Friday, November 19, 2010

The Man by Bram Stoker

Last weekend, I finished reading The Man by Abraham "Bram" Stoker. I downloaded a copy from Project Gutenberg. The quality of the text was excellent; it has happened to me, a few times in the past, that suddenly some undecipherable typos show up on these versions, but this time the few ones that showed up were quite simple to decipher.

“I would rather be an angel than God!” I guess Firmin would classify this as a great first line! The book lives up to the expectation of such an awesome first line. I'll be honest; this is the first Stoker's book, after "Dracula"---which is also public domain and you can download at Project Gutenber; as far as I know, Stoker's grandchildren just published a sequel trying to recover the rights of "Dracula" for the family---, that I read. I might be completely and utterly wrong, but the last part of the book read as a "Pride and Prejudice" without Zombies nor too much Prejudice, just enough.

The novel uses a romantic drama to deal with personal values, both classical and modern at Stoker's times, embodied in a series of characters, mainly two young people, a male and female, and a cohort of secondary characters appearing here and there, in a setting that has a late-XIX century feeling.

It is a fluent, entertaining and good read. Stoker's narrative takes you to places in England, shows you the magnificent view preparing the setting for well defined characters that you get to know more deeply as the pages turn. It is a long read, around three-scores chapters, but it doesn't feel so.

In summary, I highly recommend this book; and it's for free.


Other books I've read

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