Lair of the White Worm

Rating:
Summary: Bram Stoker, but not at his best.
Review: Adam Salton, born and raised in Australia, is contacted by his granduncle in England, for the purpose of establishing a relationship between these last two members of the family. Adam travels to Richard Salton's house in Mercia, and quickly finds himself in the center of some inexplicable occurrences.

The new heir to the Caswall estate, Edgar Caswall appears to be making some sort of a mesmeric assault on a local girl. And, a local lady, Arabella March, seems to be running a game of her own, perhaps angling to become Mrs. Caswall. There is something strange about Lady March, something inexplicable and evil.

This book has elements that should make it a gripping story. Unfortunately, the tendency of the characters to move on, after a fantastic event, as if nothing unusual had happened gives the story a disjointed, surreal feel. This story just does not come together, but rambles along to its uninspiring conclusion. I do not recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: THE GRAND MASTER'S FINAL NIGHTMARE
Review: Allegedly written while the author was going insane, "The Lair of the White Worm" is a fantastic, dream-like narrative whose only saving grace is that there's nothing else like it out there. The plot, if one can call it that, is a maze of myth and pseudo-gothic imagery that, while never the least bit convincing, is somehow irresistible. It is to Stoker's credit that he was able to infuse even a total failure with a mesmeric readability--perhaps he had taken lessons from one his own characters (read the book and you'll get it)! The whole has shades of "Dracula," though none of that work's macabre artistry. Whereas "Dracula" is a frequently subtle, carefully crafted piece of literature which defies the reader to refute its horrors, "Lair of the White Worm" requires so many leaps of faith that it's impossible to achieve any suspension of disbelief. But again, despite its literary deficiciencies, the book inexplicably entertains on a minor level. Amidst the decaying estates through which his characters stumble, the hackneyed romance, the stupefying telepathic duels, the clouds of protective pigeons and the malevolent kite (!)and the gross-out climax in the midst of a raging storm--between all these things are glimpses into a great writer's mind that, to the true devotee of classic horror, might make this book worth buying. Caveat Emptor!

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, a minor work from a master
Review: As other reviewers did, I liked the premise of the book (which is in fact why I buy most fiction books). However, a premise is nothing if it's not carried out properly, and Bram Stoker gives us an account of how not to do that. Charachters do all sort of ilogical things, so as visiting the "baddies" for no real reason. The strenght of fantasy and horror novels lies in their ability to make you belief this could happen to you (meaning you have to feel empathic towards the characters and the plot must have logical, even is surprising, turns). This is one thing this book fails to do.

Rating:
Summary: Keep taking the pills....
Review: I'm not altogether surprised that this book has produced a mixed bag of reactions. It is so different to the very conventional Dracula style of novel that Stoker usually wrote that the casual reader must be totally bemused, if not confused. The fact of the matter is that Stoker was an ordinary novelist, but at the time of his life that he wrote this book he was addicted to laudanum, hence this book is actually a product of drug culture. As anyone who has read novels by drug-induced authors will know, the results can be very odd, and this book is no exception. I loved it when I first read it and I enjoyed the fact that it broke the rather severe 'rules' of turn of the century fiction. Sadly, Bram kicked his habit and his fiction returned to its more staid nature....great book though!

Rating:
Summary: Keep taking the pills....
Review: I'm not altogether surprised that this book has produced a mixed bag of reactions. It is so different to the very conventional Dracula style of novel that Stoker usually wrote that the casual reader must be totally bemused, if not confused. The fact of the matter is that Stoker was an ordinary novelist, but at the time of his life that he wrote this book he was addicted to laudanum, hence this book is actually a product of drug culture. As anyone who has read novels by drug-induced authors will know, the results can be very odd, and this book is no exception. I loved it when I first read it and I enjoyed the fact that it broke the rather severe 'rules' of turn of the century fiction. Sadly, Bram kicked his habit and his fiction returned to its more staid nature....great book though!

Rating:
Summary: Not the best, but.....
Review: I've heard two different stories of Bram Stoker's mental state at the time he wrote this book. A review below stated that he was hooked on drugs and another story (and I like this one better) was that he was dying of syphillis when he wrote it.

What this book reminds me of is a bizarre dream where everything makes sense at the time but when you look at it afterwards nothing makes sense. The characters constantly engage in strange behavior with obscure motivations. For example a few characters engage in psychic mind battles over mid-afternoon tea on a regular basis, one character sends solid metal and glass objects to a kite in mid-flight by some unexplained method for no apparent reason, and the evil snake woman sells her house and lair to the hero whom she is also trying to kill and he agrees to buy it because fine china can be made from the clay on her property. I've had dreams like this without drug or venereal disease influence so maybe Stoker just decided to write a dream down without bothering to make sense of it. This gives the book a very surreal feel but causes it to fail as a narrative. I think its worth a look if you want to read something a bit different, but if you want a good, well-plotted story skip this one.

Rating:
Summary: "It seems a most difficult problem."
Review: It has been said that Ken Russell's 1980s cinematic adaptation of Bram Stoker's "classic", "The Lair of the White Worm", is a travesty of the original, a betrayal of the source material. However, a read of the book in question will in fact reveal that Russell must be some sort of genius to rewrite this thing so that it makes any kind of sense at all.

Our story begins in rural England, though I must say that it's not much like the rural England I remember from my childhood. For one thing, every landmark and citizen appears to live within one hundred feet of each other; this almost claustrophobic aspect of the Less Than Great Outdoors proves a plot point later on when not one, but two, places of residence are blown to smithereens by the same bolt of lightning. Still, they were evil places of residence, so let's not trouble ourselves too much about it.

Our central characters are young Adam Salton, an allegedly dashing Australian, and his pal Sir Nathaniel de Salis, the kind of individual whose immediate reaction upon hearing that a young lord of the realm was staring at a young woman is that this is "a matter of life and death".

The rest of our merry band includes Edgar Caswall, said young lord, whose primary delight in life is flying kites through thunderstorms in a manner that can only be described as Darwinian; Mimi and Lilla Watford, shy blushing young country lasses straight from Central Casting, whose primary role in the proceedings is to engage in inadvertently hilarious staring contests with Edgar; Oolanga, a jaw-droppingly racist caricature of a black man who, since Stoker wants to have his Ku Klux Kake and eat it too, is both manipulative AND stupid; and, last but certainly not least, Lady Arabella March, the White Worm herself, although Stoker can't seem to make his mind up as to whether or not she was originally human and is now possessed by the Worm's spirit (as a flashback by Sir Nate would indicate), or is actually an ancient serpent who has evolved the ability to shape-shift (as everyone eventually concludes).

Evidently, when the forces of Good and Evil are collectively as effective as, well, flying a kite in the middle of a thunderstorm, you can immediately see how the story is going to be problematic. This, however, does not do the book justice. Independent of the characters, Stoker manages to cram in so many plot holes that the Worm, were it to really exist, could comfortably dwell inside one of them for many centuries to come. This is a novel where, after the battle lines have been clearly drawn, the deadly enemies STILL keep inviting each other to tea; where two entire chapters are dedicated to a chest that belonged to Mesmer, which turns out to have absolutely no further role to play in proceedings whatsoever; where a villain murders a victim right in front of the hero and then does nothing to stop him telling anyone other than writing him a sternly worded letter. Clearly, we're not in Kansas anymore. I understand they have editors there.

In addition to all this, we're treated to Stoker's thrilling theories about such matters as gender (Women! Go figure!), mental illness (mad people are just being selfish), and, especially, race relations, upon which everyone in the novel, good and bad, can agree that black people are just naturally inferior. Isn't it nice that they can all put aside their differences in the face of a common cause?

So, yes, all of this contributes to make "Lair of the White Worm" a less than urgent addition to one's book collection. However, I hasten to add that the book, if read as a comedy, is an absolute laugh riot. Keeping that in mind, I shall leave you with my own personal favorite exchange from the novel, one which, I hope, will afford you as much mirth as it did me:

"'...God alone knows what poor Captain March discovered - it must have been something too ghastly for human endurance, if my theory is correct that the once beautiful human body of Lady Arabella is under the control of this ghastly White Worm.'

"Adam nodded.

"'But what can we do, sir - it seems a most difficult problem.'"

Rating:
Summary: Pure unadulterated wickedness!
Review: Rarely have I read a book which has so entirely created such an atmosphere of abject horror. No author scares me, none except the master, Bram Stoker. He did it with Dracula and now he does it again with Lair of the White Worm. The evil which permeates throughout this horrible tome is beautiful. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wishes to experience the spawn of hell. A warning to all, this masterpiece has absolutely nothing to do with the movie of the same name. The movie is an atrocious bastardization of this phenomenal tale of horror and should be regarded as such.