"Bram Stoker, the master of horror and dark mind behind the most famous vampire novel in history-Dracula-brings us to the edge of our chairs again with a tale of a different variety. Here the horrors are not vampires, nor are they werewolves. Here the horrors are poverty and vicious, snarling rats. A young man finds himself (foolishly) wandering beyond the city walls of 1850s Paris, making his way into the dust piles and garbage gatherings of the paupers. Living among the rags and the war-torn are giant, beady eyed rats. Hideous beasts that clean a dead (or dying) human body down to its skeleton before the flesh is even cold.Add to that a swampy quagmire and some curious psychic insights, and you have a masterful tale of the macabre that is not for the feint of heart"
The Burial of the Rats is a mysterious short story by Bram Stocker. The story's plot is set in Paris and develops around the adventures of an Englishman on probation. Being bored and seeking some entertainment, the protagonist soon finds himself in trouble chased by sinister old soldiers aided by flesh-eating rats. It is interesting that Bram Stoker was allegedly inspired to write this story during his honeymoon in France.
Bram Stoker, the master of horror and dark mind behind the most famous vampire novel in history-Dracula-brings us to the edge of our chairs again with a tale of a different variety. Here the horrors are not vampires, nor are they werewolves. Here the horrors are poverty and vicious, snarling rats. A young man finds himself (foolishly) wandering beyond the city walls of 1850s Paris, making his way into the dust piles and garbage gatherings of the paupers. Living among the rags and the war-torn are giant, beady eyed rats. Hideous beasts that clean a dead (or dying) human body down to its skeleton before the flesh is even cold. Add to that a swampy quagmire and some curious psychic insights, and you have a masterful tale of the macabre that is not for the feint of heart
The Burial of the Rats by Bram Stoker Notice: This Book is published by Historical Books Limited (www.publicdomain.org.uk) as a Public Domain Book, if you have any inquiries, requests or need any help you can just send an email to [email protected] This book is found as a public domain and free book based on various online catalogs, if you think there are any problems regard copyright issues please contact us immediately via [email protected]
"Bram Stoker, the master of horror and dark mind behind the most famous vampire novel in history-Dracula-brings us to the edge of our chairs again with a tale of a different variety. Here the horrors are not vampires, nor are they werewolves. Here the horrors are poverty and vicious, snarling rats. A young man finds himself (foolishly) wandering beyond the city walls of 1850s Paris, making his way into the dust piles and garbage gatherings of the paupers. Living among the rags and the war-torn are giant, beady eyed rats. Hideous beasts that clean a dead (or dying) human body down to its skeleton before the flesh is even cold.Add to that a swampy quagmire and some curious psychic insights, and you have a masterful tale of the macabre that is not for the feint of heart"
The Burial of the Rats" has the distinctive flavor of an Edwardian gentleman's magazine thriller, and it features all the necessary tropes for this genre: a young man forced to prove his manhood through his mental prowess and physical stamina, a white-knuckled chase scene, last minute escapes, themes of Social Darwinism and Nietzschean philosophy, a sense that the struggle is a coded rite of passage, a distant lover, degenerate villains without mercy or scruples, a battle against the natural elements, and a seemingly hopeless race against time. This type of story would become even more popular after World War One (its heyday being the 20's, 30's, and 40's) and revived after World War Two (where these sorts of action thrillers - the lone man fighting for survival against Nature and mankind alike - were beautifully adapted for male-centered radio programs like "Escape" and "Suspense"). Although he was preceded in the man-on-the-run thriller by Ambrose Bierce ("An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge"), Robert Louis Stevenson ("The Suicide Club"), and Rudyard Kipling ("The Man Who Would Be King"), Stoker's "Burial of the Rats" is among the first to perfectly epitomize the formula of the modern suspense thriller. Like "Three Skeleton Key" (lighthouse keepers are besieged by a hoard of carnivorous rats) it includes a Darwinian Man vs. Nature element that reduces its hero to his basic, primal instincts (class, education, and money are useless to him) and like in "The Most Dangerous Game" (a castaway is saved by a Russian aristocrat only to be released into the jungle and hunted as the man's prey) human beings are put in a predator/prey dynamic that forces them to rely on animal instincts and cunning to evade/capture one another. Suspenseful, disturbing, primitive, and bleak, it is among the best thriller stories of the Edwardian period.
Bram Stoker, the master of horror and dark mind behind the most famous vampire novel in history--Dracula--brings us to the edge of our chairs again with a tale of a different variety. Here the horrors are not vampires, nor are they werewolves. Here the horrors are poverty and vicious, snarling rats. A young man finds himself (foolishly) wandering beyond the city walls of 1850s Paris, making his way into the dust piles and garbage gatherings of the paupers. Living among the rags and the war-torn are giant, beady eyed rats. Hideous beasts that clean a dead (or dying) human body down to its skeleton before the flesh is even cold. Add to that a swampy quagmire and some curious psychic insights, and you have a masterful tale of the macabre that is not for the feint of heart
Leaving Paris by the Orleans road, cross the Enceinte, and, turning to the right, you find yourself in a somewhat wild and not at all savoury district. Right and left, before and behind, on every side rise great heaps of dust and waste accumulated by the process of time.
"All modern American literature comes from one book called Huckleberry Finn," declared Ernest Hemingway. "There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since." Yet even from the time of its first publication in 1885, Mark Twain's masterpiece has been one of the most celebrated and controversial books ever published in America. No other story so central to our American identity has been so loved and so reviled as Huck Finn's autobiography.
