Dracula

Restless Classics presents Bram Stoker`s gothic masterpiece of horror, gorgeously illustrated by Kaitlin Chan and with a new introduction and foreword by award-winning authors Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Alexander Chee. Since its original publication in 1897, Dracula has spoken aloud some of our deepest cultural anxieties: fear of sexuality, xenophobia, homophobia, and distrust of The Other. One of the most recognizable and pervasive characters ever written, Stoker`s Count Dracula is much more terrifying than the caped and fanged representation that has grown so familiar. The Count`s menace lies not solely in his deadly bloodlust, but also in his harrowing ability to hide his malfeasance behind power and privilege. When Jonathan Harker unearths Count Dracula`s (un)deadly secret, he unwittingly starts a war between good and evil with disastrous repercussions. The innocent Lucy Westenra falls prey to the vampire`s curse, Mina Harker narrowly escapes a vicious transformation, and the indefatigable Abraham Van Helsing risks life and afterlife to defeat his archnemesis. As Silvia Moreno-Garcia explores in her new introduction, this outbreak of an ancient threat in a modern world introduced a radical new element to vampire folklore, one which has only gained significance in the twenty-first century: vampires as disease-bearing victims of the same chaos that they spread. In his new foreword, Alexander Chee grounds the novel in the potential queerness of Stoker`s literary circle, and delves into our growing fascination with, and affection for, both the horror genre and its monsters. Dracula is both a resonant contemplation of the unknown and a cautionary reminder that evil doesn`t always announce itself with bats and coffins; it lurks within the normal and the mundane, just waiting to be invited in.