Being somewhat familiar with the story of Dracula, and his historical basis, Vlad Tepes Dracul of medieval Romania, it seemed appropriate to finally read the original source material, inasmuch as it is a celebrated classic of English literature. I was not disappointed, though somewhat surprised that the majority of the action takes place in London, not the Count’s castle in Transylvania.

While I enjoyed the story and the style of writing, I must say that I was quite put off by the edition of the classic which I read. The Enriched Classics Series contains voluminous commentary and interpretation which I found at times, ridiculous. Of primary irritation, was the “commentators” insistence that all things within the book be read through the prism of England’s treatment of Ireland. Every reference in the book is footnoted, many in an attempt to argue that Transylvania is somehow a metaphor for Ireland. For example: “Harken rides a tardy train from Germany to Hungary” (footnote: There were tardy trains in Ireland as well.) I’m not making this up. “There are four ethnic races present in Romania”(footnote: There are actually more, but the author has reduced it to four in order to equate with the four in Ireland). Really? Most absurd, our literary critic argues that the name Dracula is some bastardization of two Irish words meaning “bad blood”. Gee, and all these years I thought it was a reference to Vlad the Impaler, of family Dracul. After all, the cover art displays a field of impaled corpses beneath Castle Dracul.

Preceding the book is a lengthy discourse on the meaning of blood in Dracula, and how, over the years, literary analysts and commentators have evolved their theories on such meaning. I don’t know, perhaps Stoker viewed blood as merely a bodily fluid. Maybe Stoker’s work is full of hidden meaning. Perhaps he merely wrote an entertaining Gothic horror novel. In either case, it seems silly to presume the former simply because there were late trains in both Ireland and Transylvania.

I suspect that some readers may be put off by the style of the writing, inasmuch as it was written in the late 19th century. There are stretches in the novel (primarily in the absence of The Count) where the going gets a little slow, and the Victorian prose becomes a little tedious, but by and large, it is an immensely entertaining read. ( )

I think the first 50 pages or so of this novel are some of the best ever written. Harker's naive excitement about his first big assignment quickly turns to horror. The rest of the story continues the spooky vibe, which I think is actually enhanced by the detachment introduced by the storytelling convention of revealing events through the journals and letters of the main characters. ( )

Twisted. A wonderful classic. ( )

If you know me at all, you know I love me some vampire tales. My first was Twilight. I got the books for my 22nd birthday and read them all in a week. I borrowed The Historian, from a co-worker and loved it so much I went out and bought it to save for another Halloween!

Yes, I love Halloween. I’m the nerd who watches all the scary movies on AMC’s Monsterfestand the ones I can’t watch, I DVR and stay up super late to watch them. I don’t sleep the whole month of October without a nightmare, but I deal.

I started the A to Z Challenge earlier this month. Since I blog about all the books I read, I knew which ones I’ve read this year. I had all but 7 done. D and I were books I didn’t have. I automatically knew Dracula and Interview with the Vampire were my choices.

You know what you are getting into when you start this book. Obviously it’s about a vampire so that doesn’t surprise you. The layout of the book reminded me a lot of The Historian. A lot of it is in letters too. I really like that because you get to see everyone’s point of view.

When it came to the writing of the book, there were some parts that I flew through, there were others that drug on for weeks. This book took me two weeks to conquer. I read when I get home from work and wind down for bed and read on the weekends whenever I have a moment to sit down. I’d like to say the wedding has my mind out of whack, but I honestly think some of the book just didn’t appeal to me. I loved the first hundred few pages then lost interest. It came and went from there.

The book was very descriptive which always makes for a good read. I love to be able to close my eyes and imagine the characters and the scenes. It always got me major kudos with my Teaser Tuesdays (1 and 2).

The characters in this book remind me of chivalry. Michael (my fiance) is very chivalrous, but it seems to be dwindling away over the years. These 5 men put a lady before all of them and fight to the death for her.

I must admit while all these men won my heart, Mina is my favorite character. She’s a strong, very intelligent woman. And she’s a fighter. She never gives up and she helps the men from start to finish. Without her, the ending of this book would probably have been very different.

At times during the book, I was VERY confused. Like when Dr. Seward kept talking of his patient, when the first ship came when Lucy and Mina were in town and all of the suitors for Lucy. They all made sense in time, but when I first read them, I remember thinking “How can this possibly fit into this book?”

It’s taken me a couple of days to think about this review. I admire the book for its history and for all of the vampire lore that was inspired by this book. I love the creativity and the story, but I didn’t love all of the writing. It was a tough read and there were many parts I had to read and re-read.

I give Dracula 3 bookmarks. ( )

After reading this, I realize that I've never seen a Dracula movie in my life. I dimly recall seeing the play in high school - my sister played Mina - but the plot of that escapes me. I was surprised at how little of the book takes place at Dracula's castle. I also was a touch confused by the plethora of vampiric restrictions: sunlight is evidently a hindrance only some of the time, one becomes a vampire by drinking a vampire's blood or sometimes just by being killed by a vampire, a vampire needs to rest in sanctified soil but cannot touch anything blessed, a vampire can turn into a bat and a dog and mist and who knows what else... I'm just glad subsequent vampire stories kept it simple: no sunlight, no Christian stuff, no stakes through the heart or decapitation.

Anyway, all griping aside, I really enjoyed this book. The plot moves well. Often books over 100 years old are written in a difficult dialect, but this was easy, to the point where I was even able to hear Van Helsing's thick accent in my head. Mina's portrayal as a strong, intelligent woman was refreshing as well. The ending was quite abrupt, even jarring, but the story did not feel at all unfinished. ( )