Dracula

The world's best-known vampire story comes to life in this expert performance by Robert Whitfield. No music, no special audio tricks detract from the chilling, gruesome tale of the un-dead. Whitfield's minimalist narration suits perfectly. His subtle shading of voice gives complete personality and motivation to each of the eight protagonists, with exaggerated accent reserved for the Dutch Dr. van Helsing, and, to a lesser extent, Count Dracula himself. His women come across as sweet, yet intelligent. With the same understated clarity, he brings full voice to the voluptuous vampiresses' seduction of their victims and to the malevolent machinations of the Count. For a classic performance of a classic work, this production must not be missed. R.P.L. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Starred review from April 27, 2015
This full-cast production is a masterly depiction of the Victorian gothic ethos in Stoker’s classic tale. Told through a series of letters and diary entries, the novel begins when Count Dracula lures a young English lawyer named Jonathan Harker to his castle in Transylvania under the pretense of a real estate transaction, but Harker soon discovers the count is a vampire and the diabolical intent in the real estate deal. It falls to the resourceful Professor Van Helsing, along with a handful of intrepid heroes, including Harker and his fiancée, Mina, to stop the count’s evil plans. The readers each have a distinctive voice for their characters and do a perfect job of conveying the emotional content of the assorted letters and diaries. Jamie Parker’s portrayal of Harker is particularly stirring, especially as the character slowly pieces together the horrific truth about Dracula. Alison Pettitt succeeds at providing a gamut of emotions for the voice of Mina throughout the story. Each reader hits the mark with precision. For anyone who has never read (or for anyone looking to revisit) this classic tale of gothic horror, this is a fine way to do so.

DRACULA is one of the most well-known stories in the world, yet Britisher Richard E. Grant manages to wring new life from the Bram Stoker classic. Whether he's voicing the naive Jonathan Harker or any of the frightened townsfolk, Grant is a master storyteller. He effortlessly takes on more than a dozen characters, including the deliciously evil Count Dracula himself, with ease and skill. It comes as no surprise that Grant has appeared in numerous films, including DRACULA. Even in this abridged form, the familiar story of the blood-sucking Transylvanian monster is a chilling testament to the ability of the author who wrote the story more than a century ago. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine


Followers of the popular vampire literary and film interpretations of recent years might be blasÄ about another performance of the exquisitely written novel that started it all. But listening to this full-cast performance turns out to be remarkably suspenseful and chilling. The superlative cast lends this powerful production the diversity that is required by the structure of the novel, which includes journal entries and letters. Each actor employs various accents, infusing into the characters vibrant emphasis, urgency, and dread. The famed vampire Count Dracula leaves a swath of exsanguinated bodies in his wake as he attempts to relocate from Transylvania to England in 1897, stalked by the brave Van Helsing. A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine