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Hollywood Gothic

The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen

David J. Skal

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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ISBN10: 0571211585
ISBN13: 9780571211586

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384 Pages

$19.00

CA$25.99

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Count Dracula—the original monster as icon—has long haunted the modern imagination. Renowned pop-culture author and film critic Skal here provides us with "the ultimate book on Dracula" (Newsweek) by fully and engagingly exploring his creation, evolution, and widespread infiltration. Now appearing in a revised edition, Hollywood Gothic maps the archetypal vampire's trajectory from Victorian literary oddity to early-film sensation to modern cultural commodity. Along the way, Skal also reveals what this dark prince says about us all.

Reviews

Praise for Hollywood Gothic

"Meticulously researched, engagingly written, and packed with rare, archival images . . . This history of Dracula reads life a novel itself."—The San Francisco Bay Chronicle

"Anyone interested in Bram Stoker's Dracula will find this book indispensable."—Ray Bradbury

"[Skal] tracks Transylvania's most popular vampire with dry wit and the skills of a fine detective."—The New York Times Book Review

Reviews from Goodreads

About the author

David J. Skal

David J. Skal (1952 - 2024) was the author several critically acclaimed books on fantastic literature and genre cinema, including The Monster Show; Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen; Screams of Reason; Mad Science and Modern Culture; V Is for Vampire: The A to Z Guide to Everything Undead; and, with Elias Savada, Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning. With Nina Auerbach, he co-edited the Norton Critical Edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula. His writing appeared in a variety of publications, ranging from The New York Times to Cinefantastique, and for television, on the A&E series Biography. He wrote, produced, and directed a dozen original DVD documentaries, including features on the Universal Studios' classic monster movies, and a behind-the-scenes chronicle of the Academy Award-winning film Gods and Monsters. He lived in Los Angeles.