Dracula
Author: Bram Stoker
Publisher: Fingerprint! Publishing (Deluxe Edition)
American release date: March 1, 2022
Format/Genre/Length: Paperback/Vampire Horror /440 pages
Overall Personal
Rating: ★★★★★
Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified
solicitor, is sent by his employer, Mr. Hawkins, to assist a foreign customer
with the legal intricacies of his move to London. The customer in question, a
Count Dracula, lives in faraway Transylvania. Harker keeps a detailed journal
of his travels across Europe to meet with his client. When he is almost at his
journey’s end, he finds the villagers of Bistritz friendly and welcoming… until
they learn where he is going. They are reluctant to see him leave them, but they
offer no valid reason as to why he shouldn’t go to the castle, so off he goes.
The Count lives in a large, imposing castle that sits in splendid isolation on
the top of a rocky cliff. But from the beginning, Harker senses something
strange about the place and its odd owner. He sees no sign of anyone else
there, not a single servant. And why is the Count always busy during the
daylight hours? And why does he never see Dracula eat or drink? And then there
are the dreams, of three lovely young women who seem to want him… Things take a
turn for the worse when Dracula dictates three letters that Harker must write
to his loved ones. Suddenly, he is not so sure he will return home safely…
Mina Murray is Harker’s fiancée.
She works as an assistant schoolmistress. Her best friend is Lucy Westenra, a
vivacious young woman who attracts any manner of male admirers. In fact, on one
memorable day, she receives three proposals of marriage! What is a girl to do?
One is from Arthur Holmwood, Lord Godalming. The second is from John Seward,
who runs an insane asylum. The third would-be suitor is Quincy Morris, a Texan
and friend of Seward and Holmwood. Mina
invites Lucy for a visit, and they happily renew their friendship as they
discuss Lucy’s engagement to the suitor she has finally accepted.
Dr. Seward has a very interesting
patient by the name of Renfield, whom he classifies as zoophagous, because he
likes to eat living things, such as flies and spiders. Seward notices changes
taking place in Renfield that he can’t explain, while Mina is concerned that
she hasn’t heard from Jonathan for some time, and she worries for him. She
receives a letter concerning him and hastens to be by his side.
A strange ship, the Demeter,
runs aground just below the cliff where Lucy and Mina are wont to sit, but no
one is at the helm and there is no sign of the crew. Lucy has begun to
sleepwalk before Mina’s departure, and now she falls mysteriously ill, to the
dismay of those who love her. A desperate Dr. Seward reaches out to a colleague
in Amsterdam, a Doctor Abraham Van Helsing, who hurries to London to assist in
diagnosing Lucy’s condition. He fears that what is wrong with Lucy is beyond
the pale of most men’s experience and her friends will find it difficult to
believe what is happening to her if he were to tell them. But he will need
their help in order to save her. Meanwhile,
Mina is nursing Jonathan back to health at the convent where he was brought
after his escape from the castle, and there they are married. She finds his
journal and reads it, horrified at what it reveals. To make herself useful, and
to facilitate future reading of her husband’s words, she transcribes the
journal onto paper. On their return to London, she is devastated to learn what
has happened to Lucy. Drawn together in their sorrow, she and the others
realize something dreadful is about to descend on London – in fact, already
has. They must band together to prevent Count Dracula’s dastardly plans from
coming to fruition!
Dracula is the
quintessential vampire novel, a true classic. It is the origin of most of the
vampire stories that came after. There have been countless film adaptations,
some better than others, including Nosferatu, which was actually a rip-off for
which the filmmakers were sued for not obtaining permission from Stoker’s
estate. Now long out of copyright, copycats abound. But this is the core story
that began it all.
Dracula is told through
journal entries, newspaper clippings, and phonograph entries by those most
closely involved in the story, with the notable exception of Dracula himself.
We get no glimpse into him, either as a person or a vampire, except through the
words he speaks to others. I have to wonder if that is deliberate and, if so,
why. We today are so familiar with this story that it’s hard to imagine what
the reactions of Stoker’s contemporaries were on first reading the book. I
first read the novel when I was about twelve and fell in love with it
immediately.
Of all the movies I have seen, the
one that comes closest to doing justice to the novel is Coppola’s version, but
I do enjoy a good Hammer film. Nothing beats the novel, however. I highly
recommend it if you want to know the truth. You won’t regret it.
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