Powers of Darkness
The Lost Version of Dracula
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Powers of Darkness is an incredible literary discovery: In 1900, Icelandic publisher and writer Valdimar à?smundsson set out to translate Bram Stoker’s world-famous 1897 novel Dracula. Called Makt Myrkranna (literally, “Powers of Darkness†?), this Icelandic edition included an original preface written by Stoker himself. Makt Myrkranna was published in Iceland in 1901 but remained undiscovered outside of the country until 1986, when Dracula scholarship was astonished by the discovery of Stoker’s preface to the book. However, no one looked beyond the preface and deeper into à?smundsson’s story.In 2014, literary researcher Hans de Roos dove into the full text of Makt Myrkranna, only to discover that à?smundsson hadn’t merely translated Dracula but had penned an entirely new version of the story, with all new characters and a totally re-worked plot. The resulting narrative is one that is shorter, punchier, more erotic, and perhaps even more suspenseful than Stoker’s Dracula. Incredibly, Makt Myrkranna has never been translated or even read outside of Iceland until now.Powers of Darkness presents the first ever translation into English of Stoker and à?smundsson’s Makt Myrkranna. With marginal annotations by de Roos providing readers with fascinating historical, cultural, and literary context; a foreword by Dacre Stoker, Bram Stoker’s great-grandnephew and bestselling author; and an afterword by Dracula scholar John Edgar Browning, Powers of Darkness will amaze and entertain legions of fans of Gothic literature, horror, and vampire fiction.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First published in Iceland in 1901 under the title Makt Myrkranna ("Powers of Darkness") but not discovered by English-speaking Dracula scholars until 1986, this early translation of Bram Stoker's landmark vampire novel, retranslated into English for the first time, provides an illuminating look at an act of literary interpretation. Icelandic translator Valdimar smundsson was faithful to the basic plot of Stoker's story, but he took some liberties with its telling, including adding in new characters, having Dracula scheme with the world's power elite to enslave the masses, and describing in lurid detail a bloody bacchanal involving the vampire and his cultists in the crypts beneath Castle Dracula. Noting that the Icelandic version features a preface by Stoker and some plot elements that Stoker mentioned in his story notes but later rejected, English translator de Roos speculates that smundsson may have been working with an early draft of the novel. De Roos's abundant annotations are insightful, and the translation, although pulpier than Stoker's original, is a fascinating gloss on a literary classic.
