Dracula [Audible Edition]

By: Bram Stoker

Narrated by: Alan Cumming, Tim Curry, Simon Vance, Katherine Kellgren, Susan Duerden, John Lee, Graeme Malcolm, Steven Crossley

Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award, Distinguished Achievement in Production, 2013

Audie Award, Multi-voiced Performance, 2013

Audie Award Nominee, Classic, 2013

Because of the widespread awareness of the story of the evil Transylvanian count and the success of numerous film adaptations that have been created over the years, the modern audience hasn't had a chance to truly appreciate the unknowing dread that readers would have felt when reading Bram Stoker's original 1897 manuscript. Most modern productions employ campiness or sound effects to try to bring back that gothic tension, but we've tried something different. By returning to Stoker's original storytelling structure - a series of letters and journal entries voiced by Jonathan Harker, Dr. Van Helsing, and other characters - with an all-star cast of narrators, we've sought to recapture its originally intended horror and power.

This production of Dracula is presented by what is possibly the best assemblage of narrating talent ever for one audiobook: Emmy Award nominees Alan Cumming and Tim Curry plus an all-star cast of Audie award-winners Simon Vance (The Millenium Trilogy), Katherine Kellgren (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), Susan Duerden (The Tiger’s Wife), John Lee (Supergods) and customer favorites Graeme Malcolm (Skippy Dies), Steven Crossley (The Oxford Time Travel series), Simon Prebble (The Baroque Cycle), James Adams (Letters to a Young Contrarian), Nicola Barber (The Rose Garden), Victor Villar-Hauser (Fun Inc.), and Marc Vietor (1Q84). These stellar narrators have been cast as follows:

Alan Cumming as Dr. Seward
Simon Vance as Jonathan Harker
Katy Kellgren as Mina Murray/Harker
Susan Duerden as Lucy Westenra
Tim Curry as Van Helsing
Graeme Malcolm as Dailygraph correspondent
Steven Crossley as Zookeeper’s account and reporter
Simon Prebble as Varna
James Adams as Patrick Hennessey
Nicola Barber as Sister Agatha
Victor Villar-Hauser as Arthur Holmwood
Marc Vietor as Quincey Morris
John Lee as Introductory paragraph, various letters

Public Domain (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Listening to this full-cast performance turns out to be remarkably suspenseful and chilling…The superlative cast lends this powerful production the diversity that is required by the structure of the novel…Each actor employs various accents, infusing into the characters vibrant emphasis, urgency, and dread." ( AudioFile)

Fun to listen to

I like that each character has their own actor or actress. Once I saw Tim Curry's name I was excited but he didn't get to voice very much. Still good, though.

Barely any Tim Curry

Decent book and good performances. Not really spooky beyond the first hour and a half or so. Having Tim Curry in such big letters on the title is kind of a bait and switch because he has probably a half an hour at most of dialogue in a SIXTEEN HOUR audio book. Still a good book tho

First time through the original

This was such a great listen. I picked it up on a whim, but I'm so glad I did. The movies over-sexualize the story so much that I'm turned off by them.
Dracula is a lovely tragic and heroic tale of good vs evil, where the good is purely that and the evil is everything expected. I enjoyed the way it played out as journal/diary entries, etc, of the various characters. While the blatant horror is confined to a handful of scenes, Stoker skilfully keeps the pulse alive while weaving together the story from each individual account.
Dracula's evil is truly palpable.
I thoroughly enjoyed the varying cast for this reading. They did an excellent job keeping up a comfortable pace whilst offering up a bit of life giving dramatic expression to the whole story. Not too much. My ONLY caveat is Dr. Van Helsing's accent - I wish it had been agreed upon by all actors what he should sound like. I think Mr.Curry's was the most accurate, as the Prof is supposed to be Dutch. One was heavily Slavic (Romanian, I guess), another sounded slightly French (though it's forgivable since I always enjoy Simon Vance), and yet another was non-existant (which was also permissible since Alan Cumming's voice is so agreeable.)
Regardless, I highly recommend a listen to this book. The original will shed a lot of light on the Hollywood wannabes.

Exceptional Classic

An excellent work that proves why it will forever hold up through all of time.

Awesome narration

Incredible! Loved the narration. It was one of the best ever. Edge of our seat entertainment. Great! Great! Great! Great!

A True Classic

The great true classic Gothic horror masterpiece! Wonderful performances especially from Curry and Cummings!

Excellent!

This wonderful narration helped me fall in love with Dracula all over again. One of the best audiobooks I’ve listened to.

Great Classic!

I loved that it was a full cast and all the actors were great! It brought the story to life and made it a colorful creepy adventure.

Amazing writing and amazing narrating! Loved it!!!

First time I was exposed to an epistolary literature. I definitely understand now why this story got so famous.

Listening to this throughout October

I listened to this near Halloween and it was perfect. I loved the character cast. They really brought the whole story to life and when you listened to the words, every detail Stoker chose to describe the scene there was no doubt why this remains on the classics list. Fantastic book, of course, and production. I especially enjoyed Tim Curry's rendition of Dr. Van Helsing.