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This post was originally published on Audible.co.uk. Nearly 130 years after its initial publication in 1897, Bram Stoker’s gothic horror
This post was originally published on Audible.co.uk.
Nearly 130 years after its initial publication in 1897, Bram Stoker’s gothic horror novel Dracula remains the most iconic vampire story of all time. Now, a new full-cast Audible Original starring Jonathan Bailey, Ella Purnell, Aimee Lou Wood, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and other beloved stars is bringing Dracula out of his coffin and back into the limelight for the next generation of horror lovers. Directed by pioneering filmmaker Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary) and featuring an original score by composer Ilan Eshkeri, it’s an immersive experience sure to thrill and chill listeners.
Even better, you can enjoy new full-cast productions of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in seven languages starring actors from around the globe. The English-language audiobook discussed here is available now alongside versions in French, Italian, Castilian Spanish, and Latin American Spanish. The German audiobook will be released on February 9, 2027, with a Brazilian Portuguese audiobook coming later in 2027.
Whether you’re a longtime Dracula fan or venturing out on your first trip to Transylvania, this fresh take on a haunting classic will make your heart race. Let us introduce you to Dracula and the rest of Bram Stoker’s eerie cast of characters in the guide below, along with the actors voicing them in the new audiobook.
Count Dracula needs no introduction (although he does require an invitation to enter your home). At first meeting, he appears to be a tall, dark, and handsome Transylvanian nobleman with aristocratic manners and effortless charisma. But under his alluring veneer, he’s a centuries-old undead vampire who will generously invite you to his crumbling castle deep in the Carpathian Mountains to wine and dine you before draining your blood. With supernatural strength, shapeshifting abilities, and an aptitude for controlling the weather, Dracula is a man of immense power. Lucky for you, he can be thwarted with a dash of garlic and a warm sunbeam.
Literary scholars believe Dracula to be largely inspired by 15th-century Wallachian prince Vlad III, a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler. Stoker was likely also influenced by actors of the era, including West End leading man Sir John Irving. Today, more actors have played Dracula on the stage and screen than any other horror character.
We can now add Jonathan Bailey to the list of notable Dracula performers. Bailey, an English actor who rose to international fame through film and TV roles in Bridgerton, Fellow Travelers, and Wicked, is no stranger to playing classic characters. He began his career at the age of seven playing Tiny Tim in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Frequently cast as the handsome hero, Bailey tries on the heavy cloak of the villain in his leading role as Dracula in the new Audible Original.
When we first meet Wilhelmina “Mina” Murray, she’s a bright-eyed young schoolmistress on holiday in Whitby with her best friend Lucy, dreaming of her wedding day with her fiancé, Jonathan Harker. Her luck changes when she learns that Jonathan has escaped from a traumatic encounter at Count Dracula’s castle. Mina rushes off to Budapest to care for her ailing fiancé—but she fails to realise that another man has already become entangled in her fate. Our heroine Mina serves as the innocent, morally pristine foil to Dracula’s wicked villainy. She’s clever and practical, and as the story progresses, she shows immense bravery in the face of danger.
In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Mina is played by the brilliant Ella Purnell. Purnell got her start as a child star in the West End, and her big screen debut came playing a younger version of Keira Knightley’s character in the 2010 film Never Let Me Go. She’s since built an impressive résumé, playing airbending teenager Emma in Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, high school soccer team captain Jackie in Yellowjackets, and intrepid wasteland adventurer Lucy in Fallout. In her role as Mina, Purnell brings a wealth of voiceover experience from her work on the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and the animated series Arcane and Star Trek: Prodigy.
Oh, poor Lucy Westenra. Lovely young Lucy starts the story basking in the seaside air, juggling three suitors vying for her hand in marriage. But the ending Stoker has in store for her is far from happy. Lucy becomes the first character to fall victim to Dracula’s dangerous allure. Plagued with illness and bouts of sleepwalking, Lucy’s strange condition becomes the first clue that Count Dracula is hiding a dark secret.
The delightful Aimee Lou Wood takes on the tragic role of Lucy in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, using her classical training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and her superb comedic timing to bring nuance to this oft-overlooked character. Wood first rose to fame as the same-named character Aimee in the teen dramedy Sex Education and, more recently, played the fan-favourite character Chelsea in season 3 of The White Lotus. You can hear more of her narration work in the audiobook of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.
Jonathan Harker is, arguably, the reason all the other characters became entangled in Dracula’s evil web. He could’ve stayed safe at home with his lovely fiancée Mina, but he simply had to go traipsing across Transylvania. What started as a simple business trip for the young solicitor from Exeter ended in his imprisonment and attempted murder by Dracula’s hungry brides, only avoided by his daring escape to Budapest. Despite the immense danger he experienced, Jonathan’s curiosity led him to wander right back to Dracula’s castle in search of answers.
Jonathan is voiced by up-and-coming young actor Louis Partridge. Partridge’s big break came in the role of young Viscount Tewkesbury in the Arthur Conan Doyle-inspired Enola Holmes films. He’s since appeared in the series Pistol, Disclaimer, and House of Guinness. We’re likely to see him in many projects to come. But until then, enjoy his robust performance as Jonathan Harker in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
One of Lucy’s three suitors, Dr. John Seward is not the lucky man who wins her hand in marriage. But luckily for the rest of the characters, Dr. Seward runs an asylum located near Dracula’s castle in the Carpathian Mountains that comes in handy when Lucy falls ill. Dr. Seward takes an interest in the strange mental health effects of Count Dracula’s behaviour and calls in his mentor, Professor Van Helsing, to help him study Lucy’s illness. Dr. Seward also undertakes intense interviews with Renfield, one of his patients experiencing intense psychosis, and a character further explored in numerous Dracula spinoffs and retellings. Despite getting rejected by Lucy, Dr. Seward remains dedicated to her care and to preventing other victims of Dracula from meeting the same fate.
Stage and screen actor David Jonsson takes on the role of Dr. Seward. He’s most known for his work on the show Industry and in films Alien: Romulus and The Long Walk. If you don’t recognise him yet, just wait. Jonsson was recently announced as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s next actor to play Black Panther, and viewers can’t wait to see how he makes the late Chadwick Boseman’s iconic role his own.
Dracula’s reluctant henchman, R.M. Renfield is both victim and villain. First appearing in the novel as a patient of Dr. Seward’s insane asylum, Renfield had fallen under Dracula’s evil influence when he preceded Jonathan Harker in handling real estate transactions for the count’s efforts to emigrate to England; in the process, he lost command of his mental faculties, developing a fixation on eating insects and animals he believes bring him strength and immortality. A sympathetic figure who is also capable of extreme violence when under the influence of Count Dracula, the character inspired the real-life condition Renfield’s Syndrome, a compulsion to consume blood.
The South African-born British actor and musician Johnny Flynn has played Dylan Witter in the Netflix series Lovesick, David Bowie in the 2020 film Stardust, and Mr. Knightley in the 2020 film Emma. The lead singer and songwriter of the band Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit, Flynn is also making his name in audiobooks, where he can be heard narrating Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Other Stories and the Audible Originals Mrs. Wickham and, of course, as Renfield in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Dutch multidisciplinary scholar Professor Abraham Van Helsing is called in to save the day by his former student, Dr. Seward, when he realises he’s in over his head with the ghastly Count Dracula. He wears many hats, including but not limited to doctor, teacher, lawyer, scientist, and vampire slayer. Multilingual and well-travelled, Van Helsing has a wealth of knowledge, and he’ll need all of it to put a stop to Dracula’s antics.
Van Helsing is played with great panache by the inimitable Maggie Gyllenhaal in the Audible Original audiobook. From Blockbuster hits like The Dark Knight to cult favourites like Donnie Darko and Secretary, Gyllenhaal has played enough roles to make viewers wonder, “Is there any character she can’t play?” Raised by a film director father and screenwriter/director mother, she’s also made waves as a filmmaker, including the film adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s The Lost Daughter, which earned Gyllenhaal a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director. Her phenomenal performance as Professor Van Helsing is reason enough to make Dracula your next audiobook listen.
Mrs. Westenra, Lucy’s mother, puts aside her own ailing health when she learns that her daughter’s life is in danger. Dr. Seward and Professor Van Helsing, concerned about Mrs. Westenra’s fragile state, decide not to tell her the details of Lucy’s condition. That leads to a tragic ending for Lucy and her mother when Mrs. Westenra removes the garlic blossoms arranged around her sickbed, clearing the defense against Dracula’s return.
Olivier and Tony Award-winning actress Lesley Manville voices the ill-fated Mrs. Westenra in the Audible Original audiobook. Manville offers a wildly impressive résumé with more than a hundred roles on the stage and screen, garnering a London Film Critics Circle Award for her work in Another Year and an Emmy nod for her portrayal of Princess Margaret in The Crown. Though she may not voice the biggest role in Dracula, she brings immense drama and experience to this key character.
Revered horror director Mary Lambert makes her audiobook debut leading the full-cast Audible Original audiobook of Dracula. Best known for her 1989 film adaptation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, Lambert has a penchant for the macabre and orchestrates a star-studded audio drama you’ll never forget.
Susie Dumond is the author of Queerly Beloved, Looking for a Sign, and Bed and Breakup. She is a senior contributor at Book Riot, a reviewer at Publishers Weekly, and a bookseller.
Photos by Sophy Holland.
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