Monday 29 May 2017

Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula

For both fans and scholars of Bram Stoker's Dracula, there is an alternate version of the story now available with a very interesting history.

In 1900, Icelandic publisher and writer Valdimar Ásmundsson began translating Bram Stoker's world-famous 1897 novel Dracula. This Icelandic edition, which was titled Makt Myrkranna (literally, "Powers of Darkness"), included an original preface written by Stoker himself. 

Makt Myrkranna was published in Iceland in 1901 but remained undiscovered outside the country until 1986 when Dracula scholarship was astonished by the discovery of Stoker's preface to the book. However, no one looked beyond the preface and deeper into Ásmundsson's story. 

In 2014, literary researcher Hans de Roos examined the full text of Makt Myrkranna, only to discover that Ásmundsson hadn't merely translated Dracula but had penned an entirely new version of the story, with all new characters and a totally re-worked plot. 

The resulting narrative is one that is "shorter, punchier, more erotic, and perhaps even more suspenseful than Stoker's Dracula." 

Powers of Darkness represents the first-ever translation into English of Stoker and Ásmundsson’s Makt Myrkranna. There are also marginal annotations by de Roos that provide readers with historical, cultural, and literary context. There is a foreword by Dacre Stoker, Bram Stoker’s great-grandnephew and bestselling author, as well as an afterword by Dracula scholar John Edgar Browning, (Source: Amazon: publisher's description)

This is the Amazon link:  https://www.amazon.ca/Powers-Darkness-Lost-Version-Dracula/dp/146831336

The book is available in hardcover and audio formats.

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