For most, Count Dracula is the vampire—and the eponymous novel published by Bram Stoker in 1897 is perforce the vampire novel. Although Dracula was not the first time a handsome, blood-sucking aristocrat had leaped off the pages and into the imaginations of readers, it was perhaps more successful at this than any other. In many ways, Dracula set the tone for what vampires were, are, and could be in popular culture, and the genre of vampire fiction has only scarcely begun to step out of the book's shadow.
By reading Dracula, students become more deeply acquainted with this extraordinary cultural legacy. They also become familiar with an insightfully illustrative example of the literary...
