Finally, I have reached the novel Bram Stoker is most famous for; Dracula. Everybody has probably heard about Dracula, and it hardly feels like it needs any introduction. The first time, I read it, I did not have a lot of expectations to the story, except (you know) vampires, and I was a bit sceptical at the beginning, because I could not quite figure out what was happening. Although, once I got further into the story, I was hooked and I ended up absolutely loving it.
I do not want to say to much more about the book, because it is awesome and I think you should read it for yourself. As I do not want to spoil anything, this will be a rather short review, but I might write something longer (and spoiler-y) later.
Dracula is basically “found footage” is book form. The novel consists of the excerpts of the characters’ diaries, letters and newspaper articles, which is an excellent way to build suspense. Through the shifting viewpoints you get a multifaceted story, and occasionally you also get more than one (unreliable) narrator’s version of the events, which I personally find fascinating. Though, as mentioned earlier I was a bit sceptical of the book at first. This was mainly because I had no idea of what was going on. The first chapter was about a solicitor on real estate business in Transylvania, to which my own prejudices made me go: “Boring!” However, since the poor man was in Transylvania, I decided to give the novel a little more time to get interesting, and eventually Jonathan Harker stopped writing about the local cuisine and plot started happening. Of course, then the POV abruptly shifted to the correspondence between Mina and Lucy, about Lucy’s three potential suitor, and I was like: “what is going on?! I want to know what is happening to the Harker guy”. Eventually, the story got back to Jonathan Harker, so reading about Lucy’s love life was worth it in the end, and upon rereading the novel, I am not as opposed to this part as the first time. For me, the Mina/Lucy correspondence was the only significant hurdle of the book. Once I got past that the story was excellent the entire way through, or at least the plot had me hooked enough that I could overlook stuff I did not like. It was super interesting reading about Jonathan Harker coming to the realisation that Count Dracula might possibly be bad news (and when rereading the story his obliviousness is hilarious, and so is Count Dracula’s behaviour). This part of the story is definitely one of my favourite parts, as Jonathan Harker slowly realises just how much trouble he is in.
Another favourite part is, when Count Dracula has first arrived in England, but no one is yet aware of what is going on or taking much notice. Then they start putting together the clues as to what is happening and decide what to do about it. The way, this book is written, is brilliant and while it does drag a little in some places, the good parts more than makes up for it. If I remember correctly, when I first read Dracula, the only prior experience I had with Dracula was that Van Helsing movie with Hugh Jackman, so it is not surprising that I was so baffled by the book at first.
I highly recommend this book. Also Happy Halloween!
Our Thoughts in Transit 