Take t he papers that are with this, the diaries of Harker and the rest, and read them and then find the great Un-dead, and cut off his head and burn his heart or drive a stake through it, so that the world may rest from him.
In 1897, at the age of fifty, Bram Stoker was touring manager to the actor Henry Irving and was enjoying a modest success as a journalist and writer. Publication in that year of Dracula was to bring him international and lasting fame.
The Dracula mythology has inspired a vast subculture, but the story has never been better told than by Stoker. He succeeds entirely in his aim to terrify. His myth is powerful because it allows evil to remain mysterious. Virtuous action has no more impact than Jonathan Harkers shovel. The high virtue of Lucy can simply be drained away, as her blood is drained away, until she too joins the vampire brood. Van Helsings high-thinking and scientific skill cannot resist the dreadful potency of the undead. Only the old magica crucifix, garlic, a wooden stakecan provide effective weapons against the Counts appalling power.

Bram (Abraham) Stoker (1847-1912) was born in Dublin and entered Trinity College in 1866. He became a civil servant as well as a drama critic and editor before settling in London where he worked in theater. He wrote fifteen works of fiction, of which the classic horror tale Dracula (1897) is the most famous.

Earphones Awards recipient Robert Whitfield was born in England and worked for the BBC for ten years as a radio news announcer and also worked as a narrator for the Royal National Institute for the Blind in London. In addition to narrating for Blackstone Audiobooks, he involves himself in numerous stage-acting projects in the United States and Europe.