Monster Scholar

Google is celebrating Bram Stoker's 165th birthday with a doodle featuring the infamous count and his brides facing off against Harker and his band of merry vampire-hunters. Stoker is credited with creating the archetype of the vampire we all know and love--the blood-sucking aristocrat with a snazzy cape and Transylvanian accent-- but his other works, without the larger than life Count, are often overlooked. So get stoked and discover a new side of Stoker with these reading recommendations: Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories (1914)  Published posthumously, this collection of Stoker short stories capitalized on the success of Stoker's novel Dracula . The story that makes this collection worth reading is the titular "Dracula's Guest." Intended to be the original first chapter of Dracula , it follows an unnamed Englishman (assumed to be Jonathan Harker) on his way to Dracula's castle when he makes a stop at a local graveyard. There he discovers th...

Meet and converse with them Marvel at their pale skin Wonder how they chew on their pointy... Teeth and hair are beauty They know it's their duty To be countess in their hearts and their... Minds that have to whisper See in them a sister Look into their eyes and you'll become Transylvanian Concubine. —Rasputina When reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula , it’s hard to forget his trio of mysterious and threatening concubines. Dark, seductive and hungry, the brides of Dracula first appear in an encounter with the hapless Jonathan Harker. Harker has ignored Count Dracula’s warnings against exploring the castle by himself, and walks straight into the arms of the tree beautiful brides: They came close to me, and looked at me for some time, and then whispered together. Two were dark, and had high aquiline noses, like the Count, and great dark, piercing eyes, that seemed to be almost red when contrasted with the pale yellow moon…The other was fair, as fair as can be, with great masses of gold...