'it was butcher work...the horrid screeching as the stake drove home; the plunging of writhing form, and lips of bloody foam'Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic shocker introduced Count Dracula to the world, an ancient creature bent on bringing his contagion to London, the very heart of the British Empire. Only a handful of men and women stand between Dracula and his long-cherished goal, but they are vulnerable and weak against the cunning and supernatural powers of the Count and his legions. As the horrifying story unfolds in the diaries and letters of young Jonathan Harker, Lucy, Mina, and Dr Seward, Dracula will be victorious unless his nemesis Professor Van Helsing can persuade them that monsters still lurk in the era of electric light.The most famous of all vampire stories, Dracula is a mirror of its age, its underlying themes of race, religion, science, superstition, and sexuality never far from the surface. A compelling read, rattling along at break-neck speed, it is a modern classic. This new edition includes Stoker's companion piece, 'Dracula's Guest'. A new edition of one of the greatest horror stories in English literature, the novel that spawned a myth and a proliferation of vampire franchises in film, television, graphic novels, cartoons, and teen fiction.Includes a lively and fascinating Introduction that considers Stoker's Irish heritage, the Gothic genre and vampire legend, sexual allegory, and the social and cultural contexts that feed into the novel: the New Woman, new technology, race, immigration, and religion.Chronology of Bram Stoker and Timeline of Vampire Literature before Dracula.Comprehensive Explanatory Notes flesh out vampire mythology and historical allusions.Includes an appendix featuring Stoker's short story, 'Dracula's Guest', an early draft or abandoned chapter that was not published as part of the novel.