Dracula
by Bram Stoker
Narrated
by Susan Adams, Alexander Spencer
I recently
undertook the personal challenge to listen to five different versions of
DRACULA because listening to Bram Stoker’s classic years ago made me a fan of
audiobooks. I enjoyed that experience so much that I decided to try to
determine if I had just gotten lucky or if there was an even better version
available. Besides, I wanted to listen to it again. With most books I feel
fortunate to have just one audio version available, but with DRACULA there are
so many versions offered that listening to them all is not practical. I first
figured that I could handle maybe three different versions but then discovered
two more that I thought deserved attention. The Audible list had these five
that I thought might be contenders:
Listed in my order of listening preference:
1) Susan Adams & Alexander Spencer (Recorded Books 1980)
2) Peter Sciarrio & Kris Faulkner & a FULL CAST, (Books in Motion 2008)
3) Greg Wise & Saskia Reeves (BBC Audiobooks 2008)
4) Robert Whitfield (aka Simon Vance), (Blackstone edition 1998)
5) Alan Cumming & Tim Curry & cast (Audible edition 2011)
1) Susan Adams (f) Alexander Spencer (m), Recorded Books 1980 [run time 18:19],
This was my audiobook of gold, my “Golden Hearing” if you will. It is still my
favorite version of DRACULA. Susan Adams is the voice of Mina Harker for me.
She imparts every emotion superbly and she has the most exquisite upper-class
British accent: Sincere yet aloof. She has an aristocratic bearing to her voice
that suits the material well. When reading "really" it sounds like
"reaally." This adds a great deal to the charm of this edition. The
early chapters read by Alexander Spencer, as Jonathan Harker, at a very slow
and deliberate pace match exactly the gothic horror mood of Dracula that I
first felt when reading the print version.
As to the production: The audio quality is the lowest of the five, it was
produced in 1980, but is always clear and discernable. I think the slightly
tinny sound of this version gives the production a sense of antiquity that is
most appropriate for this late Victorian story. The diaries of Dr. Seward and
Lucy Westenra are sometimes said to be heard, in the novel, on a new, at the
time, wax cylinder phonograph. The pitch of this recording brings to mind such
a device and instead of being a deterrent becomes a feature that enhances the
experience. Incidentally, this slightly high pitch makes this version easier to
hear in noisy environments.
It was when listening to this Recorded Books version years ago that convinced
me of the viability of audiobooks as a delivery system for great literature.
The duet performance of Adams and Spencer trading off between the female and
male roles is perfectly suited to the material. At one point in the listening I
was so immersed in the story that I could not remember who voiced the words of
Van Helsing. When you hear Susan Adams declare
“Mirable dictu” (time marker 3:49) when the schooner is blown into the harbor
you will know that you are listening to something special.
TECHNICAL NOTES
The recording is slightly noisy, but this does not detract from the impact.
Chapter stops every 45-49 minutes do not match book chapters
12:21:15 (Missing words) “For a few seconds she didn’t (recognize me) but
looked at me with a sort of blank terror.”
12:29:38 (Low volume for a few seconds) “I suppose it is one of the lessons we
women have to learn.”
13:30:55 (The only version to correctly pronounce “sentience:” (SEN-shunch)
13:49:32 to 13:52:41 (Repeated paragraphs) Starting with Mina’s phrase, “She
said solemnly,” about three minutes of the scene just previous are repeated.
Follows the text of THE ESSENTIAL DRACULA (TED)
Examples:
1:38:17 “Occupied by the ladies in bygone days.” (TED p. 70.-1.-5)
2:24:17 “To-night is mine. To-morrow night is yours.” (TED p. 80.3)
All these versions are essentially based on the same unabridged 1897 text of
DRACULA. There are some minor differences, some of which are mentioned in the
individual audiobook reviews.
It is ironic that twice in the text of DRACULA sound recordings of diary entries
are said to be “read” when they are played audibly. The first is in chapter 17
when Mina uses an early wax-cylinder type phonograph machine to “read” Lucy’s
diary by means of, “putting the forked metal to my ears and began to listen.”
And, again in chapter 25 Jonathan Harker similarly gives his imprimatur to the
validity of audiobooks saying, “When I read to Mina, Van Helsing’s message in
the phonograph, the poor girl brightened up considerably.” So, it seems, Bram
Stoker anticipated the advent of audiobooks as a viable medium for literature.
I decided to listen to the novel chapter by chapter, hearing all five versions
of one chapter before advancing to the next. Unexpectedly, I learned several
things about audiobook listening in general. It is remarkable how much I found
I could remember from one version to the next. This capability helped me
discover some slight textual variants and the head-to-head comparison brought
out the differences between the versions in a striking fashion. See the reviews
for each version for some examples.
This textual comparison is an unexpected feature of this project. I did not
expect to find textual variants, but listening to five different versions draws
attention to the smallest difference. Also interesting is the way in which some
details in a scene are not noticed until the third or fourth listening. There
are strange forces at work in this project: Sometimes the smallest change jumps
out at you and at other times whole sentences are not even noticed until
listening to the third or fourth version. This repetition allowed me to
appreciate the stylistic aspects of the prose much more than the plot.
Different narrators will, by the inherent variety of their delivery, bring out
emphasis on different words or syllables. They all read the same story, which
requires the telling of many words to advance; and so changes only very slowly,
and this repetition is thus multiplied when listening to several versions
back-to-back, forcing the listening mind to latch on to nuances of pronunciation
or accent and immerses the listener in the very words rolling off of the
narrator's lips.
This novel was already very familiar to me, having read it twice and listened
to it another two times. Unlike a typical audiobook experience, where after a
while the narrator becomes almost transparent allowing the listener to
interface directly with the text, for this one I found that I became less and
less interested in the story and more fascinated as to how each narrator was
about to perform a particular line or phrase. After the first listen of a
chapter there are no plot surprises. I had anticipated becoming almost numb to
the words after four or five retellings of the same material, but I soon
learned to listen for reasons other than to find out what happens next. I
learned how to listen to the tapestry of the novel made apparent by the
individual performances of the various actors reading the same words. At the
end of a passage my impression of the novel was elevated because of the gestalt
of all the different audio versions allows the mind to compile an impression of
the material that truly transcends the individual narrators. If I were to edit
together a “best-of” audiobook version of DRACULA it would include passages
from each of the five different versions.
Perhaps someone else will take up the challenge to listen to all five audiobook
versions.
