Darker Passions: Dracula

I think this is the best novel of the Darker Passions series (I also highly recommend the retelling of Dorian Gray, which is now sadly out of print) and even some of the best Victorian Erotica in general. There's so much eroticism in the vampire myth, coupled with the veiled sexuality of the Victorian era... Bram Stoker's Dracula is perfect for retelling with a BDSM twist, and here it's done very well. Not only is this novel erotic, it's high quality fiction in its own right. Yes, there's spankings, floggings, canings, birchings, Dominance/submission, discipline, bondage and other things that "delicate flowers" might find objectionable, but those are very common themes in Victorian Erotica; no one should be suprised to find them here. And one does find them here, in abundance. This novel embraces what it is (the fetish cover of this 10th Anniversary Edition is a nice improvement on the cheesy vampire that graced the original cover) with great enthusiasm and that's what makes it such an enjoyable read. I've read it several times since it was first published and will surely read it several more. It may not suit the taste of all those interested in vampires and Dracula, but it's certainly required reading for anyone who likes Victorian Erotica and especially BDSM fiction.

This is the first time that I had ever read a book like this and, oh my, was it good! It's kind of hard for some people to picture the story of Dracula as a love story but it was! Just with a lot of S & M. Ms. Knight really brings the S & M bit that you never hear about to life with details that will make your imagination run wild! I so recommend this book! You won't be able to put it down!

The author has wonderfully twisted the orignality of Bram Stocker's Dracula. A fiction that writes on the arousal of forbidden lust of individuals such as Mina Harker through spanking and erotica caressing. On a personal preference, reading would be more stimulated if it is being written in a third party perspective rather than the "I" perspective.

The sexual urges of England under the reign of Queen Victoria were so repressed that in 1897 the readers of Dracula were completely shocked by the sexual undercurrent of the novel. Ms. Knight has taken that same undercurrent and transformed it into a tidal wave of forbidden desire. The Darker Passions: Dracula, is a first-rate example of the attraction to not only vampires, but also to sado-masochism. In this book we meet again the familiar characters from Stoker's novel but we have been allowed to see a whole different facet of the relationship between them. Dracula enjoys both drinking the blood of his victims and hearing them beg for his mercy. I recommend this book not only to lovers of Stoker's novel, but to any fan of bondage and domination.