OK, as far as "Vampire Collectibles" go you just don't get any more RARE than this! Shown here, for your viewing pleasure, is this original 1897 DRACULA Hardback Book By Bram Stoker - First Edition! Yes, this baby recently sold on eBay for $4,050.00. Published in Westminster, by the Archibald Constable and Company © 1897. This is the second issue with an advertisement in the back for Stoker's "The Shoulder of Shasta". This impression followed the first issue ( published on May 26, 1897 ) by a few months. Bram Stoker died April 20th, 1912 & sadly did not live long enough to see Dracula's immense cultural impact, and its many permutations in print and on the screen. According to literary historians Nina Auerbach and David Skal in the Norton Critical Edition, the novel has become more significant for modern readers than it was for contemporary Victorian readers, most of whom enjoyed it just as a good adventure story; it only reached its broad iconic legendary classic status later in the 20th century when the movie versions appeared.
"The Dead Un-Dead" was one of Stoker's original titles for Dracula, and up until a few weeks before publication, the manuscript was titled simply "The Un-Dead". Stoker's "Notes for Dracula" show that the name of the count was originally "Count Wampyr", but while doing research, Stoker became intrigued by the name "Dracula", after reading William Wilkenson's book Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia with Political Observations Relative to Them ( London 1820 ), which he found in the Whitby Library, and consulted a number of times during visits to Whitby in the 1890s. The name Dracula was the family name of the descendants of Vlad II of Wallachia, who took the name "Dracul" after being invested in the Order of the Dragon in 1431. In the Romanian language, the word dracul can mean either "the dragon" or, especially in the present day, "the devil".
3 comments:
How Much does an edition like this cost? The one pictured looks in near Mint condition? How Much is it, I might be interested.
How Much does an edition like this cost? The one pictured looks in near Mint condition? How Much is it, I might be interested.
As of 01/05/14, It is offered for sale on ebay for $12,125.00. A bit high, perhaps, but without doubt, this is a very unique and beautifully bound edition of this very special book so a book like this is worth whatever the market will bare.
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