By the author of Dracula and not nearly as good. The suspense, what little there is, is undermined by the title, and the whole is undermined by casual racism which feels much earlier than the book's actual date. Constant use of the N-word and offensive characterisation of a villainous black character makes this a difficult read for a modern person. Then there's the way characters are introduced and then largely ignored, the weird way the heroes keep leaving to fool the villain, who is never, ever fooled.

It's also not often that you see a character described as "as unprincipled as a suffragette"

I would give negative five stars to this book if that were possible. This is the worst book I have read in my entire life. I mean, I'm pretty fond of Dracula, although it has its problems, but ... my god. This is really bad.

The writing is terrible--a combination, I suppose, of Stoker being really bad at third-person omniscient POV (Dracula is epistolary and wonderfully paced) and not bothering to edit *at all.* (He worked on Dracula for years--the only one of his books that he took such care with.) This novel is about The End of the World and The Struggle Between Good and Evil and Antediluvian Monsters and things like that--but Stoker almost completely fails to convey any sense of suspense whatsoever. His prose is plodding and awkward. His plot is more holes than anything else. His characters are either racist or misogynist stereotypes or completely unsympathetic.

Speaking of racist--this book is also the most racist novel I have ever read, and I've read some pretty racist nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century novels. Even after learning about the worst aspects of American slavery, I was disturbed by the casual racist vitriol in this book. It reads as though Stoker invented the West African character Oolanga simply to have a focal point for all his pent-up hatred and fear.

If you've read Dracula, you can probably guess at the basics of the misogyny in this book--especially after I tell you that the White Worm is actually the alternate form of a (sexy) human woman.

On top of all this it's extra frustrating that Stoker's great imagination is still in evidence in this heap of crap. There are some really evocative images--a huge falcon-shaped kite frightening away immense flocks of birds, hypnotic staring matches between the characters, lightning-triggered explosions, and the White Worm itself--that could form the skeleton of a really fascinating story. It would make a great graphic novel, after the whole thing had been soaked in Draino for about five years. ( )

I quite enjoyed Dracula, so I had every expectation of liking this as well, but I was sadly mistaken; something somewhere went horribly wrong between the two. The plot is a mismash of threads that are either completely nonsensical or simply dropped after having added nothing to the story, and the characters speak in such a stilted manner that it crosses the line into unintentional humor. The characterization is more or less nonexistent (Mimi, earlier so fiercely protective of Lilla, proceeds to essentially abandon her to her fate), and their actions seem to have no basis in reason whatsoever. Even having finished it, I still have absolutely no idea what was going on the vast majority of the time. While I am usually fairly understanding of the fact that older books are rather less PC than anything that would get published today, it's also worth noting that this book is painfully racist, to the point that it's difficult to overlook. Absolutely not recommended by any means. ( )

A shorter novel. An english uncle calls on an aussie nephew to come and help him out. Strange things are happening, you have a possibly evil hypnotist and the very likely sinister Lady March.

This is all pretty minor compared to the big-arse snake monster or intrepid traveller finds in a cave.

As it turns out, there is not much chance that Lady Arabella March is what she seems.

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1188

http://freesf.blogspot.com/2006/11/la... ( )