Book Review: Powers of Darkness

 This month for Gothic and Horror Book Club, we read "Powers of Darkness: A Lost Translation of Dracula" by Bram Stoker/Valdimar Ásmundsson. 

Rather than a pure translation of the finished work, this is instead a translation of what is believed to be an early draft. As it's a draft, it's far from finished. The whole structure seems to fall apart after Harker escapes from Dracula's castle. After that, there are some scenes that have been written out, and the epistolary/journal structure has been completely dropped. It's almost like reading a beat sheet in a lot of ways. 

Of course, as someone who is a total nerd for Scandinavian culture and literature, there were a lot of really interesting little Easter eggs for me. They reference the Huldufolk, the Christmas Witch, and some other figures from folklore. And the way that Ásmundsson writes about supernatural things is incredibly Nordic.

It's been a long time since I read Dracula, so it's hard for me to compare the two. 

The biggest differences are that in Transylvania there's just one Hot Blonde Vampire, and that Harker is very nearly taken in by her. This is opposed to scattered scenes with some nameless lady vampires. She also follows Dracula to England. Dracula meets Lucy and Mina in person, and then starts to host these kind of ... Bohemian swinger parties? It's all very horny. The Count is generally more evil and there is a whole host of cult followers that we meet that I don't remember from Dracula.

The book starts with a lot of front matter about the differences, and the potential relationship between Ásmundsson and Stoker. There is an introduction to the whole thing that is written by Stoker, and among the curiosities of that, there is a reference to the Jack the Ripper murders, saying that "what follows is just as bad as the Ripper murders." But we don't actually see what Dracula does once he gets to London - it's all in sketches here and there.

My rating is a 3/5 stars. This is fascinating as a relic, but I am not particularly a scholar of Dracula or Stoker. The read is fast once you get into it, so it's not too much time spent away from other books if you're interested.