The impulse to reread this classic novel came while I was reading Cat Winters'
The Cure For Dreaming. It's a YA novel set in 1900 and her main character, Olivia Mead, loves
Dracula and has read it several times; and the more she referred to it, the more I wanted to read it again myself.
Out of all the classics I've read,
Dracula is one of my top ten. First of all, I love epistolary novels; and the way Stoker spins out the mystery of Count Dracula through the diaries and letters of Jonathon and Mina Harker, John Seward, Lucy Westenra and others is masterful. When I read this book I feel like I'm watching a movie play out in my head. I also really like the eerie atmosphere and the quiet build-up of suspense...especially where Lucy is concerned. Then there's Mina Harker--Mina is intelligent, beautiful and brave, and one of the most memorable female characters ever created. And let's face it,
no one writes vampires better than Bram Stoker:
"As we burst into the room the Count turned his face, and the hellish look that I had heard described seemed to leap into it. His eyes flamed red with devilish passion; the great nostrils of the white aquiline nose opened wide and quivered at the edge; and the white sharp teeth, behind the full lips of the blood-dripping mouth, champed together like those of a wild beast. With a wrench, which threw his victim back upon the bed as though hurled from a height, he turned and sprang at us."
Happy Reading!
I have no idea how many times I've read it because I taught it to my seniors. Only had one student who opted out!
ReplyDeleteIt's a great book...that one student doesn't know what he//she is missing.
DeleteWhen I was in fourth grade, I read a "children's classics" version of this, and it scared the living daylights out of me. I still have trouble reading it, because I have flashbacks to how terrified I was. I have trouble now imagining who thought a children's version of this was a good idea.
DeleteYeah, Dracula is definitely too scary for children. I don't know who thought a kid's version of this book was a good idea either.
DeleteI've never read Dracula. I've been thinking about buying it on audiobook though and listening to it. I hadn't even realised it had an epistolary focus but that makes me even more interested.
ReplyDeleteLet me know if you like the audio version; I think this is a book that could be "told" really well. I know I love the play version of it. It's such an awesome story!
DeleteWonderful coincidence -- my book club is reading Dracula this month! I'm happily surprised by how much I'm enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great book. But then it sounds like your book club often chooses fun reads. I just exited my book club as graciously and politely as possible...because mine was nothing like yours. :)
DeleteYep, the definitive vampire novel--I also really like the epistolary format, and that Stoker used it so effectively to tell his story.
ReplyDeleteIt's the best!
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