing" school. However, she dreams of a man - who speaks to her sens...more
This was an odd book. I read the author notes and the author wanted to explore the Dracula story from the woman's point of view because apparently Bram Stoker portrays women in a bad light in his novel. I have not read Bram Stoker's Dracula so I cannot comment on that. I will admit to skimming much of the book and only stopping to read what interested me. I found the endless details of Min's life as a school teacher boring and her friends boring and the whole interlude with Lucy and her secret l...more
It wasn't that bad but it wasn't that great either. The book moved really slowly at times and I found myself skimming some parts which is something I only do when I just want to get to the end! I did like the character of Mina, but most of the characters were really different than I had imagined when I first read Dracula. So, I was pretty lukewarm on just about everyone. I can say that I really thought the mood of the book was based much more on Coppola's movie than it was on Stoker's original b...more
Aug 08, 2011
Amy (SpedBug)
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Shelves:
library-book,
kept-picking-it-apart-in-my-head
The dustcover of this book promises "Karen Essex breathes startling new life into the characters of Bram Stoker's Dracula." While it's true her novel is a retelling of the Dracula story from Mina Murray's point of view, there's nothing startling or lively about her characters.
I was intrigued at first, reading through a few chapters with hopeful enthusiasm. Fifty pages in, I was both disatisfied and bored. The only thing 'startling' about the book were a few egregious sexual scenes and the compl...more
I was intrigued at first, reading through a few chapters with hopeful enthusiasm. Fifty pages in, I was both disatisfied and bored. The only thing 'startling' about the book were a few egregious sexual scenes and the compl...more
5 likes · like · see review
I enjoyed Dracula in Love. Karen Essex has been having an online discussion that I was a part of, and I really enjoyed having the opportunity to "talk" with her. I hadn't read Dracula in Love yet, but had read Stealing Athena, which stayed with me for a long time. Stealing Athena is historical fiction...Dracula In Love, you could almost say is historical fiction as well, given how eternal Dracula and Vampire lore is embedded in the minds of generation after generation. This is a different take,...more
Dracula In Love is a retelling of the original classic from a female perspective-Mina Harker. We learn that "Dracula" has been waiting for Mina through out the centuries; watching and waiting through each reincarnation for her to remember and finally choose him. Yet with each new life, she chooses another path that takes her from him. I admire the fact that he tells and shows her each and every time their past and always allows her a choice.
Myth and legend is rebuilt with a liberal hand as we l...more
Myth and legend is rebuilt with a liberal hand as we l...more
This is a terrible book. Not only is it derivative in concept and lacking in style, but it's also incredibly lazy. If you're going to write a faux-Victorian novel then I would think it wise to do at least some very basic research first, in order that it isn't full of glaring errors. With the best will in the world, even if the book had been otherwise fantastic it would have been hard not to laugh at an Anglo-Irish Victorian lady shouting at Dracula "Quit following me!", or the sight of vultures...more
Everyone remembers Bram Stoker's "Dracula". It was a tale of horror and everyone knew that vampires were the "bad guys". But were they? Karen Essex takes Stoker's tale and gives it a twist. Following the same timeline, using the same characters and written in much of the same format "Dracula in Love" gives a total different view.
In the Prologue of the book, Mina Murray Harker states:
"Unlike most people whose lives remain private, my story has been written by another, sold for money and offered...more
In the Prologue of the book, Mina Murray Harker states:
"Unlike most people whose lives remain private, my story has been written by another, sold for money and offered...more
Bram Stoker's Dracula was one of those books (and movies) that stuck with me for a long time. When I was given the opportunity to read and review a story that was to be from Mina's point of view, I couldn't resist. I had always felt that she was slighted by Stoker and that his disdain for women was quite clear in the book.
Karen Essex has given us a fresh view of Mina and her world. She has created the heroine that most of us would have wanted to see in the original version. In spite of her child...more
Karen Essex has given us a fresh view of Mina and her world. She has created the heroine that most of us would have wanted to see in the original version. In spite of her child...more
In the author's note to Dracula in Love, Karen Essex asks her readers to take the book "in the spirit of fun and adventure in which it was written". Which I do - it is a clever book, better written than I could have expected, and very thoughtful. I appreciate it - I appreciate what Essex is doing, the very intelligent way in which she is lovingly dialoguing with her source text. This is a legitimately good novel, despite the ill-suited Proust allusion of the title which makes it sound like a che...more
2 likes · like · see review
As a huge fan of the original Dracula by Bram Stoker (it being the book I learned how to work a CD player for as a pre-teen so I could sew whilst listening!), I noticed this book with interest … and also more than a little worry. The combined power of gorgeous cover and story from another view point (two things I generally enjoy), however, soon won me over enough to pick up a copy and delve inside.
Miss Mina Murray is introduced as an Irish schoolmistress, a 22-year-old who rose to become the sta...more
Miss Mina Murray is introduced as an Irish schoolmistress, a 22-year-old who rose to become the sta...more
Mina is a woman on the verge of obtaining all that she has ever wanted. Soon to be married, she and her fiancé Jonathan have already planed out how their future lives together will be, where they will marry, the location of their first home and even the names of their children. Everything was perfect, then the dreams began. But these were no ordinary dreams being as vivid as waking life and Mina begins to question not only her life but also her sanity.
Meanwhile, Jonathan is called away on busine...more
Meanwhile, Jonathan is called away on busine...more
The symphonious writing flowed through every page of Dracula In Love. The pull of the words were luring and enrapturing. If you love the "real" vampire's you will receive ample amounts. I am a Twilight lover, nevertheless I still love where it has all began. I feel real vampire's have more to them than sparkles.
The way Mina's character transpired right off the pages was a wonder. I could see the way Feminism played a role, But I don't feel it was overwhelming. I felt the absurdity of how women...more
The way Mina's character transpired right off the pages was a wonder. I could see the way Feminism played a role, But I don't feel it was overwhelming. I felt the absurdity of how women...more
When an author chooses to write a retelling of a well-known work from a different point of view, there are two camps of readers that must be satisfied: the author's fans and the fans of the original work. Karen Essex, I believe, manages to appease both, albeit clumsily at times, with Dracula in Love, a creative rendering of Bram Stoker's Dracula, told from Mina Murray Harker's perspective.
In this novel, Mina is a teacher in Victorian England who sometimes experiences the extraordinary (i.e. slee...more
In this novel, Mina is a teacher in Victorian England who sometimes experiences the extraordinary (i.e. slee...more
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I'm the author of DRACULA IN LOVE, Stealing Athena, Leonardo's Swans, Kleopatra, Pharaoh, and Bettie Page: Life of a Pin Up Legend. I am also an active screenwriter and an award-winning journalist. I divide my time between Los Angeles and London, where I moved a couple of years ago to soak in the atmosphere. Helps when you are writing a gothic Victorian novel.
Please see my new blog, "Women, Histo...more
More about Karen Essex...
Please see my new blog, "Women, Histo...more
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Mar 02, 2013 09:32am