Maria Dracula
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Maria Dracula is a fiction story by Denise Roman published in 2005. It is a coming-of-age fairy tale about a ten-year-old apprentice witch and orphan from Salem, Massachusetts who discovers an important secret that connects her to Dracula.
Contents |
[edit] Maria Dracula: A Fantasy Novel for Children
[edit] Excerpt
- I can’t keep my body from shaking. After all, my world is a world of nice, fairy-looking Salem witches and wizards – not of vampires. I don’t like vampires! Maybe I can stand a vampire or two, like Zelda and even the Magician with his bats. But not Dracula. Dracula is scary, and dangerous, and deadly.
- The lights around me fade out. It’s suddenly getting dark and cold, and I want my mother.
- I pass out.
[edit] Synopsis
After her mother’s death, a message scribbled in black calligraphy on a mysterious papyrus invites Marigold – Mary, for short – to a fantastic country, Rondelia.
Mary’s adventures take her to Bookrest’s Theater of Vaudeville, to the underground city of vampire kids, and to Dracula’s mysterious Castle Bran in Transylvania. She travels to the gypsy spell-casters’ Enchanted Forest, back in time to the City of Whispers to find the secret of the Golem, and to the Sapphire Sea and the island of pirates.
But a big surprise awaits Mary at the end of her fantastic adventures — which she gracefully conquers with her humanity rather than with her magic — when she finds out that she is more than a Salem witch.
[edit] Letter from the author
- Dear Reader,
- This is a fantasy book written the way stories are told in Southeastern Europe, where I grew up. In that part of the world surrealism supplants the gothic and Orient meets Occident in literature and art. Hence, natural elements – such as the Sun, the Moon, or the Milky Way Galaxy – are part of the adventure, and can intervene in the life of the characters at any time.
- Maria Dracula is a fantastic story parents and grandparents would tell their offspring, hoping that children will learn about poetical language, and that through adventurous voyages any kid can become a hero.
- Enjoy!
- Denise Roman
[edit] Characters
- Marigold
- Two green teardrops head toward my dimpled chin, washing my freckles, gathering around my mouth like beads on a necklace. I taste them: they’re watery-sweet as usual. As were Mother’s tears when she told me that if she died she’d rise to the sky, from whence she’d watch over me disguised as a star.
- Zelda
- Suddenly, from the depths of the stage, swaying to the cadence of this mysterious song, a dancer shows up. She carries a wicker basket. An opal-blue dress of shimmering veils glides over her body and her coal-black hair falls in waves on her shoulders. And she looks beautiful and dangerous, like no witch I’ve ever seen in Salem.
- Red and Waltz
- I’m curious about the vampire boy who must be about my age. I study his outfit: school uniform of black jacket and trousers, a white shirt. Like me, Red is snub-nosed. He wears his dark-blond hair in a short cut, a few wisps falling above his blue eyes. . . . [I]t strikes me that [Waltz] is some sort of midget poodle. His left ear covers his left eye, his right ear stands erect, at continuous alert, and his light gray fur is clean but uncombed, so it’s quite a mess.
- Zaraza
- Zaraza looks twenty but she’s a hundred and twenty. . . . It’s said that she keeps her body and face young with the help of spells, that she’s the sister of none other than Zelda. Zelda and Zaraza are half-human half-spirit, half-woman half-snake, half-gypsy half-magician.
- Dracula
- He is tall, yet skinny like a scarecrow, and his bald skin white, like chalk. Blood-red lips cut his elongated lifeless face gathered around a gargoyle nose, extended into pointed ears and a sharp chin. Fluttering like a pair of wings, a black bat-embroidered cape resembling the cloaks from the Salem Museum of Sorcery completes the lurid apparition.
- The Golem
- [I]nstead of skin he has a brown layer of solid clay, and he’s peering at us with small dark friendly eyes. But I can’t see any nose, mouth, or ears on his square head, although a star shines on his forehead.
- The Sapphire Serpent
- As I look at the serpent more carefully, I realize its shining skin is not a skin at all – instead of scales, its entire body is covered with blue gemstones. ‘Sapphires,’ Waltz whispers.
- Black Suits and Black Palace
- They’re dressed in black stretch suits that cover their heads like masks, and their bayonets are pointed at us. They ooze an acrid smell that reaches us even a block away. Their resemblance to giant moths strikes me. . . . The gloomy building barely resembles a castle. It has one oval pointed tower and, oddly, no windows. It seems to be made of a black shining metal that strikes me as more appropriate for a submarine or a locomotive than a princely dwelling.
- Mary and Mr. D.
- And so I, Marigold, the last herbs witch of Salem, shake hands with the great Dracula of Transylvania, who sits one foot away from me and who’s taking care of me, now that I’ve got nobody left and Mother has turned into a falling star.
[edit] Book notes
Denise Roman is the author of a non-fiction book about popular culture and society in Romania, Fragmented Identities (Lexington Books, 2003). A member of the Authors Guild of America, Denise blends Eastern European surrealist and North-American realist traditions in her writing.
Illustrations by Angela Ursillo, whose work can be seen in such films as The Lord of the Rings and King Kong, as well as several children’s books.
Maria Dracula is published by iUniverse in the Editor’s Choice Series, 2005.
