No doubt hardcore readers will be getting gift cards in a few weeks for the holidays. May we suggest putting them to good use? Namely, toward the purchase of Leslie S. Klinger’s exhaustive, exhilarating THE NEW ANNOTATED DRACULA. The editor talks with BOOKGASM about this mammoth undertaking.
BOOKGASM: I’m curious as to the process of putting together a book like this. How long did it take to research and write? How many times did you have to re-read Stoker’s text? Did you keep track of your total hours? I assume it’s a ton of work, but is it work that is fun for you?
KLINGER: Of course it’s great fun. The book took about two years to write, another six months to edit. I re-read the text many times, going line by line. I don’t keep track of my time, but it was many, many weekends and four trips, a week in London, 10 days in Transylvania, two days in Seattle, and one day in Philadelphia, as well as a lot of time at my local library.
BOOKGASM: Was there anything particularly revelatory that you found when working on the book?
KLINGER: Many things: the definitive answer to whether Dracula was based on Vlad the Impaler (he wasn’t — the Stoker notes revealed this); the alternate ending (the manuscript); the site of Dracula’s London base (on Piccadilly); the possible sites for Lucy’s tomb (London); the mismatched geography of Transylvania.
BOOKGASM: Why do you think DRACULA enjoys such resonance today when it was not the first vampire novel, nor all that successful in its time?
KLINGER: It was surely the best vampire novel of the 19th century, and because of the stage and screen adaptations, it’s had a tremendous influence. The story is really scary: “Modern” English folks meet 400-year-old monster. Today, we want to yell at them, “You dummies! It’s a vampire!,” but of course, they hadn’t seen the movies and had no clue what they were up against.
BOOKGASM: Of all the vampire novels DRACULA influenced that you discuss in the appendices, what is your favorite? And of the movies?
KLINGER: I love Kim Newman’s ANNO DRACULA and its sequels. For films, I love the BBC production in the 1970s, as well as the Dan Curtis/Richard Matheson/Jack Palance film of the 1970s.
BOOKGASM: You’ve done Sherlock Holmes and now the Count. What literary icon is next?
KLINGER: No certainty on this, but it may well be Frankenstein and his monster.
BOOKGASM: For those of us who don’t live anywhere near your book tour stops, will you be offering autographed bookplates via mail as you did with the Holmes project?
KLINGER: I haven’t “built” them yet, but I think that’s a good idea! —Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE NEW ANNOTATED DRACULA edited by Leslie S. Klinger
OTHER RECENT BOOKGASM AUTHOR INTERVIEWS:
• Q&A with HALLOWEEN AND OTHER SEASONS’ Al Sarrantonio
• Q&A with MY BRAIN IS HANGING UPSIDE DOWN’s David Heatley
• Q&A with NIGHT OF THE FURIES’ David Angsten
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