Seguir o autor

Bram Stocker é um autor gótico como fica bem exposto nesta coletânea de contos somada à novela The Lair of White Worm, que é interessante mas um pouco confusa na sua construção. Sexualidade, humanidade e bestialidade, razão e irracionalidade são os elementos de que se utiliza o autor para trabalhar com sua produção literária que envolve o bizarro e o estranhamento. A ediçao é muito boa não só pelas notas de rodapé que contextualizam os textos no período como também e especialmente pela introdução que é primoroza. Aliás foi pela introdução e anexos que fiquei sabendo que o conto “Dracula’s Guest” era para ser o primeiro capítulo de Dracula que foi cortado pela extensão do livro.

Traduzir todas as avaliações para português

Útil

Principais avaliações de outros países

Amazon Customer

Nice one

Avaliado na Índia em 29 de outubro de 2023

A good read

Young Wordsmith

Must-read for Stoker fans

Avaliado nos Estados Unidos em 21 de julho de 2008

Dracula being one of my favorite books, I was thrilled to find this collection of Bram Stoker's short stories. I enjoy horror writers who can provoke old-fashioned fright without relying too heavily on graphic details; while those details have a place, too many of them dampen a story. I was hoping that this collection would be as skillfully crafted as Dracula; I'm happy to say that this anthology mostly lived up to my expectations. While there's plenty of ghoulish tension throughout the book, these stories also provide moral lessons, cautionary tales, some hair-raising plot twists, and even a few happy anecdotes that keep the collection from feeling monolithic.

Disclaimer: I tried to keep the "spoilers" in this review to a minimum - that is, I did not include any details that you would not read within the first half of the stories. Read on if you want more information about each individual tale; otherwise, suffice it to say that fans of gothic horror writing will probably find this collection very enjoyable and worth a read.

"Dracula's Guest": A headstrong stranger faces danger when he does not heed the advice of the locals. I was glad I knew Dracula as well as I do when I started reading this selection because Stoker draws a lot of parallels to the opening scenes of his novel (a carriage ride, mountainous terrain, wolves, baleful weather, the dangers of Walpurgis Nacht), which made the reading experience feel rich and familiar.

"The Judge's House": A young man stays in a house with an unpleasant, angry past, much to the chagrin of the surrounding townsfolk. Again, Stoker points out the foolishness of willfully neglecting superstition/advice; I'll admit that this felt a bit predictable after "Dracula's Guest," but I still found myself enthralled with the narrative.

"The Squaw": A couple's honeymoon does not exactly go as planned. Some truly horrific events transpire in the few pages of this story, which is far and away the most disturbing, graphic tale in the book. I won't spoil it with any more details.

"The Secret of Growing Gold": A callous lover learns that he cannot bury his past. This one felt like the most conventional story for me, perhaps because it does deal with a jilted lover, which is one of the oldest themes in storytelling. Still, even in Stoker's most conventional stories, he has a good knack for maintaining a menacing enough tone that you want to keep reading.

"A Gipsy Prophecy": A young couple must figure out how to deal with a terribly upsetting prophecy they receive from a local gipsy. Kind of self-explanatory, but I liked this one quite a bit.

"The Coming of Abel Behenna": Two men and one woman find themselves embroiled in a fiercely competitive love triangle. I found the tone of this story more mocking and satiric than the other stories in the book, which was refreshing. Stoker condemns the fickleness of affection and the repercussions of jealousy while still weaving a ghastly story in the process.

"The Burial of the Rats": An early 1900s chase-scene set in fantastic, perilous circumstances. This story starts slowly but builds into a breakneck pace - I really enjoyed it by the end, and there are some fairly unsettling ideas brought together as the narrator runs for his life.

"A Dream of Red Hands": Two friends learn about the power of guilt and repentance. I realize that sounds like the plot of a Lifetime movie, but this story's a bit of a far cry from the straight horror genre, which I appreciated in this anthology.

"Crooken Sands": A man discovers that he is truly his own worst enemy. The protagonist's anticipated undoing is bred from his own pride; because of that, he will not stop his terrible fate even as he sees it coming to pass before his own eyes.

"Lair of the White Worm": A 120-page novella about a young man and his granduncle getting wrapped up in the mysteries surrounding the eccentric, inscrutable heir to a local estate and an equally puzzling woman. There's some stirring imagery and bizarre twists that keep the story relatively entertaining, but I had the hardest time getting into this of all the stories in the book; the narrative is very herky-jerky and the tone is uneven. The hallmark of a good horror story is that it seems real; what struck me most the first time I read Dracula was the chilling atmosphere and the characters' genuine terror as their understanding was shattered by the dark, demonic "other" they encountered in the book's nominal character. Sadly, I did not get any such feeling reading this selection, despite its seeming similarities to Stoker's novel; for one, the characters seem recover too quickly from the sickening events that transpire, which makes the story feel cursory and surreal. Not Stoker's best, but still worth a read for the frame of reference.

Despite the shortcomings of the final selection in the book, this collection is definitely worth reading. Highly recommended to fans of Dracula and/or gothic horror stories.

24 pessoas acharam isso útil

Kindle Customer

Entertaining fantasy listening 🎶🔰

Avaliado nos Estados Unidos em 3 de setembro de 2023

This novella is free on Amazon. Oh how I love 💘 those free books 📚!

I was surprised to find that this was nine short stories of mystery, romance, family and friends relationships, adventure thrillers. Each story is different with interesting well developed characters lots of action and misdirection leading to each conclusion. I would highly recommend this novella and author to 👍 readers of fantasy horror mystery novels 👍🔰. 2023 👒😀😡💘🏡😮

I was expecting a one quick listening 🎶 and there were nine. Happy reading 📚 and have fun 🌙😀

Charles van Buren

Stories to be read by faint, flickering candlelight

Avaliado nos Estados Unidos em 12 de agosto de 2019

Review of free Kindle edition
A Public Domain Book
Publication date: May 17, 2012
Language: English
ASIN: B0084BO094
210 pages

An engaging collection of nine short stories by Bram Stoker of DRACULA fame. Some are better than others but I enjoyed all of them. Even the ones featuring foolish protagonists.

Dracula's Guest was originally a part of Stoker's novel, DRACULA. His publisher removed it to shorten the lengthy novel. Some two years after Stoker's death it was published as a short story. The novel does not suffer because of the removal of this section and it makes a very good stand alone short story.. It also gives readers something to try as a sample without having to start reading the novel. Dracula may appear in this story in some manifestation but not as the Count. The setting is Germany before the guest, presumably Jonathan Harker, travels on to Dracula's castle. The story is suspenseful with an increasing sense of foreboding. Sightseeing in haunted graveyards on St. Walpurga Eve aka Walpurgis Night is not a recommended pursuit for the arrogantly unwary and unprepared.

The Judge's House" is considered by many to be Bram Stoker's greatest short story and one of Britain's finest ghost stories. It was first published in the December 5, 1891, special Christmas issue of the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News weekly magazine. In 1914, it was published in the collection, Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories. It has since appeared in many anthologies.

The Squaw builds to what is an obviously inevitable conclusion. But the inevitability does not lessen the horror or the impulse of the reader to grab and shake the victim while shouting don't be such an idiot.

The Secret of the Growing Gold will remind many of Edgar Allan Poe's, The Tell-Tale Heart, despite the many differences in the plot.

Of the remaining five stories, The Burial of the Rats has been made into a movie which bears little resemblance to the story. As I recall the movie had a lot of pretty ladies but the story is superior even though it is obvious that the narrator of the story survived his experience. His gruesome situation, danger and flight is still riveting. It is, however, another story in which I continuously asked, "How can you be so foolish?"

12 pessoas acharam isso útil

Jo B

A great collection of Gothic stories

Avaliado no Reino Unido em 11 de abril de 2022

Just titled ‘Dracula's Guest’, this free kindle edition actually has eight other short stories in it, all written by Bram Stoker and published shortly after his death (this collection is usually published as ‘Dracula’s Guest and Other Weird Stories’).

The book contains: Dracula's Guest / The Judge's House / The Squaw / The Secret of the Growing Gold / The Gipsy Prophecy / The Coming of Abel Behenna / The Burial of the Rats / A Dream of Red Hands / Crooken Sands.

The first three stories are definitely the best. ‘Dracula’s Guest’ is connected to the novel ‘Dracula’, and it was meant to be the original first chapter to the famous book. ‘The Judge’s House’ starts like a cosy ghost story, but ends darkly. While, ‘The Squaw’ had me squirming as you watch things unfold. These three are worth the five star rating.

‘The Secret of the Growing Gold’, is perhaps the weakest of the stories. I’d give that 2.5 stars. The remaining stories are ok, although ‘The Coming of Abel Behenna’ and ‘The Burial of the Rats’ are a bit drawn out. So, 3/3.5 stars for the rest.

One niggle I have with most of the stories though, is how often the women, and even sometimes the men, swoon and faint about the place without much of a reason. Barely anything happens and they collapse to the floor with the ‘shock’. Sometimes repeatedly. ‘The Gipsy Prophecy’ is perhaps the worst offender here, although, if you read that one as a comedy horror, it perhaps makes more sense than if you take it seriously.

I’ll probably read the first three again some day, when I’ve forgotten the details enough. One thing I would say is, Bram Stoker wrote these stories for adults. They’re a bit too grim for children, incase you were thinking of reading any of them to kids over Halloween!