The Lady of the Shroud

A truly dreadful book in so many ways - theatrical, sentimental, nonsensical, militaristic, imperialist, patronising (to women and to the peoples of the Balkans) and often leaden.

Beyond being one for Bram Stoker completists - and the early promise of creepy thrills is nothing but a fraud designed to inveigle the reader of the 1900s into a conservative political tract - why bother?

Two reasons make this worth the read (though only for the dedicated): the psychological insight into the fantasy world of an aging Edwardian male; and an insight into the attitudes behind Edwardian imperialism.

Neither make particularly pleasant reading although the former is harmless enough, simply not engaging us sufficiently to justify publication rather than show more a private notebook.

But the latter is quite startling and disturbing and makes one realise how much of what is good and true can differ over a hundred years - and how much may change again in another century.

What this book is really about is a conservative Anglo-Irishman's opinion about the Balkan Question and presumably indirectly the Irish Question.

Less developed peasant countries just need a wealthy Anglo-Celt Briton as King, one who can invest in industrialisation and air power and create a reliable ally to check the Germans for the British Empire.

These 'free' nations are to be federated (depressingly like the current European Union) and buttressed by the Church, an obsequious Germanic democracy and strong women who serve their men.

For students of British Imperial culture, there is a lot of great material here on snobbery, white superiority, class, nobility, the role of women and the industrialised arms race of the period.

But the weirdest aspect of the plot is the determinedly creepy (and not in the best sense) plot line that switches us from failed Gothic novel to dull novel (or rather assertion) of politics.

Imagine someone creating a pastiche of Sheridan Le Fanu in order to segue into one of the duller works of the late polemic and bombastic political HG Wells and you are on the right track.

To tell more of what the Lady of the Shroud represents would be a spoiler but do not buy or read this book expecting a sequel to the great 'Dracula' - it is nothing of the kind.

When Stoker is minded to and is not dragged into conventional theatrics, idiotic character development and political tract, he can actually write and the moments when he does, keeps one going.

But it is depressing to think that his imaginative abilities had reached this low by 1909. A book only for social, cultural and literary historians and students of middle aged male frustration. show less

Less Gothic horror, more Gothic romance, with a dusting of Ruritanian adventure sprinkled on top. Personally, I would have preferred more of Stoker' take on Anthony Hope's Prisoner of Zenda scenario but this was a good story nonetheless.

The romance is atmospheric, creepy and intimate, if at times somewhat overwrought. The adventure is set in the milieu of pre-First World War Balkan politics and I would have enjoyed more of this and a little less of the "Bloofer Lady" wandering about the midnight garden.

Told in the epistolary style that Stoker used for Dracula.

I've been a big fan of Stoker's much more well-known novel, Dracula, for some time but I've only become aware fairly recently that he also wrote several other books. The Lady of the Shroud was one of his later works, published in 1909 and set in 1907 - 1909. It starts with a very gothic opening scene: a ship sailing off the coast of a small Baltic nation sees a coffin floating in the sea. In the coffin stands a woman, dressed in a white shroud. As they watch, the coffin and its inhabitant vanish, whether into the mist or whether they were just a vision is unclear. However, a reader expecting a purely gothic novel is likely to be disappointed as the novel almost seems to change style and genre every few chapters as if Stoker couldn't show more make up his mind whether this was to be another gothic/horror novel like Dracula or something else. It's told in epistolary format (through letters and diary entries) like Dracula and Stoker's love of up to date technology is also evident but The Lady of the Shroud also has elements of a Rurtanian romance (like Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda) and a political commentary on the state of the Balkan nations pre WWI. I found it all interesting but the changes in pace and style meant I found the novel as a whole rather disjointed.

The edition I read was published by Valancourt Books and contains a very helpful introduction. Interestingly, it seems that it's been quite rare for this novel to be published in an unabridged format since its original publication (the Valancourt edition is, of course, unabridged) with most publishers editing out the political commentary and other sections to leave the novel a straight Ruritanian romance. I can see how that may have made it more appealing to readers. show less

http://nhw.livejournal.com/694644.html

The book is set in the present day (ie 1907). It is about a Rupert St Leger, an Irishman who has become a citizen of the world, who unexpectedly finds himself a major landowner in a fictional Adriatic territory, the Land of the Blue Mountains, which should not be confused with any country named after mountains of some other colour with which I might be familiar. He gets entangled with a mysterious and chilly lady who appears wearing only a shroud (the exciting cover - wonder who the artist was? - shows her standing up in a water-borne coffin, in what is in fact the book's very first scene). The plot is complex and exciting, but is resolved with his rescuing her father from captivity using an show more aeroplane (which is pretty bloody advanced for 1907) and it turns out that the only element of the supernatural not otherwise explained away is Celtic rather than Balkan, in that Rupert's aged Scottish aunt has the Second Sight.

At least, that's where I thought the book ended. However, as I was checking out the on-line text on Project Gutenberg, I discovered that there was a whole chunk of the book missing - the Arrow edition of 1962, whose 1974 version was the one I had bought, had hacked off the last quarter of the text, without explanation! Extraordinary. I don't mind buying an abridged version if it's marked as such, but it was a shock to discover I had been cheated of such a substantial amount of the content. (Though since I only paid £1.60 I can't complain too much.)

In the censored section from the 1962/1974 edition, the story continues directly into the political rather than the supernatural (perhaps the reader of the 1960s was deemed by the publishers to be more interested in the horror elements than the politics). Rupert uses his vast fortune, and the mineral wealth of the Land of the Blue Mountains, to unite the entire Balkan peninsula under his moderate and constitutional rule, defended by a fleet of - get this - radium-powered aeroplanes.

Yes, the author of Dracula wrote a book with nuclear fuelled aircraft. Set in the Balkans. In 1907.

I must say I had not expected this book to be quite so intriguing. I certainly got more than my money's worth anyway. show less

Don't be fooled by the pulp horror cover, this tale from the pen of Bram Stoker isn't in the same vein as his more famous creation. There isn't much horror involved in this romance set against the background of adventure and mystery.

The lack of the creep factor shouldn't put you off. This is an enjoyable story that is full of character and even humour at times.

This was a great ghost story that turned into political BS. I loved this story and expected more. The ending is disappointing.

1909. Bram Stoker wrote numerous novels, short stories, essays, and lectures, but Dracula is by far his most famous work. Stoker coined the term undead, and his interpretation of vampire folklore continues to this day to shape the portrayals of legendary monsters. Contents: From The Journal of Occultism; The Will of Roger Melton; Vissarion; The Coming of the Lady; Under the Flagstaff; A Ritual at Midnight; The Pursuit in the Forest; The Empire of the Air; The Flashing of the Handjar; and Balka.