The Castle in Transylvania »

A legendary French author and pioneer of the science fiction genre, Jules Verne wrote visionary tales of space, air, and underwater adventure in classics like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1869) and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).

This never-before translated tale by Jules Verne, the master of science fiction, is one of his few writings about the supernatural. This eerie gothic story set in a forgotten valley in the mountains of Transylvania, where demons and vampires menace the populace, pits a young stranger against the forces of evil and superstition.

The Barnes & Noble Review

. . . After so many books, the sixty-five-year-old author was an expert at pacing, characterization, and scene-setting. His villagers are all solid and utilitarian as firewood, yet a gentle mocking humor pervades. He ladles in just enough of his customary background detail -- cultural, scientific, geological, historical -- to render everything plausible and tactile. Moreover, there is a real manifestation of Verne's love of the natural world here, in his lush descriptions of the forests surrounding Wertz.

The reader can also take pleasure in the cleverly contrasting natures of the three sets of protagonists. Nic Deck and Dr. Patak represent the unsophisticated, clownish but earnest peasants, living remnant of a fading age. Franz and his servant stand for urban sophistication, wiser but still limited. And Gortz and Orfanik are doomed scientific seekers after hidden knowledge, advancing civilization even through base and selfish motives. The interplay among these three paradigms provides plenty of complexity.