Dracula

Dracula by Amaranthine Books comes in two luxurious limited numbered editions: Transylvania Edition and Scholomance Edition.

The Transylvania Edition of Dracula, named after his domain, aims to offer a new reading experience of this famous novel. The number of copies – 666 numbered editions – was inspired by the point in the story where it is mentioned that Dracula was a student of the devil himself in the great underground halls of Scholomance. The book comes in a special slipcase with a wood motif, hiding one of the design Easter Eggs. The title of the book is pressed in the material, making it elegant and non-intrusive.

On the other hand, Scholomance Edition of Dracula, aptly named after the supposed place of Dracula’s education, is the ultimate collector’s item. The idea behind it was to create something truly unique, without taking anything away from its counterpart, Dracula – Transylvania Edition. The number of copies – 50 numbered editions – was inspired by the number of boxes of Transylvanian soil that Dracula has shipped to London, because he can only rest on the soil of his homeland. That is why the book comes in a sleek wooden box, beautifully carved and numbered, hiding one of the design Easter Eggs and a big surprise – a piece of real Transylvanian soil behind the small plexiglass window. This is because, as the story goes, Dracula can only rest on the soil of his homeland, so we made sure that even our Dracula can get the same “rest”. This soil was shipped to us by our dear friends at Bran Castle in Transylvania and we’ve also included the soil’s certificate of authenticity, signed by both Amaranthine Books and Bran Castle representatives.

Once you have the book in your hands, you are met with covers draped in red, richly textured fabric that is a joy to touch which aims to underline Dracula’s opulence, his seemingly unlimited funds. It is a common misconception that Dracula was killed by the sunlight, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth – he is merely sensitive to it, it makes him weaker. Therefore, we decided to make our book sensitive to light as well, so the cover features Dracula’s portrait that absorbs the light and then glows in the dark. The only difference from the Transylvania Edition is that his eye is red – this is another nod to the story, because his eyes turn from blue to red when he is angered.

When you open the book you’ll be greeted by beautiful black, bat-themed endpapers. There is a regular title page in Transylvania Edition, but Scholomance Edition holds yet another specialty. You’ll notice the title is a bit different – this is because it is written in real blood; the blood of the creatives that worked on this book. The blood was carefully extracted and used for all 50 copies, then it was sealed with a fixative spray so the reader wouldn’t be in direct contact with it. Inside the book you’ll also find sixteen gorgeous illustrations that cover the key plot points in the book, also featuring glow-in-the-dark effect.

The page edges were painted in black, but in a way that it would interact with the capillarity of the paper, making the paint flutter on the edge of each page differently, like some kind of darkness is seething into the book. Occasionally, we even let a few tiny droplets escape on the margins, just to emphasise the effect. Once you reach the end, you should notice another design Easter Egg and you can read the Afterword which explains the thought process and the creative concept behind this edition. Also, with each book comes a bookmark in the shape of a wooden stake, a precautionary method that ensures that you and Dracula remain on the same page, so to speak.