Dracula by Bram Stoker

Title: Dracula

Author: Bram Stoker (Irish, 1847-1912)
Originally published: 1897
Page count: 454


Dates read: 10/1/2020-10/28/2020
2020 book goal progress: 26 out of 20
Month category: October - Halloween / Horror
Back to the Classics category: Abandoned Classic



Read my other book reviews for my 2020 goal HERE.


Description on back of book:
Earnest and naive, solicitor Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to organize the estate of the infamous Count Dracula at his crumbling castle. He finds himself imprisoned and experiences all manner of supernatural horrors. In England, Lucy and her friend Mina, Harker's fiance, are under threat from the Count as he attempts to quell his appetite for human blood.

First sentence:
"Left Munich at 8:35 P.M., on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late."

Favorite quotes:

"There are things done today in electrical science which would have been deemed unholy by the very men who discovered electricity - who would themselves not so long before have been burned as wizards. There are always mysteries in life."

"It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature. Let any obstructing cause, no matter what, be removed in any way - even death - and we fly back to first principles of hope and enjoyment."

"I do but say what we may do - what we must do. But indeed, indeed we cannot say what we shall do. There are so many things which may happen, and their ways and their ends are so various that until the moment we may not say."

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 6.1/10 - ⭐⭐⭐/5
Characters      - 7
Atmosphere   - 6
Writing Style - 6
Plot                - 7
Intrigue          - 5
Logic             - 6
Enjoyment     - 6
What is a CAWPILE Rating?

Review:

Through the book, movies, and TV shows, most people are familiar with the story of Dracula. That said, there will be spoilers in the following review. The novel was OK, though a bit disappointing and not anywhere near as scary as I was expecting. The novel is epistolatory and written mostly through several characters' journal entries, which were not always chronological and sometimes confusing. 

It can be broken into roughly 3 sections: intro to the Count through Jonathan Harker's imprisonment (about 60 pages), intro to Van Helsing and other characters through the Count's attacks on Lucy (about 200 pages), and the hunting of the Count to save Mina and humankind (about 200 pages). 

I enjoyed the first part of the story. It was relatively simple and chronological. It also was told solely through Harker's journal. Once we shifted to the second part, Harker was abruptly cut off and we switched to multiple characters' journals. This was a bit jarring and overwhelming and it was soon after this switch that I abandoned the book the first time I read it. The book became confusing because you are quickly introduced to a lot of new characters and I initially didn't know how they fit in with the first part of the story. The second part is long, drawn-out, and quite repetitive. Here's a brief summary:

Lucy looks pale. Let's get her a blood transfusion. A madman collects flies. Oh, Lucy is looking pale again. Let's get her another blood transfusion by someone else. The madman collects spiders and feeds them the flies. Lucy doesn't look so good. She probably needs another blood transfusion by a different man. The madman captures a couple of birds and feeds them the spiders. Wow, these blood transfusions don't seem to be working because she's really pale again. Might as well try yet a fourth transfusion from yet another person. The madman asks for a cat and, upon refusal, he eats the birds himself. Oops, Lucy died - but not really. Now we need to kill her to let her soul rest in peace. (Note: blood types weren't discovered until 4 years after the book was published.)

Professor Van Helsing knows what is happening to Lucy but doesn't say anything because he doesn't think anyone would believe him. He basically just lets her die and turn into a vampire to prove to everyone what he already knew and probably could have avoided if he had just been more open. The second part had way too many descriptions and not enough action. If this second part had been summed up in less than 100 pages, instead of being 200, I think the book overall would have been much better.

The third part of the book was full of action, which made it worth drudging through the second part to get to. I liked the ending, though it seemed to happen too quickly and easily. I wanted them to actually have to face and fight Dracula, rather than just kill him in his sleep.

Random side notes: There were parts of the book that were borderline feminist, but mostly the book was very sexist, which just left a bad taste in my mouth. My favorite character was the madman who collected and ate flies and spiders. I have very limited knowledge of vampire mythology due to only having watched Interview with a Vampire once, Only Lovers Left Alive twice, and I'm mostly through watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the first time. (No - I have never watched or read anything Twighlight.) I will always choose Buffy over Dracula - though I greatly enjoyed watching the Dracula episode in the midst of reading the book. Xander even got to represent my favorite character - the crazy man!

Fun Fact: In the first half of the book,  the word 'vampire' appears twice - both times referring to bats. A little past halfway through, when Lucy is revealed to be a vampire, they are initially referred to as the Un-Dead. The word 'vampire' is found 21 times in the second half of the book - all referring to the mythological being. Of those references, 10 of them are on 2 pages. So, all things considered, for a book about the most notorious vampire, the word 'vampire' is used quite sparingly.

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Bram Stoker have the last words. Here are some short proverbs:

"Though sympathy can't alter facts, it can help to make them more bearable."

"I suppose a cry does us all good at times - clears the air as other rain does."

"I sometimes think we must be all mad and that we shall wake to sanity in strait-waistcoats."