Get yourself a spectacular new interpretation of Bram Stoker’s novel as a series of diaries, maps and recordings – but prepare for an equally spectacular price.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula has been reprinted, annotated and adapted in many different ways since it was published (and, more importantly, since it entered the public domain), and you might think that there is little new that can be done to it. But the ambitious Dracula: The Evidence project currently crowdfunding shows that there are still innovative ways of presenting the novel.
As anyone who has read the book knows, the narrative is presented as a series of diary entries, recordings and news stories – a literary version of the faux documentary or found footage film, you might say. Dracula: The Evidence takes this narrative and breaks it down to the component parts, presenting them as a multimedia series of documents. Contained within a briefcase, you’ll find maps, letters, diaries, newspaper clippings, telegrams, and phonograph records that challenge you to piece together the story by following clues. A bit like a physical version of a computer game, if such a thing could be imagined. The project has been put together by Beehive Books and Dacre Stoker (descendent of Bram) and is a luxurious looking affair.
It comes, of course, at a luxurious price. The cheapest complete version, housed in a leatherette briefcase, will set you back some $400. For twice that price, you can get the 250 copy limited edition collection – with a double gatefold LP, skeleton key to Carfax Abbey and more ephemera – housed in a black wooden box. Or, for the really high roller, why not go for the Entombed Edition, which contains all the materials from the above editions plus more, with the wodden box housed in an engraved stone vault. Yes, you read that right – stone. It’ll cost you $2000, but hurry as only 26 are being produced.
Those less flush can splash out $100 on the double disc vinyl as a stand-alone product. Or for just $25, you can get a digital edition of all the materials. But in for a penny, in for severl hundred pounds is our motto.
You can read more about this ambitious and deliriously luxurious product here.
Thanks to Ramsey Campbell for bringing this to our attention.
