Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula
About this audiobook
Powers of Darkness is an incredible literary discovery: In 1900, Icelandic publisher and writer Valdimar Ásmundsson 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 Ásmundsson’s story.
In 2014, literary researcher Hans de Roos dove into the full text of Makt Myrkranna, only to discover that Ásmundsson hadn’t merely translated Dracula but had penned an entirely new version of the story, with all new characters and a totally reworked 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 Ásmundsson’s Makt Myrkranna. With 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.
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About the author
Bram Stoker (1847-1912) was an Irish writer and the author of the acclaimed novel Dracula. He moved to London where he worked as the acting and business manager at Lyceum Theatre for twenty-eight years. He was also the personal assistant to actor Henry Irving. To this day, Dracula is a timeless piece of literature that has inspired countless films and spin-off stories.
Valdimar Ásmundsson (1852–1902) was the founder and editor of the Icelandic literary journal Lady of the Mountains.
Hans Corneel de Roos is an independent researcher specializing in French and British Art of the second half of the 19th Century. He is author of The Ultimate Dracula and numerous other articles on Dracula. He is a recipient of the Research Award of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula.
Dacre Stoker is the great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker. He lives in South Carolina with his family.
John Edgar Browning is a Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is author or editor eleven academic and popular trade books and more than fifty articles, book chapters, and reviews on subjects that cluster around horror, the undead, Bram Stoker, and the Gothic. He has also been a guest on National Geographic’s Taboo USA and the Discovery Channel’s William Shatner’s Weird or What? to discuss vampires.
Adam Verner is a full-time narrator and voice talent with over one hundred titles recorded. He is the recipient of AudioFile Earphones Awards for Pavilion of Women by Pearl S. Buck and The Big It by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. Adam earned his MFA in acting from the Chicago College of the Fine Arts at Roosevelt University.
Robertson Dean has recorded hundreds of audiobooks in most every genre. He's been nominated for several Audie Awards, won eight Earphones Awards, and was named one of AudioFile magazine's Best Voices of 2010. He lives in Los Angeles, where he records books and acts in film, TV, and (especially) on stage.
Ralph Lister is an experienced actor and voice artist who trained at LAMDA. He spent fifteen years in mainstage theatre in London, Madrid, Hong Kong, and Edinburgh before moving to America, where he focuses on film, television, and audiobook narration.
A native of the United Kingdom, Audie and AudioFile Earphones Award winner Derek Perkins's audiobook narration skills are augmented by a knowledge of three foreign languages and a facility with accents. He has narrated numerous titles in a wide range of fiction and nonfiction genres. He is a member of SAG-AFTRA.
R. C. Bray is an award-winning audiobook narrator with over 180 titles to his credit. Besides winning five AudioFile Earphones Awards, he won the prestigious Audie Award in 2015 for Best Science Fiction Narration and has been an Audie Award finalist seven times. He has been a finalist for the Voice Arts Award, and in 2014, his narration earned a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award. He is also an accomplished producer and voice-over artist, and his voice can be heard in countless TV and radio commercials.
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