Restless Classics – serie

Restless Classics presents Bram Stoker’s gothic masterpiece of horror, gorgeously illustrated by Kaitlin Chan and with a new introduction and foreword by award-winning authors Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Alexander Chee.Since its original publication in 1897, Dracula has spoken aloud some of our deepest cultural anxieties: fear of sexuality, xenophobia, homophobia, and distrust of The Other. One of the most recognizable and pervasive characters ever written, Stoker’s Count Dracula is much more terrifying than the caped and fanged representation that has grown so familiar. The Count’s menace lies not solely in his deadly bloodlust, but also in his harrowing ability to hide his malfeasance behind power and privilege.When Jonathan Harker unearths Count Dracula’s (un)deadly secret, he unwittingly starts a war between good and evil with disastrous repercussions. The innocent Lucy Westenra falls prey to the vampire’s curse, Mina Harker narrowly escapes a vicious transformation, and the indefatigable Abraham Van Helsing risks life and afterlife to defeat his archnemesis. As Silvia Moreno-Garcia explores in her new introduction, this outbreak of an ancient threat in a modern world introduced a radical new element to vampire folklore, one which has only gained significance in the twenty-first century: vampires as disease-bearing victims of the same chaos that they spread.In his new foreword, Alexander Chee grounds the novel in the potential queerness of Stoker’s literary circle, and delves into our growing fascination with, and affection for, both the horror genre and its monsters. Dracula is both a resonant contemplation of the unknown and a cautionary reminder that evil doesn’t always announce itself with bats and coffins; it lurks within the normal and the mundane, just waiting to be invited in.

Restless Classics presents The Souls of Black Folk: W. E. B. Du Bois' seminal work of sociology, with searing insights into America's complex, corrosive obsession with race and the African-American conscience. Reconsidered for the era of Obama and #blacklivesmatter, the new edition includes an incisive introduction from rising cultural critic Vann R. Newkirk II and stunning illustrations by the artist Steve Prince.

In a new collection that brings together the work of eleven notable translators, with an introduction by the bestselling Iranian-American author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi, and original illustrations by Syrian artist Rama Duwaji, the Restless Classics edition of 1,001 Nights showcases the breadth and imagination of these legendary tales from the Arab world.Beginning as an oral storytelling tradition long before the first authoritative manuscript was composed in the 14th century in Syria, which was rendered into French in the 1700s, spawning an exoticized portrait of the “Orient” that still informs Western stereotypes, the tales of the 1,001 Nights have captivated readers for centuries. We begin with violence, and the power of storytelling: When his wife is unfaithful, King Shahryar takes revenge on all womankind by marrying a virgin and murdering her at the end of every night—until one named Scheherazade asks to tell a story to her sister. When dawn comes and the story is still unfinished, Shahryar allows her to live and continue the tale the next night—and Scheherezade does so for one thousand and one nights until the King gives up on killing. In her insightful introduction to the Restless Classics edition of 1,001 Nights, Iranian author Azar Nafisi describes Scheherezade as the true heroine of the tales for those in oppressive regimes who find power and courage in her example: “Shahrzad's own story contains a hidden theme, old and timeless—the theme of what can happen when reality closes all doors; when life seems uncontrollable and unchangeable; when life means death; when one's own life appears to be an insoluble puzzle and only one's own imagination can lead one out of a predicament.” There is another vital protagonist in the history of this book: the translator. Told and retold and recreated in the process, these tales are a case study of translators as co-creators. Over the centuries, each translator, deliberately and otherwise, has added to the narrative current, shaping this endless river of stories that is never the same twice. The Restless Classics edition is the first to showcase a wide variety of English translations, presenting a new frame to experience the 1,001 Nights.