Dracula
Bram Stoker, 1897
Review contains spoilers.
After three failed attempts to read Dracula, I decided to try it again, this time for reals! I'll be focusing my attention more on the earliest chapters.
The reason for my previous inability to stick with Dracula is that it begins with entries from Jonathan Harker's journal, which may be one of the single driest sections of literature ever composed. I'm expecting Gothic-y scariness, or at least a deep sense of foreboding before we get to a little bloodshed, but instead we have Jonathan discussing his travels around Budapest ("Buda-Pesth"), and they're not terribly diverting. He discusses the scenery, the food he eats, local fashions, and other little details of travel that would usually only be interesting to a person's closest friends or family.
But one thing that this mundanity does is lull the reader into a sense of average-ness, even though we know things are going to get crazy up in here pretty soon. These journal pages also make Jonathan seem kind of sweet. It's hard to dislike this slightly boring guy who is making the most of a long and vexing journey to Transylvania, and it's sort of adorable how he keeps making notes to get recipes for especially tasty dinners he has. No, Jonathan, we don't want to know the precise ingredient list for your last dinner, but including the info anyway is what makes you you.
Jonathan is a solicitor's clerk sent to inform the Transylvanian Count Dracula about some property he has purchased in England. Before too long, Jonathan realizes that his well-mannered host actually has him imprisoned and it's just one small step from claustrophobic panic to Jonathan actually fearing for his life. Nice job there, Mr. Stoker. Building up that scary negative anticipation and then delivering scenes of creepiness bit by bit? Bravo. It's interesting that Dracula himself is an old man with a white moustache and a plain black suit, so he's basically a super-creepy old person, totally the opposite of any modern notion of a gorgeous, appealing vampire. Dracula wants to come to England and he's keeping Jonathan around as a conversation partner so he can master the language.
Chapter 5 switches from poor Jonathan's descent into the crazies and flips over to his fiancee Mina's correspondence with her friend Lucy. Mina's an assistant schoolmistress and she seems like a clever person with a sense of humor, while Lucy's letters show that she's the more girly of the two friends, fluttering and bragging over receiving three proposals in one day. Lucy pretends to despise vanity and gossip all while being vain and gossipy, yet she's still an attractive character in many ways. There are many more letters and telegrams and diary entries from other characters, but I found them distracting when I wanted to hear from Jonathan, Mina, Lucy, and Dracula.
One unique element of this book is the psychological study of a mental patient named Renfield who does not know how vampirism works, and ends up eating large quantities of flies and spiders in an attempt to gain unnatural life. He graduates to eating sparrows and even requests a kitten from his psychologist, but he fortunately doesn't get one.
Elsewhere in the world of the story, Lucy develops a sleepwalking habit and Mina has to worry about both Lucy's strange behavior and Jonathan's lack of communication. Jonathan does miraculous flee Transylvania and he marries Mina and begins to recover from his harrowing ordeal. Professor Van Helsing, an expert in unusual diseases arrives to help Lucy, but everyone's best efforts can't save her from dying. Twice. In a very unpleasant manner. Everything's going downhill for the good guys and even sweet Mina becomes a vampire victim, but evil can't win forever, and she and Jonathan get a nice epilogue with emotional closure and a baby son.
Conclusion: Dracula contains some lengthy dry sections mixed with some really well-written moments of anxiety, and it's another classic worth actually reading. Vampire fans, what are you waiting for? This is where it all started. Grade: B+
Best quotes:
Jonathan: "It seems to me that the further east you go the more unpunctual are the trains. What ought they to be in China?" (pg 2)
Dracula: "Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own free will!" (pg 13)
Jonathan:"No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be." (pg 38)
Dr. Seward: "As I came in, he threw himself on his knees before me and implored me to let him have a cat, that his salvation depended upon it." (pg 60)
Book Review: Dracula by Bram Stoker Link Free Download
