Title: Dracula
Author: Bram Stoker
Genre: Classics | Horror
Format: Paperback
Length: 482 pages
Publisher: Collins Classics
Publication Date: 26th May 1897
My Rating: ★★★★ (4 stars)
Goodreads | Storygraph
Synopsis:
We are in Transylvania; and Transylvania is not England. Our ways are not your ways, and there shall be to you many strange things.
Earnest and naive solicitor Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to organise the estate of the infamous Count Dracula at his crumbling castle in the ominous Carpathian Mountains. Through notes and diary entries, Harker keeps track of the horrors and terrors that beset him at the castle, telling his fiance Mina of the Count’s supernatural powers and his own imprisonment. Although Harker eventually manages to escape and reunite with Mina, his experiences have led to a mental breakdown of sorts. Meanwhile in England, Mina’s friend Lucy has been bitten and begins to turn into a vampire. With the help of Professor Van Helsing, a previous suitor of Lucy’s, Seward, and Lucy’s fiance Holmwood attempt to thwart Count Dracula and his attempts on Lucy and consequently Mina’s life. Arguably the most enduring Gothic novel of the 19th Century, Bram Stoker’s Dracula is as chilling today in its depiction of the vampire world and its exploration of Victorian values as it was at its time of publication.
My Review:
‘Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely. And leave something of the happiness you bring!’
I find it very apt that I finished Dracula on Halloween. I’ve owned this book since my early university days, but I never finished it. When it was picked as this month’s read for Lets Get Classical Bookclub I knew I had to finally finish this.
My main issue, which I think is why I never finished the book was that it is a slow start, but as the novel progressed I found myself enjoying it a lot more. The epistolary format of the novel gives it an interesting spin, and I like the fact that we got to see through letters, diaries and newspaper articles the different protagonists and each character had their own voice.
I enjoyed the wide cast of characters. The first we meet is Jonathan who is a good man, tormented by what he experienced at Dracula’s home. He wants nothing more than to put an end to the nightmare. Mina and Lucy have a great friendship, and we get to experience that before the tragic events of the story.
Dracula encapsulates horror, and the atmosphere it creates is brilliant. Dracula is the character that lurks eerily in the background and instils the fear of the dark in us. The fear of being alone on a stormy night, of walking through a cemetery alone, of leaving your bedroom window open. But it’s so much more than that, this novel is a product of its time; representing Victorian fears and fancies. It highlights the struggles between modernity and superstition, of women’s position in society and of survival.
This book is a classic! Dracula isn’t your friendly vampire neighbour, he is a frightening creature who you don’t want to meet on a dark night in a graveyard. I am so glad that I picked it up this month and finally finished it.
