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Post by Michael Connolly on Dec 20, 2021 13:39:17 GMT
Apparently he is not even a relative of Bram Stoker. Isn't he? Where did you hear that? In an Amazon review. Anyway, even if he is a relative, how can this possibly guarantee that his book could be good?
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 20, 2021 13:47:43 GMT
There is a lot of additional information in it. The introduction goes into the author's life and background and references the Jack the Ripper murders. There are several photographs included. There is also a chapter on the floor plans of Castle Dracula.
Here is the beginning of the first chapter:
CHAPTER ONE
Thomas Harkerās Journal
Ā²ā¶
(written in shorthand)
BISTRITZ, 3 MAY
FINALLY I ARRIVED HERE AFTER A SPEEDY JOURNEY ACROSS Europe by express train. Left Munich at 8:30 p.m. on the 1st of May, arrived in Vienna the next morning. From there to Budapest, a strange city, although I only saw a little of it. There it felt as though I were saying goodbye to the West and Western civilization, as Eastern culture came to the fore. I spent the night in Klausenburg; got there yesterday evening after dark and continued with the mail coach to the Borgo Pass this morning.Ā²ā· Today I have gone over hilly country, very different from the plains of Hungary. Here and there I could see a village or a castle on the hilltops, and, occa- sionally, the road crossed gushing rivers. At the coach stops I saw many rural peo- ple gathering, clad in all sorts of attireāI wish that I could have drawn some sketches of life here around me. Oddest of all do the Slovaks seem to me. They wear wide trousers with shirts overtop, and belts around the middle. Their hair falls to the shoulders and their eyes are black and fiery, which makes them look like bandits. Other than that, however, they seem harmless.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 20, 2021 13:50:28 GMT
Anyway, even if he is a relative, how can this possibly guarantee that his book could be good? Science, in this case the theory of genetics, tells us that it must inevitably be so.
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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 20, 2021 13:54:26 GMT
Everything I've seen has him as a "great-grandnephew" of Bram, which translates to being a grandson of one of Bram's nephews or nieces - which is pretty remote (but not improbable). There is some "business connection" between Dacre Stoker and Hans Corneel de Roos, the academic behind the translation into English of the "Icelandic Version".
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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 20, 2021 14:05:15 GMT
Has anyone here read the "Icelandic Version" of Dracula, Powers of Darkness? - linkI found a copy on my ebook site. From book: In 1901 Icelandic publisher and writer Valdimar Ćsmundsson set out to translate Bram Stokerās classic novel, Dracula. Called Makt Myrkranna, this Icelandic version was unnoticed outside the country until 1986, when Dracula scholars discovered Stokerās original preface to the book. It was not until 2014, however, that noted Dracula scholar Hans Corneel de Roos realized that Ćsmundsson hadnāt merely translated Dracula but had, rather, penned an entirely new version of the story, with some all-new characters and a re-worked plot. The resulting narrative is one that is shorter, punchier, more erotic, and rivals the original in terms of suspense. Powers of Darkness marks the first ever translation into English of Makt Myrkranna. This volume includes the translation of the main text of the novel, thor- ough annotations that mark changes from the original text and other fascinating items of note, an introduction by Hans de Roos, a foreword by Dacre Stoker, an afterword by John Edgar Browning, and numerous illustrations, historical and new, including original illustations by de Roos of Draculaās castle. Icelandic Nobel Prize winner HalldĆ³r Laxness praised Powers of Darkness as one of the best works of Icelandic literature, drawing inspiration from it in the writ- ing of his Under the Glacier. Stokerās great grand-nephew Dacre Stoker aptly writes: āThe resurrection of Makt Myrkranna illustrates another example of Draculaās immortality.ā Delivering all the dark glamour one expects from a cornerstone of Gothic literature, and drawing inspiration from Nordic sagas and myths, Powers of Darkness is truly a major literary rediscovery and a thrilling and essential new addi- tion to the Dracula canon. There is a long w*k*pedia article about it (but I can't be bothered reading it) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powers_of_Darkness
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 20, 2021 14:44:36 GMT
Dacre Stoker obviously feels he is on personal terms with Bram Stoker as he calls him Bram throughout, also he thinks it's a translation of an unpublished draft version of Dracula:
I feel safe in saying Bram was not only aware of the differences between Drac- ula and the Icelandic edition, Makt MyrkrannaāI believe he orchestrated them. The deviations from the 1897 Constable edition cannot result from translation er- rors or even from a liberal interpretation of the original alone: the changes are too significant. The Icelandic preface and the modified plot are interconnected in a way that points towards Bram writing both. In my opinion, Makt Myrkranna is another version or draft of Dracula, written by Bram sometime during the 1890s. I donāt be- lieve it was originally written for the Icelandic market, but I can well imagine that Bram used the translation process as an opportunity to make Makt Myrkranna unique and more relevant to Icelandic interests. āPowers of Darknessāāa different title for a different book. Not āDracula,ā or āDrakula.ā
Dacre (on personal terms too) believes that because Stoker had literary friends that had been to Iceland he must have been influenced by them, which of course may be true, but this influence made him actually help edit the Icelandic version:
Because for years Bram traveled extensively in the British Isles and America with Henry Irvingās Lyceum Theatre company, he likely had few opportunities for personal adventure travel. But anecdotal evidence and circumstantial connections lead me to believe he could not have been immune to the influences of the Ice- landophiles who surrounded him.
He claims a different draft was given to the Icelandic writer, and Stoker actually oversaw its translation. This claim is based around the fact Stoker was free to sell the translation rites to his novel abroad, and that certain plot elements exist in the translation that don't occur in the finished novel, but appear in the preparatory notes.
It is a pity that for whatever reason Makt Myrkranna comes across as rawāan unfinished project. It seems as though Bram (or Valdimar, or both) drew out Part Iāthe details of Harkerās travel to and ordeals in Draculaās Castleābut never fleshed out the story in Part II. Part II reads like an outline of the charactersā move- ments and conversations on stage, left undeveloped as the author(s) hastily brought it all to a conclusion.
Dacre Stoker says that multiple versions of Dracula existed and the fragment Dracula's Guest was part of one of them, and Florence Stoker was wrong in her original explanation of it.
Was Makt Myrkranna the result of translator errors, creative license taken too far, or was this Icelandic edition simply another version of the story that Bram had been working on for years? I certainly lean towards the latter. I believe during the seven years commonly accepted as the span of time Bram worked on Dracula, there was more than one version of the storyāmultiple drafts, and story lines were added or subtracted. Probably the best-known example is Draculaās Guest, which was published as a short story after Bramās death. Although widely disputed now, Florence Stoker claimed that during the editing process, this section was removed because the book was too long.
The better introduction by the translator says:
For those who know Dracula, Makt Myrkranna awaits with some major sur- prises. The most obvious one is that the account of Harkerās trip to Transylvania has been expanded from approx. 22,700 words in Dracula to approx. 37,200 word in Makt Myrkrannaāa 63% increase in length. The rest of the story, on the other hand, has been cut down from 137,860 words to only 9,100āa 93% reduction. This massive shift of proportions alone forbids calling Makt Myrkranna an āabridged translationā of Dracula. The Transylvanian part has not been shortened at all, while the rest of the story has shrunk to a mere coda.
And:
The second major difference between Dracula and Makt Myrkranna is that in Part II, the epistolary formatāwhich often has been considered Draculaās out- standing characteristicāhas been abandoned.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 20, 2021 14:51:01 GMT
the translators introduction also says:
Despite his legal background, Stoker failed to send a copy of his work to the United States Copyright Office in time to have his rights duly registered;Ā²ā“ when Universal started to negotiate with Florence Stoker about a second Dracula movie, Draculaās Daughter, the material turned out to be unprotected. Dracula fell into the public domain in the U.S. and every script writer, film producer or theatre manager was free to make money with Stokerās charactersāan ironic twist of history, given how little money Stoker himself saw.
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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 20, 2021 14:51:27 GMT
According to w*k*pedia, the entire final section of the book is changed: "Van Helsing's crew does not travel to Eastern Europe to eliminate the Count. Instead, the story ends while the Count is still in London".
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 20, 2021 14:58:06 GMT
Dracula the Un-dead
I don't understand how Dacre stoker can "reassert control over Dracula fiction". Everything about this novel seems suspect.
from wiki:
Both writers claim to have "based [their work] on Bram Stoker's own handwritten notes for characters and plot threads excised from the original edition" along with their own research for the sequel, though the plot and characters often directly contradict the original novel.
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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 20, 2021 15:10:46 GMT
Dracula the Un-dead I don't understand how Dacre stoker can "reassert control over Dracula fiction". Me neither, given the number of appearances Dracula has made in other books before this one.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 20, 2021 15:38:48 GMT
I think Dacre has managed to do well with his Stoker "connection". helrunar wasn''t there a man who claimed to be the secret son of Aleister Crowley?
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 20, 2021 15:50:49 GMT
Anyway, even if he is a relative, how can this possibly guarantee that his book could be good? Science, in this case the theory of genetics, tells us that it must inevitably be so. Dear Agony Uncle Jojo, Does this prove that even if I have no background in a particular field, if I'm related to someone in it then I'm equally as good? Because that means I'd be great at the sciences, and not just a pretty face. Also, if you share the same surname as someone is it OK to claim you are related? As this seems common on an ancestry site I used to be a member of.
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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 20, 2021 15:55:05 GMT
wasn''t there a man who claimed to be the secret son of Aleister Crowley? Amado Crowley. He pretty definitely wasn't.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 20, 2021 16:17:03 GMT
On that ancestry site there were lots of trees that traced their ancestry back to Adam and Eve. I can't remember how they did it, maybe they used the bloodline from The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 20, 2021 18:58:01 GMT
I'm completely ignorant on this topic, but I really doubt that Bram Stoker masterminded (!) the composition of the Icelandic "translation" of Dracula.
Just call me a skeptical Yankee (if I were a Brit, I guess I'd write "sceptical"?)
cheers, Hel.
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