The Boy Who Followed Ripley

Book Description

In this quietly terrifying exploration of trust and friendship, a troubled young runaway arrives in Villeperce. And when, on the boy's behalf, Tom Ripley is drawn from his lovely estate in the French countryside to Berlin's seamy underworld and into a kidnapping plot that requires the most bizarre methods--and sinister acumen--for intervention, the icily amoral Ripley is transformed into a generous and compassionate projector.

Customer Reviews:

Step by (Floundering) Step.......2007-05-29

Patricia Highsmith is the master of unease. She has created a literary character who is almost completely amoral, and twists the readers' sense of justice because we find oursevles rooting for Tom Ripley; we do not want him to get caught in his devious schemes. The same is the case for the fourth book in the series, "The Boy Who Followed Ripley", as Tom once more finds himself caught up in a dangerous affair.

Tom, now married and settled in a small town just south of Paris, is living a somewhat peaceful, idle life. Then one day he encounters a young American boy, who is on the run from a horrible secret, and who looks to Tom out for guidance. Perhaps Tom recognizes something of himself in the boy, for he immediately and almost without question becomes the boy's protector and teacher. When the wealthy young heir is kidnapped right under Tom's nose in Berlin, he takes it upon himself to beat the kidnappers at their game, rushing headfirst and almost unthinkingly into the seemy underbelly of Berlin life.

"The Boy Who Followed Ripley" is as fast-paced as the other novels in the Ripley series, but is rather mundane in its plot. Just as quickly as Tom becomes attached to the boy, he is able to disengage himself from the messiness their association brings him. And while Highsmith is an excellent writer of mystery, offering readers a peek into the sordid world of criminals, this story lacks the polish and tenacity of the other Ripley works. It is a worthy addition, as it shows a more tender side of Tom Ripley, as he finds himself on the losing side for the first time in quite a while, but it is definitely not the strongest in the series.

The weakest in the Ripley series.......2005-06-07

One day in Villeperce, Tom Ripley is followed by an American teen-aged boy of 16 who calls himself Billy Rollins. He is currently working as a gardener with Madame Jeanne Boutin and claims to have read about Tom Ripley in the newspapers in the States. But Tom soon discovers that the boy is in fact Frank Pierson, the son of an American food magnate from Maine, who detested his father so profoundly that he killed him by pushing his wheelchair over the top of a cliff. Frank's mother Lily sent a private detective to France to look for the missing son...
A weak story line, unbelievable situations, characters who behave in a ridiculous fashion and plenty of clichés about Germany, Berlin and the gay scene are all aspects which contribute to the bad quality of this poorly designed suspense story. Neither "The Boy Who Followed Ripley" nor "Ripley Underground" nor "Ripley Underwater" match the original "The Talented Mr Ripley". Readers would be well advised to enjoy the latter and then forget any novel bearing the name "Ripley".

A Study of Conscience.......2005-01-29

Out of all the Ripley novels, this being the last instalment of a series of five books focuses more on the central psychological issue that most of the stories touch upon, and that is, having to live with oneself after committing a terrible crime, in this case, murder.

If you are acquainted with any of the Ripley novels, you will understand that their uniqueness lies in the disturbing thoughts and behaviour of its protagonist, as he is thoroughly devoid of conscience, having the capacity to commit murder, usually on a spontaneous whim, and rationalize the crime to such an extent, that we the readers, are totally convinced that the crime was justified. Ripley is a highly likable villain, and a type of villain we want to see succeed. He is cultured, well-mannered, loves his beautiful wife, an expert gardener, appreciates fine art, music and beautiful things, but is capable of incredible heinous acts without a second thought.

In this last novel, Ripley is living quite comfortably at Belle Ombre, his beautiful home in Villeperce, and seems to be heading for an easy retirement. At the café in town, a strange boy turns up, and through a series of events, the two become good friends. As it turns out, the boy is a runaway from the United States, a member of a wealthy family. The boy has a terrible secret, he has committed murder, and he's on the run from his a family and his conscience.

As the tale progresses, Ripley takes on the role of mentor, having murdered many times before, perhaps unconsciously or not, guides the boy psychologically towards a frame of mind or attitude, in order to live with murder. Ripley has the capacity to compartmentalize his thoughts, push his conscience conveniently aside, in order to live with himself. The young lad seems to have the same psychological predisposition, but as the story unfolds, the boy's behaviour points otherwise.

This last Ripley novel is different because Ripley takes on the role of mentor and rescuer, saving the boy from the clutches of some unsavoury characters, performing his unique brand of violence which surprises, leaving the reader cold. But in his role as saviour, we cheer him as he commits these unspeakable acts.

For me at least, the ending of the novel was not predictable, it was both surprising and incredibly sad on many levels. Most of all, this book is disturbing, illustrating the fact that as human beings, we have the capacity to justify virtually anything, including murder.

Can Ripley Be Successfully Emulated by Others?.......2004-11-06

The Boy Who Followed Ripley will either be your favorite Ripley book or it will be a large disappointment.

If you have not read any Ripley books, I suggest that you start with The Talented Mr. Ripley instead.

Those who will be disappointed by this book will be people who wanted a book just like one of the first three in the series. Those who will be very pleased are those who want to think through the implications of Ripley's character and who he is becoming. I have graded the book as an average of the two likely reactions.

We see a new side of Ripley in this book. He takes a troubled American teen under his wing and mentors him in the way that a friendly uncle or much older brother might. In the process, Ripley reveals more of himself to the boy than to anyone else. Ripley also ends up musing and seeing his own marriage and history in a new light as he understands the boy's problems.

I'm sorry that I cannot go into the story in more detail. To do so would simply spoil the plot development for you.

If you like character development with long stretches of little plot development, this book will be a lot of fun. If you crave the constant action of The Talented Mr. Ripley, this book will drag slowly in long sections for you.

Unless you are ambivalent about the Tom Ripley character, I do suggest that you read the book . . . even if it won't be your favorite.

And I thought this was going to be a GOOD one..........2004-07-23

What a shame that a better work has not "followed" in the footsteps of Highsmith's first three Ripley novels. While the setup is intriguing and has great potential, the entire premise is marred by poor pacing; do we really need to have page after page of (what amounts to) a Berlin travelogue, as Tom Ripley and Frank visit the zoo...and then have a light lunch....and then go for a drive...and then take a walk in the forest. The kidnapping is the most engaging section of the novel - what a pity that it takes nearly half the book to even reach it. Though some may find Frank Pierson an interesting character, I was soon disappointed to see that he was reduced to a maudlin mass of ennui. There is nothing exciting or dramatic (or even interesting, for that matter) in a character who essentially "mopes" his way through the entire novel, brooding on the boorish notion that his girlfriend has gone off with another boy because he has travelled to France. Of all the Ripley books, this was the one I had the highest hopes for, and I was sorely disappointed; read it if you intend on reading all of them, but know that it's a flawed work at best.

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The Boy Who Followed Ripley

Manufacturer: Penguin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Ripley Under Water

ASIN: B000I285N4

The Love Talker / Brimstone / The Boy Who Followed Ripley (Detective Book Club)

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The Love Talker / Brimstone / The Boy Who Followed Ripley (Detective Book Club)
Elizabeth Peters , Robert L. Duncan , and Patricia Highsmith
Manufacturer: Walter J. Black
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Sur les pas de Ripley (The Boy Who Followed Ripley)

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Sur les pas de Ripley (The Boy Who Followed Ripley)
Patricia Highsmith
Manufacturer: Calmann-Levy 1980.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LTRI32

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BOY WHO FOLLOWED RIPLEY
PATRICIA HIGHSMITH
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OGWD0K

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The Boy Who Followed Ripley

Manufacturer: Penguin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000I23D0E

Amazon.com

"I am here to do Your bidding, Master. I am Your slave, and You will reward me, for I shall be faithful." These words spoken by Renfield to Dracula might have been said by Bram Stoker to his boss, the mesmerizing, domineering actor Henry Irving. Stoker was such a mild-mannered, secretive man that the real subject of this acclaimed biography turns out to be the genesis of his novel Dracula, and Irving--the man who, according to Barbara Belford, inspired its famous monster. Other fascinating characters who appear in Stoker's life are Florence Stoker (courted by Oscar Wilde before Bram married her), Ellen Terry (Irving's leading lady), Walt Whitman, the aging Lord Tennyson, W. S. Gilbert, William Gladstone, Lady Speranza Wilde, her son Oscar, Queen Victoria (who knights Irving, the first actor so honored), George Bernard Shaw, and Mark Twain. As Margot Peters writes in the New York Times Book Review, "Stoker himself is pretty much swamped in these heavy seas. But as Ms. Belford's intelligent, well-written and always interesting book makes clear, Stoker lived to serve. His revenge for lifelong self-effacement was Dracula."

Book Description

The first full-scale biography of the complex man known today as the author of Dracula, but who was famous in his own time as the innovative manager of London's Lyceum Theatre, home of the greatest English actors of the day, Henry Irving and Ellen Terry.

Barbara Belford tells the story of Stoker the hidden man. On the surface: the very model of Victorian modesty, reserve, and duty, the devoted husband and father. In actuality: a man whose emotional and working energies were in large part expended on the care and cultivation of the flamboyant, mesmerizing genius of the stage, Henry Irving.

We see Stoker the writer of novels and stories that were imbued with sexuality, violence, and the celebration of death -- works at opposite poles from the decorum he presented in society. And Barbara Belford shows us in Dracula a mirror of the undercurrents of Stoker's own life, as well as a masked exploration of subjects utterly forbidden in his time -- seduction, rape, necrophilia, incest, voyeurism -- universal taboos dramatized with such a myth-making edge that the novel remains resonant and unsettling almost one hundred years later.

We follow Stoker from his sickly childhood -entertained by his mother's twice-told tales of Irish hobgoblins and banshees -- to his years as a Dublin undergraduate and newspaperman, when he first wrote to his idol Wait Whitman, spilling out his innermost thoughts and beginning a lifelong correspondence that culminated in their meeting when Stoker traveled to America on tour with Irving and Ellen Terry. We see Stoker's childhood friendship with Oscar Wilde, and watch as the two young men compete for the hand of the beautiful Florence Balcombe, who became Stoker's wife. And we see Stoker in the literary and theatrical circles of Victorian London among such figures as Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, James Whistler, Lord Tennyson, and George Bernard Shaw.

Belford gives us a vivid picture of the man, his time, his London -- the domestic and theatrical worlds he lived in -- and the dark imaginary realms that were the wellspring of all his writings, especially of his enduring and enduringly fascinating Dracula.

Customer Reviews:

Insight into Bram Stoker & His Life at the Lyceum........2005-05-17

Barbara Belford's "Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula" is considered to be the most scholarly and thorough of the 3 Bram Stoker biographies that have been published. But Mr. Stoker was a reticent person about whose personal life, opinions, and character there is precious little known. Whether out of humility or caution, he usually took care not to reveal himself. So what we know of Stoker comes primarily from his public life, which was thankfully shared with several grander, more loquacious personalities. Perhaps due to the scarcity of information about her subject, Barbara Belford gives Stoker's friends, colleagues, and the London theater community a lot of attention, especially Henry Irving, the great actor whose fame was dwarfed only by his ego, and whom Bram Stoker dedicated 27 years of his life to serving. Indeed, this biography of Stoker would serve well as a history of Irving's famous Lyceum Theatre for the decades that Stoker served as its acting manager.

The book starts by describing Stoker's childhood in Dublin, the third child born to a middle class Anglo-Irish family in 1847 during the potato famine, and his apparent debilitation until the age of 7. He grew up to be a civil servant like his father, and pursued personal interests as an unpaid drama critic for the "Evening Mail", through which Stoker met Henry Irving. After marrying the lovely Florence Balcombe, whom Oscar Wilde also courted, the Stokers moved to London where Bram's efficient management would help make the 1500-seat Lyceum Theatre fashionable and profitable. Since the Lyceum dominated Stoker's life, it dominates his biography, but Belford also discusses his trips to America on tour with the Lyceum company, his effusive admiration for Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln, and his novels and stories.

The upshot of "Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Man Who Wrote Dracula" is that Bram Stoker was a modest, hardworking man, exceedingly courteous even by Victorian standards, whose tireless work for Henry Irving was acknowledged by many but unappreciated and unrewarded by Irving himself. Stoker's genial but reserved manner harbored passionate, worshipful emotions toward his heroes, invariably men of power with larger-than-life personalities. Belford draws an occasional parallel between persons in Bram Stoker's own life and characters in "Dracula". Most notably, she sees a "sinister caricature" of Henry Irving in the vampire Count. Actress Ellen Terry seems to be reflected in Mina, and Stoker's wife Florence may have lent some of her character to Lucy. None of this is a stretch as long as one recognizes that "Dracula"'s characters don't have a single source, but many.

This biography includes a lot of good information for fans of Bram Stoker's work, but a couple of stylistic problems nagged at me. One is Belford's confusing tendency to refer to people by first or last name only, at the beginning of a chapter, instead of starting off with a full name. Another is the repeated use of the phrase "Unholy Trinity" to describe the business partnership between Henry Irving, Bram Stoker, and stage manager H.J. Loveday, which I found melodramatic. But Belford's book succeeds in creating a picture of Bram Stoker's personality without reading too much into his actions or words.

Best Book I ever read!.......1998-04-16

The main caracters in the story are Jonathan Harker, Mina Murry/Harker, and Lucy Westenras. There are several different settings, so I won,t list them specifically. Most of the book, they are in Europe in the 1800's. The plot of the books is Jonathan is a solicitor and meets the "Count". Sopposably the Count is friendly and turns evil. My opinion of the book is it is great it has some diffficult words so I recommend it to 8th grade and above. It is very interesting and fun. I liked the way that the author set up the book and the way he used everybodys point of view.

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A not-too-bad book
An enjoyable read
The Count Would be Spinning in His Grave
16 stories made JUST for this collection...
Multiple Personality Disorder

Dracula in London

Manufacturer: Ace Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0441008585
Release Date: 2001-11-06

Book Description

Dracula didn't spend all of his time in London stalking Mina Harker. He occupied his days exploring the teeming city-and meeting the likes of actress Ellen Terry, the Prince of Wales, and even a young author named Abraham Stoker...

These brand new stories follow the legendary count through the gaslit streets of historic London-with the biggest names in vampire fiction as your tour guides: Fred Saberhagen * Chelsea Quinn Yarbro * Tanya Huff * Elaine Bergstrom * Roxanne Longstreet Conrad * Nancy Kilpatrick * P.N. Elrod and Nigel Bennett * Brad Sinor * Gary Braunbeck * Jody Lynn Nye * Gene DeWeese * Bill Zaget * Judith Procter * Julie Barrett * K.B. Bogen * Amy L. Gruss * and Catt Kingsgrave-Ernstein

Download Description

How did Dracula occupy his time in London when he wasn't stalking Lucy Westenra and Mina Harker? Today's top authors take the infamous nosferatu on a tour of 1890s London--in sixteen wonderfully inventive stories.

Customer Reviews:

A not-too-bad book.......2006-02-26

Not much to say than if you like this book check out Nigel Bennett's books with P.N. Elrod, Keeper of the King His Father's Son and Siege Perilous

An enjoyable read.......2005-11-08

I read this around halloween. I enjoyed having some short stories to read. I thought they were all inventive & interesting. This book is worth a read.

The Count Would be Spinning in His Grave.......2005-02-23

We have 16 short stories based on/inspired by the legendary book by Bram Stoker. Each of these stories takes place in a similar setting; namely London of the 1890s. Most of these stories are medicore at best, some of them downright laughable. Dracula acts as some sort of benign Sherlock Holmes helping unfortunates with his "investigations" and further aids them escape authorities or killers in some cases. In one story he even performs in a play on stage! The count singing on stage? How out of character is all this? I found many of these stories to be so far-fetched from the spirit of the original. Some authors make the Count & certain historic figures cross paths, such as Prince Edward (of Wales) And even Mr. Stoker himself, but some of these writers did NOT do their homework. While not important to the overall story, it is implied Nikola Tesla is Hungarian, while he was in fact of Serbian descent. Also, Aleister Crowley was not from Scotland, but from mid-England (Warwickshire), among other things. That's how accurate some of these writers are. The two stories that stood out were Judith Proctor's tale "Dear Mr. Bernard Shaw," where a young actress named Ellen Terry writes a letter about how a foriegn nobleman comes to the theater to admire her craft. There was some interesting philosophy there. My other favorite was "Everything to Order" by Jody Lynn Nye. This story focuses on the three brides of Dracula, who arrange to order dresses for themselves after hours and have their eyes on one of the mannequins. Some other stories were alright, but nothing Earth-shattering. I think there are better Vampire stories out there to read. Most of this book is simply filler. If not for the 2 or 3 stories that were relatively well written this book would've deserved 1 star.

16 stories made JUST for this collection..........2005-01-03

I am a vampire fan and when I found out about this book I have to get it. With such authors as Tanya Huff, Fred Saberhagen, P.N. Elrod and K.B. Bogen, this book is full of great works of the craft. Filled with humor and horror, it has something for anybody.
And if you like somebody's work you can always use the information in the back of the book to find their other works. A must for any vampire library!

Multiple Personality Disorder.......2003-01-18

If you try to fit these stories into Bram Stoker's original novel, you will be very disappointed. The Count Draculas characterized in the various stories are all different. They clearly reflect each author's views on vampires.

I sat down and read this book from front to end, and as I was reading it, I began to wonder if the Count had a serious multiple personality disorder. The Count Dracula in one story would morph into a completely different person when I turned the page to the next story.

However, if you take each of these stories individually, most are very entertaining and well written. (Although I completely agree with what a previous reviewer said about K.B. Bogen's "Good Help" entry being thoroughly unfunny - having it included is the main reason I can't give this book 5 stars.)

Amazon.com

As Nina Auerbach writes in the New York Times, " Stephen King assumes we hate vampires; Anne Rice makes it safe to love them, because they hate themselves. Kim Newman suspects that most of us live with them . . . . Anno Dracula is the definitive account of that post-modern species, the self-obsessed undead." In this first of what looks to be an excellent series, Victorian England has vampires at every level of society, especially the higher ones, and they engage in incessant intrigue, power games, and casual oppression of the weak--activities, as we know, that are all too human. Numerous characters from literature and from history appear in both major and cameo roles. Spectacular fight scenes, stormy politics, and a serial vampire killer keep the action lively. A scholarly bibliography is included.

Customer Reviews:

Promising premise and detailed plot, but impossible to believe and poorly written. Not recommended.......2007-09-22

In 1885, Count Dracula came to London to spread vampirism into the heart of Victorian England. But in this retelling of (literary) history, Van Helsing did not defeat Dracula; rather, Dracula succeeded, marrying Queen Victoria and becoming Prince Consort. Now, in 1888, vampires fill positions of power--but also the streets of Whitechapel, where a murderer is killing and mutilating young vampire prostitutes. The attempt to catch him brings together a upper class adventurer named Charles Beauregard and an ancient vampire elder named Genevieve Diuedonne. A clever concept that intertwines alternate history with horror and includes many familiar faces (including, of course, Jack the Ripper, known here as the Silver Knife), this is a promising political intrigue enrichened by vampires that, unfortunately, falls flat. Although the horror is indeed gruesome, the plot is detailed, and the vampires are skillfully conceived, the book's premise is impossible to believe and the writing style is cheap at best (and desperately in need of an editor at worst). This is a swift read and holds a lot of promise, but it is also, frankly, quite bad. I don't recommend it.

This premise as well as the character cameos create a promising and interesting starting place for the book. The Victorian setting, touching both on high society and the slums of Whitechapel, the characters which range from vampire elders to Jack the Ripper to minute appearances from even Oscar Wilde, and finally the vampires, conceived in thoughtful detail and as well as gruesome horror, certainly seems promising. And to his credit, Newman conceives and explores his plot well: it's a detailed combination of horror and history and politics, knitted together neatly but not too simply, and so remains interesting, readable, and both logical and unpredictable.

But the premise does not live up to its potential by a long shot. Instead, the book is bogged down by an underlying fault in the premise as well as poor storytelling. The premise's flaw is that Queen Victoria married Count Dracula prior to the start of the book, and that by the time of the book his plan to take control over England has proceeded largely without difficulty. Vampires roam the streets, and more are being reborn into vampirism every day--including those in the upper class. All of this, despite the fact that Dracula remains excessive, appalling, and violent as ever. Why is there no social resistance to vampirism? The book makes a big deal of it, but there is clearly no major social backlash--or the vampires would not have gotten so far. Jack the Ripper killing vampires makes more sense than anything else in the book, including the social struggles between the vampires and the "warm" and new politics including vampire rulers, in particular a vampire as Prince Consort. Despite the careful scripting and weaving of disparate threads and concepts, the result is a premise and plot that are, for lack of a better word, impossible, thus tainting the rest of the book with the reader's disbelief.

Worse than the premise is, unfortunately, the writing. The book depends on short chapters to keep the plot moving and repeated ellipses to create a sense of urgency (especially in the later chapters), and with constant errors in punctuation and capitalization it is in dire need of an editor. By contrast, there is nothing about the writing that stands out as artful, skillful, or even simply good. To an extent, the short chapters and simple writing keep the book moving smoothly and help to simplify what could be an overly complex plot, but on the whole the bad writing style is just that: bad. So, despite the promise of the premise, the unfeasible plot and the poor writing make this a disappointing, lackluster novel. I appreciate the attempt, but I didn't enjoy the product, and I don't recommend this book.

Super Reader.......2007-08-30

An excellent book. Kim Newman puts his own spin on a turn around a Wold Newton style universe. He also has a bunch of sneaky 'now who was that' style cameos, a la John Myers Myers' Silverlock.

Dracula has found another way to be in charge in England, by marrying in to the royal family. To prevent problems, he has had the Great Detective thrown in a prison camp.

So when a serial killed called Silver Knife is killing vampire whores, it falls to the Diogenes Club to investigate. Vampires heal normal wounds, but not silver. The investigation uncovers a lot more than just a chain of killings.

What if Dracula Won?.......2006-07-31

The power of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula will probably never be matched as far as vampire stories go, but Kim Newman makes a valiant attempt to write an equally interesting tale. Certainly, the premise of Anno Dracula, and its two sequels, is both postmodern and daringly original. What if, Newman asks, Dracula had taken over England, rather than being destroyed by Van Helsing and his companions? The novel depicts a surreal London where Dracula has conquered England, not solely by terror but political alliance--he has made himself Prince Consort by marrying Queen Victoria and making her a vampiress. This premise for a novel could end up to be ridiculous, but Newman pulls it off by distancing the narrative from Dracula's character.

While Stoker's Dracula and Anne Rice's vampire novels are written in first person, Kim Newman avoids giving readers deep emotional connections based on fear of Dracula, which providers a feeling of security for the reader, although it is also a fault of the novel. Dr. Seward has managed to escape Dracula's revenge, while Van Helsing and Jonathan Harker have been destroyed by Dracula, and Mina Harker is a minion at Buckingham Palace and Lord Godalming has himself become a vampire. Dr. Seward's diary entries are the only first person narratives in the novel, and they are sparsely interspersed among the chapters (Stoker's Dracula was completely written in first person in the diaries and letters of the characters). Seward's narratives bring the reader closest to the tone and feel of Dracula. The rest of the novel in third person makes it difficult to connect to the characters who are so abundant and so undeveloped it is impossible to keep track of any of them except the vampiress Genevieve.

Fans of Dracula, especially those wanting scary thrills like the film versions provide, will be disappointed, that Dracula does not appear until the very end of the novel--oddly something Elizabeth Kostova in The Historian also chose to do, and which makes both novels somewhat anti-climactic and a let down. By comparison, Stoker allowed Dracula to take main-stage through many scenes in his novel.

Because of Dracula's basic absence from the book, I doubt any reader will experience nightmares. Yet the novel does have an effective atmosphere of doom, where vampires and "warm" people walk about London together, like two political parties, the "warm" holding out against converting to vampirism (one wonders what would happen if all the warm became vampires--who would the vampires then feast on?). The characters meet vampires in the streets and at drawing-room parties, and while there is some political unrest over the vampires' presence in the land, it is merely a social problem, and not a major threat to the nation.

The student of late Victorian times will enjoy meeting old literary favorites and historical people ranging from Florence Stoker to Oscar Wilde, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Moreau, Lord John Roxton, and Beatrix Potter. The plot centers around trying to track down Jack the Ripper, who is out murdering vampiresses, to the alarm of the vampire establishment. Newman effectively creates the atmosphere of this mixed warm and vampire, fictional and historical world. And while the reader has to wait until the last chapter to see Dracula, the climax at Buckingham Palace is powerful and worth waiting for, and intriguing enough to make one want to read Newman's next vampire novel, The Bloody Red Baron, set during the First World War.

- Tyler R. Tichelaar, author of Iron Pioneers, The Marquette Trilogy: Book One

Alternate "History" -- Dracula Meets Jack the Ripper!.......2004-08-03

Kim Newman's "Anno Dracula" has one of the most audacious plots imaginable -- let's assume that Bram Stoker's "Dracula" was non-fiction, and that Dracula defeated his nemesis, Van Helsing. Then, let's assume that Dracula "seduced" Queen Victoria and is now the Prince Consort, effectively ruling Great Britain. Throw in Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Jekyll, John Merrick (the Elephant Man), Jack the Ripper, and even a brief reference to the Lone Ranger(!), and you've got one heck of an amazing world to spin a yarn.

Newman's Victorian England is populated by vampires and "warm" humans, and there is little shame in being a vampire. But not every vampire becomes a "lord of darkness" -- Newman shows many vampires scraping by, selling themselves just like the "warm" cheap harlots of London's lower neighborhoods.

In that murky world, Jack the Ripper is butchering vampire prostitutes, using vicious silver blades. Two kindred spirits, the "warm" adventurer Charles Beauregard and the ancient vampiress Genevieve, pursue Jack and seek to put a stop to his diabolical ends. Beauregard works at the behest of the mysterious cabal known as the Diogenes Club, a group dedicated to the removal of Dracula's power, while Genevieve chases Jack out of mercy, trying to save the vampire-girls Jack seems hell-bent on savaging.

Newman packs "Anno Dracula" with action, unlike other "alternate vampire histories" (granted, a limited genre) like Brian Stableford's "Empire of Fear." Beauregard's prowess with a sword is easy to grasp, but Genevieve, an "elder" vampire even more ancient and powerful than Dracula, has powers far beyond the grasp of even other vampires. And even Genevieve meets a vampire that she cannot fend off for long, a Chinese horror sure to give more than a few readers nightmares.

A detective story that takes place in a London ready to explode in civil war where the "warm" take on the vampires and the vampires fight among themselves, "Anno Dracula" is a lark. Packed with enough gore and gothic eroticism to satisfy the vampire afficionado, "Anno Dracula" rarely goes over the top and manages to stay fairly grounded. A terrifying climactic stand-off between Beauregard, Genevieve, and Dracula ends ominously - Dracula is still out there, and he's not going to take his lumps lying down. Here's looking forward to the next in the series!

Please reprint this book!!.......2004-07-14

I bought Kim Newman's book 'Dracula Cha Cha Cha' a couple of years ago, and enjoyed it so much I resolved to buy the other books in the series. However, they appear to be out of print, and 'Anno Dracula' was only available through Amazon's (excellent) second hand book sales facility.
I was delighted when the book arrived, and the book itself lived up to my anticipation. There are so many literary and historical allusions to the era (1880s / 1890s )and part of the fun is seeing how many you know or can understand. They add to rather than detract from the excellent story telling.
This book should really be reissued.

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Dracula (Saddleback Classics)
Jack London
Manufacturer: Saddleback Educational Publishing, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Simply Stories Sony Data Discman(Adult's Version):Based on Dracula;White Fang;Far from the Madding Crowd

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Simply Stories Sony Data Discman(Adult's Version):Based on Dracula;White Fang;Far from the Madding Crowd
Bram Stoker , Jack London , and Thomas Hardy
Manufacturer: Penguin Electronic
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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