Dracula Week Wrap Up

Happy Saturday Everyone!! I am here to announce that this is the end of Dracula Week. It is a little bittersweet because it has been an AWESOME week here at The Maiden’s Court and also over at Lions and Men. There was so much interaction between readers – which I loved to see, and between the blogs. There were also so new faces – welcome to you all and hope to see you around in the coming weeks and months ahead.

So now here comes the wrap-up - all of the events that have taken place this week at both blogs, and there were quite a few!

Here at The Maiden’s Court –

Book Review of Dracula in Love by Karen Essex
Book Conversation – "In Which Nick and I Discuss Our Respective Draculas"
Caught on Tape: Dracula
Interview with Karen Essex – Part 2

Over at Lions and Men –

Book Review of Dracula by Bram Stoker
Origins of the Vampire
Know Thy Enemy! Anatomy of a Vampire
Interview with Karen Essex – Part 1
Vlad the Impaler: The Man Behind the Myth

I also want to give a special thank-you to author Karen Essex for her help and excitement with this week.

Hope you have enjoyed this week as much as I have and hope to see you around when we do something like this again!

Copyright © 2010 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Review: Dracula in Love by Karen Essex

Dracula in Love by Karen Essex
ARC, Paperback, 400 pages
Doubleday Publishing
August 10, 2010
★★★★☆

Genre: Historical Fiction/Romance

Source: Received from publisher for review

“London, 1890. Mina Murray, the rosy-cheeked, quintessentially pure Victorian heroine, becomes Count Dracula’s object of desire. To preserve her chastity, five male “defenders” rush in to rescue her from the vampire’s evil clutches. This is the version of the story we've been told. But now, from Mina’s own pen, we discover that the story is vastly different when told from the female point of view. 

In this captivating, bold act of storytelling, award-winning author Karen Essex breathes startling new life into the characters of Bram Stoker's Dracula, transporting the reader into the erotic and bizarre underbelly of the original story. While loosely following the events of its classic predecessor, Dracula in Love deviates from the path at every turn”

In many ways Dracula in Love corresponds with the original Dracula by Bram Stoker – and then there are the amazing ways that it charts its own path. The general plot of the story follows the Stoker original, but the details in between are purely Essex’s.

The story is told in the form of a diary with our narrator being Mina Murray (later Harker). At times, the fourth wall is broken and the narrator speaks directly to the audience (this is a feature that I enjoy in many books. You feel like you are part of the story). I think that while the plot is superb, the characters are the essence of this novel.

This is definitely a 100% character driven story. I found it to be more of a story of Mina finding out who she really was. Early on, she seemed to be living the life that was expected of her by society and those around her. As the story progressed, and definitely by the ending, she figured out how to define herself without the constraints of society and seemed to be much happier for all of her experiences and really find her place in the world. I was absolutely surprised by the characterization of Dracula. Having never read the original novel or seen any movies, I didn’t really have a sense of who Dracula was. I expected him to be really creepy, scary. I also expected there to be much more blood and gore, as well as the expected huge “kill him” scene. But that was not the Dracula that Essex creates. Her Dracula was passionate, forever in love with Mina, and actually a pretty decent guy (except his anger).

I have to warn you, this wouldn’t be a complete review if I didn’t, there is quite a lot of sex in this novel – but it is very well done. I feel that it was appropriate to tell her story – repressed Victorian ideals on the surface, sexuality underneath.

I really loved the ending of the book – it is funny, ironic, and appropriate. It brings the novel full circle and absolutely addresses Stoker’s novel. I think you will love it.

You can read an excerpt of the prologue and chapter 1 to get excited about this book.

Here is the trailer:

Also today, during Dracula week, you can check out history and mythology of Dracula over at Lions and Men.

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• dooliterature
• Tina’s Book Reviews

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | RJ Julia

Also by Karen Essex:

Leonardo’s Swans

Kleopatra

Pharaoh

Stealing Athena

Find Karen Essex: Website | Pinterest | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

 

Copyright © 2010 by The Maiden’s Court

Interview with Karen Essex Part 2

This is part 2 of the Interview with Karen Essex - author of Dracula in Love. You can check out part 1 (posted yesterday) featuring questions about the inspiration behind her newest book at Lions and Men.

4. Dracula in Love has a sexual edge to it – what is the significance behind this?

I wanted the novel to be lush and erotic. In the late Victorian era, female sexuality could not be expressed. In fact, as the reader will see in Dracula in Love, women were often diagnosed as being sexual hysterics or nymphomaniacs for expressing what we today consider normal sexual desires. Stoker’s Dracula is seething with unexpressed sensuality. I wanted to hit that head on and speak what could not be uttered back in Mina Harker’s time. It is my privilege as a 21st century woman to be able to be sexually free and to express it on the page. That privilege was not allowed to my ancestresses. Besides the fact that I like writing about sex, which I believe I do well without being crass or graphic, I wanted to make a point about female sexual expression. We don’t see enough of it expressed joyously.

5. What sort of resources and research did you do while writing Dracula in Love?

I am a research freak. I moved to London and took a flat in a neighborhood that was developed in 1890, the year the book takes place. I wanted to breathe in the atmosphere as I wrote. I made my usual substantive study of the era, reading as many documents from the period and studying the art, culture, design, sexual and social mores, religious beliefs, customs, and laws concerning the rights, or lack thereof, of women. I scoured the archives of late 19th century insane asylums so I could make those scenes in the book vivid. I also studied the Victorian fascination with the metaphysical. Victorian culture is very complex; it’s lush, extravagant, and technologically advanced, and, restrained, contained, and superstitious, all at once.

As for travel, I went to southern Austria, which was Bram Stoker’s first choice for Dracula’s home before he settled on Transylvania. I went to Whitby where so much of the original was set, and to the west coast of Ireland, the birthplace of Stoker’s mother. Strangely, I had set Sligo as Mina’s birthplace before I learned that Stoker’s mother was born there, and that he grew up hearing tales of ghost stories and Irish folklore.

6. What can we look forward to from you in the future? Do you have any other plans for literature based novels?

Ideas are reeling and churning. I cannot say exactly what is next but I can assure you that I am not done with the supernatural. Someday I hope to write a sequel to Dracula in Love. I have loads and loads of ideas. I will never live long enough to write all of them unless (as I hope) I get lucky enough to meet a certain Count.

Essex was born and raised in New Orleans. She was graduated from Tulane University, attended graduate school at Vanderbilt University, and received an MFA in Writing from Goddard College in Vermont. She’s appeared on The Today Show and A Word on Words hosted by John Seigenthaler, as well as other PBS and NPR programs. She’s lectured at the Chicago Museum of Art, and extensively at universities. Her books are taught in many college courses from creative writing to history to women’s studies. You can visit Karen's website to learn more about her and her books.

At Lions and Men today you can also check out Nick's discussion regarding the strengths and weaknesses of vampires, as presented by Bram Stoker.

Also - check out this video!

Copyright © 2010 by The Maiden’s Court

Mailbox Monday #41

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. I can attest to the overflowing TBR pile that stems from this meme.

The mailbox has been very, very dry the last few weeks. But today I got a trickle.

From PaperBack Swap I received Stealing Athena by Karen Essex. I have had Leonardo's Swans on my shelf for a little while and when I realized it was about the Elgin Marbles, I had to have this one.

"At the height of the Napoleonic Wars, the 21-year-old newly wedded Mary Nisbet, Countess of Elgin, a Scottish heiress and celebrated beauty, enchanted the power brokers of the Ottoman Empire, using her charms to obtain their permission for her husband’s audacious plan to deconstruct the Parthenon and bring its magnificent sculptures to England. Two millennia earlier, Aspasia, a female philosopher and courtesan who presided with her lover, the visionary politician Pericles, over Athens’ Golden Age, plied her wits and allure with equal determination, standing with him at the center of vehement opposition to his ambitious plan to construct the most exquisite monuments the world had ever seen.

In parallel stories that resonate hauntingly, Aspasia witnesses the dramatic events that lead to the construction and dedication of the Parthenon, and Mary Nisbet witnesses that same magnificent building’s deconstruction and demise.

Rich in romance and intrigue, greed and glory, Stealing Athena is an enthralling work of historical fiction and a window into the intimate lives of some of history’s most influential and fascinating women" (from author's website).

Copyright © 2010 by The Maiden’s Court