Dracula: The Connoisseur's Guide

Published for the centennial of Bram Stoker's masterpiece of gothic horror, "Dracula: The Connoisseur's Guide" is a guidebook of sorts to the Dracula Phenomenon that has continued for over a century since the novel's publication in 1897. At the time, "Dracula" didn't aspire to be anything more than a Victorian potboiler, but the novel found such far-reaching appeal that it has never gone out of print in over 100 years. Author Leonard Wolf also produced the excellent annotated edition of the novel "The Essential Dracula" and has long been one of "Dracula"'s most dedicated scholars. Wolf introduces "A Connoisseur's Guide" by telling us how he came to be interested in the Dracula Matter, as he calls it, while teaching at San Francisco State University in the late 1960s. This bit of personal information may seem superfluous, but those readers who have followed Wolf's work on "Dracula" will find their curiosity finally satisfied. And the circumstances that led to Wolf's -and indeed anyone's- first book on the Dracula Matter, "A Dream of Dracula", published in 1972, reveal an interesting climate on American college campuses that led to academia's acceptance of "Dracula" as a work worthy of study. "Dracula: A Connoisseur's Guide" then takes us through the "Dracula" phenomenon, from folklore to fiction to film. Wolf dedicates a chapter to each of these subjects: vampire folklore in various cultures, the symbolism and realities of blood, vampire bats, the 15th century Wallachian Prince Vlad Tepes from whom "Dracula" takes its name, gothic literature, literary precursors to "Dracula", the life of Bram Stoker, an analysis of the novel in four parts, 20th century vampire fiction, and vampire films from 1922 to 1992. Through these subjects, Wolf discusses "Dracula"'s descendants and the basis for its persistent appeal, as well as the novel itself. "The Connoisseur's Guide" incorporates some elements of Leonard Wolf's out-of-print Dracula books. It is a more evolved and scholarly version of 1972's "A Dream of Dracula", although it lacks many of that book's personal meditations. "A Dream of Dracula" is quoted several times in "The Connoisseur's Guide", and most readers won't need a copy of the older book in addition to this one. A couple features of Wolf's first annotated edition, "The Annotated Dracula", published in 1975, have also made their way here: Wolf's 7-month calendar that plots the action of the novel is reprinted in the back of the book, and the wonderful drawings by Sätty introduce each chapter. These reproductions of Sätty's drawings really aren't big enough to be impressive, unfortunately -just big enough to remind us of how impressive they were in "The Annotated Dracula". But fans and students of Bram Stoker's novel will find "Dracula: A Connoisseur's Guide" and interesting and insightful exploration of their favorite gothic villain by an enthusiastic and erudite admirer.

It's curious to note, however, that the movie-spawned error of calling Dracula's key London residence "Carfax Abbey" and not "Carfax" extends even to Wolf's canny writing.