I quite enjoyed Dracula. Jonathan Harker's journal, particularly at the beginning of the novel, was my favorite part. The story as a whole spends a lot of time exploring the environment and their surroundings, as well as looking into how the characters related to each other while these events were happening. While it wasn't as creepy or vampire-filled as I was expecting, it was a really interesting read in regard to the culture of the time and how people related to others. It has more gothic vibes than horror vibes. ( )

Month of October 2022 - Spooky Classics”

“Dracula (complete and unabridged)” by Bram Stoker (1897; 1988 edition) 368 pages.

Setting: Romania, Europe (Castle Dracula was located extreme east of the country in district surrounded by Transylvania, Moldavia and Bukovina..in midst of Carpathian mountains AND in London.

It’s interesting to note also that when God mentions the “east” in the Bible, it always references where “evil” goes, and where evil comes from. Bram Stoker uses the same reference with Count Dracula’s home and other places he purchases in and around London, even those places were in the most eastern of the cities.

Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reaves ❤️) works for a law firm, and he is one who travels from London to Dracula’s castle high up in the Carpathian mountains in Romania. He is to deliver the final paperwork to a newly purchased vacated castle on the far eastern side of London.

Great beginning! The mood is set.

Strange things begin happening to Jonathan, meanwhile, back in London, strange things are happening to their friends.

Of course, I don’t need to tell what Dracula does, that should be obvious, but once this little group of friends and doctors figured out what is going on, they made a pact to chase down and end this evil.

Now, here my husband said Dracula is a “love” story. But, Dracula has no love. It’s all about survival. He uses Mina in a way he has not used other vampireses because he is angry at her and the group for stifling his plans to establish himself and grow the UN-dead in London. His revenge will be to turn Mina against her own husband and the people she loves by bringing them to her new master, Dracula.

And why is this not a love story? Because when she is not needed, Dracula easily, without a second thought, disconnects with her mentally to save himself from destruction.

This story reads more like a suspenseful crime novel. My interest was up and down throughout the novel. The hunt for Count Dracula went on and on towards the end. In fact, on page 328, the characters involved started referring to him as a criminal and started scheming on how to corner him. They go over the whole account up until the current situation, just as if they were trying to solve your everyday crime. This became quite tedious to read.

But, I will say that the ending was well played.

Books-to-movie

“Dracula” (1992), starring Gary Oldman as Dracula, Keanu Reaves as Jonathan Harker and Winona Ryder as Mina Harker. Lots of great actors and actresses.

***UPDATE***

10/14/2022 - Watched movie tonight. There’s a big difference between the novel and the movie, which portrayed Dracula as in love with Mina because she resembled his wife. Lots of sexual stuff in the movie…none at all in the book. Bram Stoker portrayed Dracula as the demon that he was. ( )

I have not been so incredibly bored by a book since I read George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. This book drags with so much melodrama and idiocy and is just outright uninteresting and even offensive.

The most irritating part is how sexist this novel is throughout. I am highly aware of the time this was written, but here's the thing: you can use the times to explain why it is so sexist, but that does not mean I have to appreciate it despite the sexism. In case anyone reads this novel and thinks that being called 'nearly as good as a man' is some sort of compliment you are very, very wrong. And if you write a female character into your book who spends the majority of the story being transported from place to place and guarded like a pretty rock and who serves as some sort of mascot to boost the morale of the male cast, then you are also wrong and should stop writing. But hey, if you like various sexist tropes like magical seductresses, fainting damsels, sexual assault as a plot device and others, this might be your shtick.

The only relevance this novel has for me now are the various name drops it makes. Various names in this novel besides Dracula himself have been adopted throughout fiction as a result of this book's influence, and it is nice to finally know their source. There's also some interesting implied homosexual relationships between some of the men. Dracula's fascination with Jonathan and his relationship with Renfield is intriguing. Other than that, I would suggest you get this on audiobook and find something else to do while listening to it because gods above will you be very bored if you actually choose to waste your life on this novel.

If you want a story that is around this time period and about vampires, try reading Sheridan le Fanu's "Carmilla". It's a short story, an eighth (or less) the length of, predates and was used as source material for "Dracula". It is also far, far better written and more enjoyable and almost as often adapted as the more well-known "Dracula" (for instance, in the latest "Castlevania" video game series, while the character who becomes Dracula is the primary protagonist, Carmilla is an important villain). It's also far more original: "Carmilla" focuses on a lesbian vampire and her current female victim, the latter of which is the primary protagonist who is very active in her own story, unlike Mina Harker. Like "Dracula", it's also easy to find, since it's public domain. You can find it for free various places online, including Kindle. The story has more female characters than male characters and isn't even close to being as comparatively sexist as the later "Dracula", so you can excuse me for being less than forgiving to Stoker in this instance.

Heck, go read "Frankenstein" (which also predates this AND "Carmilla") before you pick this novel up. It's a much better piece of Gothic horror with better prose, a more fascinating storyline and is also a far shorter read. ( )

Dracula stava nella mia libreria da un po' di anni, avevo anche iniziato a leggerlo, ma la sua forma: romanzo epistolare/resoconto diaristico, mi aveva fatta desistere dopo poche pagine.
Ho realizzato che purtroppo se non posso dedicare un po' di tempo alla lettura, leggere poche pagine alla volta mi ammazza le letture, così ho cercato di ritagliarmi delle sessioni di circa un'ora e mezza e sono riuscita ad entrare nel romanzo.
La voglia di scoprire questo grande classico mi è venuta perché avevo appena finito Così per sempre di Chiara Valerio, tra l'altro l'avevo vista presentare il romanzo e ne ero rimasta folgorata, è stato inevitabile voler scoprire la storia che ha dato il là a numerosissime interpretazioni, quella che di sicuro più mi ha colpita e più ha colpito la Valerio, era questa interpretazione di Francis Ford Coppola di rendere Mina l'incarnazione dell'amata del conte. In effetti, avendo il ricordo di Gary Oldman, era una pugnalata al cuore ogni volta leggere la descrizione del conte e di quanto fosse brutto e mostruoso.
Per quanto non trovi Dracula, o per lo meno, penso non mi abbia toccato tanto quanto Frankenstein di Mary Shelley, è veramente un classico che val la pena di essere letto, anche solo per riflettere su vizi e virtù della società vittoriana, la condizione della donna e il timor di Dio; oltre ovviamente alla lotta tra bene e male, l'antichità e le radici del male, l'illuminismo e la scienza, la questione del sangue...
Credo sia bello leggerlo da giovani, ma anche da adulti... inoltre in effetti l'ultima parte dell'inseguimento e la caccia al conte sono veramente molto carichi di colpi scena e tensione e il romanzo si rivela nel complesso molto avvincente.
Bello poi che in questa edizione ci sia alla fine anche un elenco con tutta la filmografia sui vampiri (almeno fino ai primissimi 2000)

( )

Ho trovato le prime pagine di Dracula assolutamente spaventose: l'esperienza di Jonathan al castello del Conte e le vicende di Lucy riescono a colpire con forza la mente del lettore moderno, che, immagino, sia molto meno impressionabile di quello della seconda metà dell'Ottocento.

Poi entra in scena il leggendario professor Van Helsing e, per quanto mi riguarda, la spaventosità del romanzo è drasticamente calata. In teoria, avrei dovuto preoccuparmi della vita e delle anime dei protagonisti, ma le dinamiche del romanzo, unite alle affermazioni talvolta esilaranti di Van Helsing, me lo hanno impedito.

Infatti, il forte accento tedesco di Van Helsing alle volte lo fa assomigliare a una macchietta, a una sorta di folletto iperattivo con la fissa per i demoni zannuti. Ecco perché ho fatto un po' fatica a prenderlo sul serio: ho un senso dell'umorismo bizzarro.

Poi c'è la squadra di cacciatori di vampiri che Van Helsing ha messo su: il dottor Seward, Jonathan Harker, Quincey P. Morris e Lord Arthur Holmwood. Costantemente motivati dal professore, i quattro ce la mettono tutta nella loro caccia, ma, purtroppo per loro, sembrano più dei dilettanti allo sbaraglio. Se non fosse stato per quella santa donna di Mina, moglie di Jonathan, a quest'ora Dracula si starebbe pulendo le zanne con le loro falangi. Credo che mai donna abbia avuto cavalieri più imbranati di questi in sua difesa. ( )