Please note that the review of Leslie S Klinger’s New Annotated Dracula has been edited to take account of errata to be introduced for the book.
The book is due for UK release next month and Leslie will be over in the UK with three confirmed events, dates available here. The book's webpage is here.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
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4 comments:
I read this up until the last two chapters, but I don't know how worthwhile the minutia provided by the annotations are. When I bought it I thought there would be more comparing the different cinematic manifestations of the book but the annotations mostly stick to geography and logical errors within the book. I got rather weary of all the geography and fussing about the time-line. I got even more weary of Van Helsing. What an annoying character! (I'd never actually read the book before)
Hi Steve, I can see that the annotations would seem to minutia filled if you were thinking that they might cover a different area.
The timelines really became an issue for Leslie Klinger within the game he was playing of true event, imho, had he not done that then the timeline is virtually unimportant.
You were perhaps a brave man tackling the book for the first time in annotated form, I found that they really did interfere with flow - I mentioned such in the review.
Now a book comparing the book and the cinematic manifestations... now there is an idea... if some publisher wanted to throw an advance my way I'd be happy to look at such a project :) lol
Cheers for the comment
While reading it for the first time, there were parts of the book that I'd very much like to see interpreted faithfully, just for the novelty if no other reason. Of course there are reams of stuff in the book which movie-makers are clearly better off losing, such as all the shriekingly tedious Victorian formality "Oh, I do beg your pardon, Oh, I am utterly charmed, Oh, I'm so dreadfully sorry..." as well as stuff that has been so thoroughly covered in movie adaptations that it's a waste of time to serve it up again. But if some director wanted to throw away a bajillion dollars to make a scene-for-scene thirty-hour adaptation of the book, I'd be glad to watch it with the remote at-the-ready to fast-forward through the more interminable dialogues.
To be honest, I guess it depends how it is done. If served up as a period piece then the language (with some adaptation) would work. However there is a version Alucard which was a surprisingly accurate make of the film - especially given the budget - but modernised and poorly - the dialogue failed when lifted directly because the Victorian formality just didn't work in that setting.
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