Everyone knows Bram Stoker as the author of the marvellous and much-interpreted "Dracula": his other works are frequently overlooked. This is a great short tale of the supernatural in which the English landscape plays a major role and was the last thing he wrote before his death. Unfortunately, Stoker suffered several strokes before he died and was sometimes quite incoherent, something apparent in this story.
Like "Dracula", this book has been filmed and the Ken Russell interpretation is so brilliantly dreadful that it is well worth seeing!
Novella-length, very sharply-written and well worth reading. There are no explanations given for the odd things which happen in this book, but it is still most enjoyable.
Very short and most enjoyable. Not at all funny in the way that the "Lucia" books are, but urbane and elegantly written. The sketches of 1900s Brighton are great.
Enjoyable but not by any means the most original or interesting treatment of the ideas. A few of the plot devices are laboured - the conveniently two-dimensional Russian assassin being a case in point - but the characters are good and engaging and the plot moves at a fair pace, especially given the length of the novel.
This version could do with some serious editorial attention, however.