Publishing House: United Publishers
ISBN Code: 8835941601
Pages: 221
Price: 3.36 euros
It is impossible in this day and age to mention Bram Stoker without the mind associating the Irish writer's name with the word vampire. His figure is inextricably linked to that of the novel in which he paints an immortal character, that of Count Dracula.
And it is precisely the mastery of creating such a seductive figure and handling his movements that ensures eternal fame for a work that, when analyzed, has objective limitations in terms of writing style. Limits that may rightly take a back seat in the face of such a monumental figure as far as his most famous work is concerned, but which are evident in the writer's other works (to realize this, one need only read the short stories included in the collection Irish Ghosts, published by Newton & Compton, and note how Stoker's writing pales in comparison to that of Le Fanu and O'Brien).
Limits that a novel such as The Lady of the Shroud points out, highlighting them (the light so hated by the immortal count), thus making the vampire-Stoker vanish.
The parallel with Dracula is automatic: epistolary novel, an enigmatic figure, in this case a woman, who in the author's claims aspires to possess the same ambiguous charm and nobility as the count; exotic setting, vampiric suggestions, a seduced mortal. Unfortunately for Stoker, but more importantly for the reader, the similarities end there, for the novel is muddled and boredom is the sentiment that ends up prevailing over the others; the writing is heavy-handed, the vaunted charm proves flimsy, the characters lack attractiveness, the sensational and the uncanny languish, and the final twist is a failed attempt to lift the fortunes of a soulless work.
It is preferable to reread the pages of Dracula than to stray into pale attempts to trace a unique work that cannot be replicated even by its own author.
Reviewed by Ian
