The One with Dracula

151. Title & Author: Dracula by Bram Stoker (413 pages)

Genre: Fiction--Horror

Completed: 10 July 2010

Summary & Review:

A young British solicitor named Jonathan Harker travels to the mysterious land of Transylvania to service the business needs of one his firm's clients, Count Dracula. Barely escaping with his life, he returns to London to discover that the un-dead Count has left his mountainous home for the modernity of England and has already claimed the life of one young woman. With the help of his wife, a few friends, and the astute mind of Dr. Van Helsing, the Count is driven back to his native land where they must rid him from the earth forever.

This novel was first published in 1897, and since that time it has never been out of print. For a book of such lasting stamina, and one that is often heralded as a "classic," it was very disappointing. Plus, for this being a horror novel, the plot was incredibly tame as it slowly plodded along. Rather than racing through in a terrified trance while reading, I literally had to force myself to continue turning the pages. It was more difficult for me to read this book for any length of time than it is for me to read about microbiology or dental anatomy. I think part of this was due to the manner in which Stoker presented the story. It was written with the main characters looking back at events that had already occurred through journal entries or letters. This caused there to be a sort of detachment from the events of the novel. Obviously, if the writer was alive to write about what took place, the reader knew that everything was going to work out in the end. I think if the narrative had been more direct, as if events were taking place as the reader was reading them, the story could have been potentially much more frightening.

The only part of the book that I really enjoyed was the first section in which Jonathan is actually in Transylvania. Here, the journal entry format of the novel was pretty effective as the reader was able to experience the terror and uncertainty that Jonathan was going through from day to day. After that, the novelty of the narration died away and the plot grew stagnant, especially since most of the characters were one-dimensional and melodramatic. The men were obnoxiously overly gallant, chivalrous, and courteous (in a condescending way) to Mina, Jonathan's wife, as they gushed praise (which the modern reader reads in the form of backhanded insults) on women and Mina in particular. The dialogue was flowery to the point of nausea and Van Helsing's pseudo-broken English was just irritating to endure.

In short, I guess I was left wondering why this book has achieved such an elevated status in popular culture and why authors like Elizabeth Kostova, whose novel The Historian (#1) was an excellent entry in the vampire canon, feel like they are indebted to Stoker in any way.

Rating: 3.5