No, by the time Dracula was written (about 70-80 years after Frankenstein) it had gone out of fashion in both novels and letter writing. I'm not 100% sure when it faded out of style, but it was a common trend that lasted at least until mid-way through the 1800's (for example, it was also done in the American book Uncle Tom's Cabin)

Yeah, it’s to make them seem realistic. It’s kind of a weird choice. I don’t think a book like Dracula, which is all letters and articles, uses this technique at all.

Great question OP! I’ve always wondered that too and now I know. Thanks guys!

In some books this is done in order to give the story more versatility, such story could take place anywhere and at any time

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So its versimilitude? Frankenstein is framed as a series of letters so I guess that kinda makes sense, it just seems like the choice is so arbitrary, because its not like any character names, or even other place names are redacted.

I’d only return it if it was damaged to the point that I couldn’t read it or just really didn’t want to be holding it.

Kay now explain it for House of Leaves

Have to be a pretty shit bookstore to order from Amazon... Bookstores have deals with publishers and get them at wholesale with the option to remainder, or send back unsold copies... If a bookstore is order their stock from Amazon, their loosing money.

Handmaids Tale

SCP moment

Jane Eyre does that, too. It was a stylistic choice to make it look like certain places and people are “redacted” from the record as if they were real letters and documents to protect people’s privacy

That's the Dostoevsky Dash! https://bookriot.com/the-dostoevsky-dash/

I think for some books, it's because the author is acting like he is trying to keep things private because he doesn't want the science to become public knowledge.

It is supposed to be a journal.

Reminds me of SCP stuff

>'Worst. Novel. Ever.'

It's also more common in older novels, so I wonder if it is a vestige of the novel working itself out as a distinct art form. Early experiments with the novel played around with ways to suggest this all really happened - epistolary novels are an example of this as is the framing of both Frankenstein and The Scarlet Letter (found this old box of papers in the attic of the custom house, you'll never believe what they said!).

Today we see new forms of storytelling emerging, and you see folks experimenting to find what works. I'm thinking about how the Lizzie Bennet Diaries mimics a blogger talking directly to the camera, while later episodes and projects begin to have the camera "accidentally" catch & post moments.

Is that Murders in the [BLANKED OUT PLACE NAME]?

Return the books and leave notes "books damage with bent edges and (everything else wrong" so the CRETS employee can damage it out or get it into the proper category it belongs.

Amazon sells to bookstores too ...

Depends on if i just want to read it or want to read it and put in on my shelf on display.

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An entirely different and lesser level, I know, but I used to make mission packs for a somewhat popular game and I’d often blank out (or usually write “redacted “) the place names.

One major reason was that the maps didn’t actually fit the area I was trying to represent. I just used existing maps and pretended they were somewhere else.

The other was that I kept basic historical facts accurate to the timeline (types of aircraft, the general flow of the battle, etc) but took creative liberty with the details, so it was helpful being able to fudge stuff. I rationalized it by saying that people undergoing the experience wouldn’t necessarily know the significance of the time and place. e.g. a soldier going to Stalingrad as the battle started wouldn’t have known it was going to be so incredibly horrendous (well, they probably could have guessed).

I can't speak for Frankenstein, but in Russian lit, having something happen in a town specifically called 'N' (or some variant) is such a trope that it's not even weird

"--up----chimney----out---window------he-----murdered----by----orangutan-----."

10/10, genre defining.