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As we approach the centenary of Bram Stoker's death, Philip Dodd presents a Landmark edition of Night Waves devoted to his Victorian gothic horror novel Dracula .

Narrated through a collection of diary entries and letters, Dracula tells the story of a young lawyer sent to manage the affairs of a mysterious Romanian count, only to unleash an evil which preys on those he holds dearest, until the forces of good rally to vanquish it once more.

Stoker's tale fuses folklore and myth with scientific rationalism, psychiatry and anthropology But the novel is much more than the sum of its parts. It is an uncanny reflection of the Victorian age, mirroring its prurient preoccupation with sex, sexuality and moral frailty. Sexually ambivalent, uncertain of origin, the vampire embodies the political and social neuroses of the times; Dracula's troubling associations with impurities of blood and race hint at Stoker's own insecurities about his Irish heritage,and suggests a concern about the dilution of British identity that came with imperial expansion.
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