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DRACULA Bram Stoker Deluxe Cloth Bound Illustrated Hardcover Edition Brand NEW · Dracula (Royal Collector’s Edition) by Stoker, Bram Book The Fast Free Shipping. This book has pages in the PDF version, and was originally published in Production notes: This ebook of Dracula was published by Global Grey in When Count Dracula departs Transylvania on a Russian ship, crew members begin to mysteriously disappear. After the ship docks, and more people are attacked.
 
 

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Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — Dracula by Bram Stoker. When Count Dracula departs Transylvania on a Russian ship, crew members begin to mysteriously disappear.

After the ship docks, and more people are attacked, rumours of a monster quickly spread. When Abraham Van Helsing is asked to intervene, Dracula meets his match. On his quest to find Dracula, Van Helsing is forced to hunt newly made vampires, using a cross, garlic, and When Count Dracula departs Transylvania on a Russian ship, crew members begin to mysteriously disappear.

On his quest to find Dracula, Van Helsing is forced to hunt newly made vampires, using a cross, garlic, and a wooden steak as weapons. But tracking down Dracula will prove to be harder, and more dangerous that Van Helsing could have ever imagined. His father, Vlad ii was given the surname Dracul in after being inducted into the Order of the Dragon. Dracula literally means ‘Son of Dracul’. Vlad iii was also know as Vlad the Impaler for killing nearly , people with wooden stakes.

This cloth-bound book includes a Victorian inspired dust-jacket, and is limited to copies. Get A Copy. Hardcover , pages. Published November 19th by Royal Classics first published May 26th More Details Original Title.

Renfield , Mina Harker , Dracula Other Editions All Editions Add a New Edition. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

To ask other readers questions about Dracula , please sign up. Am I the only one who thought the ending of this book was the literary form of coitus interruptus? I thought the book was wonderful until the end and then it lost me. Bogdan Valentin Haha, yes! It was like the author was being pushed by someone.. Everyo …more Haha, yes! Everyone is waiting for you!

Damn it, Bram, the sun will rise any minute and we’re not on the lake by then.. Zakle You might be confused through out it since it IS an older book. There are a lot of words that are not apart of todays typical language, but I absolute …more You might be confused through out it since it IS an older book. There are a lot of words that are not apart of todays typical language, but I absolutely loved it when I first read it.

Of course there were a lot of words I didn’t know, and I often found myself at a lost, but I do believe that was because I was young when I first read it. Around fifteen or fourteen. It’s a great classic though and I do recommend it. See all 52 questions about Dracula…. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list ».

Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Dracula Copy Collector’s Edition. Two things about this book: 1. It is a really great and creepy story that deserves classic status 2.

Everything is repeated soooooo much without any obvious benefit. Here is actual footage of Bram Stoker writing this novel: If Stoker had just got to the point, this book would have been much more exciting and suspenseful. I understand the exact same mysterious thing happens night after night.

I understand that Dracula has some boxes of dirt. I get that you brought Winchester rifles along for protecti Two things about this book: 1. I get that you brought Winchester rifles along for protection.

Each of these things was repeated ad nauseam throughout the book. Talk about killing the pace – by the time the gruesome scares came I was very disengaged. Also, funny thing about this book as a horror story – it must be the grandfather of heading up the stairs to hide instead of running outside or cutting through the graveyard shortly after hearing a serial killer is loose.

They keep leaving people alone even though those people are repeatedly attacked when they are left alone. Then, when they finally insist on guarding someone, that person insists that they need no one but God to guard them!?

Seems like so far God had not been interested in protecting, so why count on him starting now!? So three stars because it is a classic and I like the story. I especially like Lucy’s suitors – their gung ho manliness amuses me. But the repetition and the illogical behavior in the face of a bloodsucking monster are the cause of the removal of a couple of stars.

View all comments. View all 44 comments. Dracula: the very name instantly brings to mind visions of vampires, stakes, garlic, and crucifixes. Yet, when one bothers to read the novel, it becomes self-evident how twisted modern vampire fiction now is.

Vampires are not meant to inhabit the roles of heroes. The very idea of a blood drinker should, therefore, inspire the image of a villain Dracula: the very name instantly brings to mind visions of vampires, stakes, garlic, and crucifixes. The very idea of a blood drinker should, therefore, inspire the image of a villain within the mind.

And that is what the titular character of this novel is. The word novel is not used lightly, as one could also write that this is a collaboration of journals, letters and papers. For that is how Bram Stoker chose to fashion his famous novel in epistolary form.

While the different viewpoints through each journal serve to create suspense which suits the gothic tone of the novel perfectly. In all, it is a macabre novel that serves to make the reader reflect upon good and evil. Who, unless he is delivered, must suck the life from others around him.

Ultimately only the righteous can destroy the darkness that serves to drain life. That is the lesson which Bram Stoker’s timeless classic unswervingly conveys.

But under the fabric of late Victorian society lay wide ranges of change; the increased marriage rate and idea of the domestic sphere for women giving way to the New Woman, the upper class vs. With the growth of the economy came new ideas of English excellence; with the growth of scientific thought, scientific racism. Literature, as is usual, struggles to react.

With a growing counterculture in literature came the reaction to such; at the trial of author Oscar Wilde, passages from his only novel were read to prove that he liked men. Soon after, Bram Stoker, formerly his acquaintance , began writing Dracula.

The result is a book drenched in fear of the unknown: In xenophobia of the time, in homophobia, and in the anxieties that come when that who embodies both appears. That is what sticks with me, to this day, about Dracula.

Blog Goodreads Twitter Instagram Youtube View all 32 comments. Recommended to Anne by: Jeff. Shelves: classics , read-in , horror , audio.

 

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Amazon Drive Cloud storage from Amazon. The Hollows series spring to mind. The greatest change in the villainous vampires arises in Anne Rice’s books. It was a perfect case study of an idea done to the death.

In Dracula, several people record their impressions. I ‘pretend’ to know that the women in the books, Lucy and Mina, have the Dracula, the book, struck a chord with me. I ‘pretend’ to know that the women in the books, Lucy and Mina, have the same voice.

Maybe the men are slightly different. They possess greater vocabulary, such as Lord Godalming’s, and Jonathan Harker’s recollections. Van Helsing, being a foreigner has his mistakes in grammar, and therefore has the most unique voice. Throughout the book, we don’t see the vampire Dracula triumph much.

Except maybe when he turns Lucy into an undead. But even then, through the guiding hands and the knowledge of van Helsing, she is freed from her shackles. But Jonathan escapes from his imprisonment. And the vampire cannot settle in London. He was found out by our ‘A-team’ and had to flee for his life.

He expresses baffled malignity. It is the testament to Bram Stoker’s neatness that I could follow most of the story. And I’m in awe of his mind, which chronicles the entire story via journal entries or phonograph recordings in the case of John Steward , all of which are dated. I don’t mean outdated, but dated, day after day. And I mourned the death of Quincy Morris, gallant to the end, dying with a smile on his lips. The entire book defies what happens in movies and series of which latter I’ve watched only True Blood.

Most people don’t read books regularly. So their idea of the vampire comes from horror movies. And Boris Karloff and especially Bela Lugosi as vampires are etched in the minds of most people. I don’t think cinephiles will get any influence from the movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola. That was a mess. The book still stands proud. As it should. Thus ends my review on 02 Sep Dracula seems to be one of those love-it or hate-it type books, but for me it is all love!

The opening chapters alone provide some of the most gripping, suspense-inducing, edge-of-seat anxieties I’ve ever read, all leading up to a delightfully queer twist with a male character stepping in for the traditional Gothic heroine.

Jonathan Harker fulfills the damsel in distress role quite suitably, being locked away in a remote castle and forced to navigate the domineering personality of his captor. Dra Dracula seems to be one of those love-it or hate-it type books, but for me it is all love! There’s just something about a vampire’s possessiveness, affixation with tender neck flesh, the nocturnal visits and dangling appeal of immortality that make them hot, hot, hot! Anyway, it is possible to have two feelings at once.

Lucy dazedly roams the midnight hour in her nightgown, meeting the “king vampire” for a moonlit rendezvous. Though she claims to be induced to such behavior by a trance, one wonders how much arm-twisting or brain fog was necessary. After all, Dracula is a convenient outlet for taboos to be explored, experienced, and excused from public shame. Something like that might have been especially appealing to a sexually repressed audience.

Despite being the most famous and enduring vampire novel of all time, Dracula remains a must-read classic. You won’t be surprised by some details because Stoker’s vampire “rules” are public knowledge by now, but that doesn’t make the novel any less thrilling, enticing, and occasionally shocking.

There’s some really gruesome moments that totally caught me off guard. Also, the epistolary storytelling device works well. So happy to finally check this read off my bucket list!! Every beat of this classic appears somewhere in King’s book, with Dracula and Pennywise sharing many traits and the power of working together being a major theme. The way the monster controls side characters is also familiar. Renfield and Henry Bowers share a lot in common, for instance, as do Mina and Bill’s wife.

View all 3 comments. And, too, it made me think of the wonderful power of money! Quite contrary to what I’d expected beforehand is that Dracula is not that creepy. The book is almost soap like, in how the friends of Lucy are constantly frustrated in their efforts to protect her and how Renfield escapes from the mental asylum all the time. Also the structure of diary entries, telegrams and letters diminishes any tension one might feel, since apparently the people writing lived to tell the tale.

For anyone curious, the film which is on Netflix is quite close to the book if pages of Victorian fiction is a bit too much. What I did like and found a bit frightening were the passages of how the boat Demeter loses its crew, being isolated and far away from any help. And sleepwalking is tapping into some unconscious fears as well. But for the rest there is not much to really call this a horror novel.

Only halfway the book the speed picks a bit up, with four blood transfusions I hope the patient was bloodtype O and four burials in a few chapters. But after this point the book just falls into endless deliberations on how to beat Dracula, on bringing facts already known to the reader together and some questionable decisions to keep information from the group by Van Helsing. In general Bram Stoker his writing is quite readable but also overdramatic and not very subtle.

The themes and moral are simple: central is how the male forces of science Dr Seward , aristocracy Arthur , no-nonsense Americans Quincy and spiritistic Dutch lyricism Van Helsing are needed to face a threat. They even compare themselves to Crusaders, going to the East to destroy evil. Interesting for a decidedly post-Enlightenment book written around is the oversized role of religion and class society, one of the men being a Lord getting anything required done with ease, including obtaining client records and breaking in somewhere, while meanwhile everyone is bribed for inquiries all the time.

In the end I found that, in the Appendix of the Penguin Clothbound edition I read, Charlotte Stoker his mother writes much more eloquently about the terror of a Cholera epidemic than her son does in the whole book about the supernatural. Over the years I’ve somewhat fallen out of reading classics, which is a damn shame as I typically enjoy the process of reading them even if I don’t end up liking the book.

In an effort to kick-start the process of reading them again on a more regular basis, I’ve decided to go with one I should have crossed off my list decades ago given my love of horror. Dracula has been portrayed in so many different ways from all the different forms of media. He’s been suave, sexy, violent, heroic, demonic… he’ Over the years I’ve somewhat fallen out of reading classics, which is a damn shame as I typically enjoy the process of reading them even if I don’t end up liking the book.

He’s been suave, sexy, violent, heroic, demonic… he’s even been cute and cuddly. Picture of my actual copy of the book along with one of my daughter’s plushies So, it was an interesting experience, going back and seeing Stoker’s original intent.

So what was he? I think he could best be described as an ever present entity who is only seen for around 30 pages or so. He has such little “screen time” for a title character and yet he’s felt in every scene. He’s a predator, something lurking in the shadows the entire time and the reader is just watching as those around him slowly piece together what he’s doing.

I can only imagine that when this originally came out in that it caused a stir. While slow paced, it’s frequently disturbing even by today’s standards, particularly some of the scenes early on in Dracula’s castle and some later when our heroes are staking out pun intended a graveyard.

I majored in English and have read quite a few, but it’s not a style that usually appeals to me. As silly as this may sound, I find I like it most in where it incorporates modern technology, such as chat logs or texts as it creates a multi-media aspect through current means of communication… as such I actually love what Stoker did.

He did s equivalent, as there are diary entries, telegraphs, newspaper articles and even transcriptions of phonograph recordings. In fact, one of the most fascinating aspects of the novel to me was how prominent then current technology was, with descriptions of light-bulbs, recordings, blood transfusions and rapid transit through trains all aiding our heroes.

This is in many ways a book about science conquering the dark and superstitions though as Van Helsing is quick to note, sometimes superstitions have their reasoning and should be taken into account with science. It’s a rather fascinating look at the topic. My biggest surprise while reading other than some of the frightening content , the thing that I will no doubt take away with some awe is that the book contains a cowboy.

Yes, a cowboy. He’s not a joke character, he actually serves a purpose… but there’s a random cowboy in the vampire hunt. View all 14 comments. I want to finish the year with the review of one of my favorite books of the reading year, one that I thought heavily about after reading it.

Dracula is a widely known classic story, one that is engraved in our culture and one that inspired and still inspires numerous pieces of art. One can say that we are collectively attracted to Dracula, and vampires in general.

What does make this story more appealing to the whole civilization, in the Victorian era, as well as in the present time? Stoker wro I want to finish the year with the review of one of my favorite books of the reading year, one that I thought heavily about after reading it. Stoker wrote Dracula in , at the end of the Victorian era. The Victorian era is famous for the progress in the field of science, men of the era relying on logic and reason in the strive for the synthesis that will explain how does that the world function, and liberate us from diseases and suffering.

At the same time, strict morality and obedience to social and religious conventions were prominent. Everything that deviated from decency and established values had to be disguised and ruthlessly suppressed in order to maintain the idea of the progress of civilization.

In the Victorian era, science and religion worked together to free civilized man from the destructive aspects of nature. At the same time, there is the rise of gothic literature and the birth of the horror genre, as the art rose from the repression.

This is the response of romanticism to the age of reason and the Enlightenment, but also puritanism and religious austerity that accepts only certain characteristics of men.

Gothic genre rises as both compensation and exploration of taboos and forbidden topics and impulses. Gothic writers express their unconscious preoccupations of the collective – sexual passion, aggression, murder, death, decay, incest, curse, madness. Here, Dracula finds its important spot. Dracula is a predator that is between the world of the living and the inanimate, he has strength and longevity, is immortal but only as long as he consumes the physical, mental, life energy of others.

In that way, he represents the anti-thesis and archetypal opposition to Christ, who gives his blood to others in order for them to have eternal life.

Christ rejuvenates and redeems body, soul and spirit, while Dracula is the living dead that curses body, maddens soul and corrupts spirit, a dead creature that has lost its spirit and soul and therefore is not subject to moral and ethical norms and conventions. Therefore, through him, we are free to explore taboo and psychoanalytically significant topics: repressed sexuality, oral sadism and necrophilia. Dracula is the repressed collective darkness in the world that is enlightened by both reason and Christ.

Dracula has the characteristics of 19th-century villains; he is a stranger, lives far away in a foreign land home and homeland were sacred in the victorian era , he has bestial elements pronounced, sharp fangs and is very much connected with the natural world he manages wind and storms, and summons wolves. At the same time, he is a mysterious, absent protagonist; like an optical illusion, Stoker finishes him in the mind of the beholder; we learn about him solely from the reports of others and their subjective perception.

The Count is poorly defined – indefinite, almost intangible, he changes forms, is elusive, connected only with the underworld, seen in the night, lives in the darkness of the unconscious – he is created from one’s forebodings, imagination and projections. The central part of the story is how correct, moral characters react to him. Jonathan, Lucy, Mina – for everyone he has a different role, and the multiplicity of his character is evident.

Count Dracula and his brides operate through fascination, seduction, enchantment, obsession, loss of soul, madness – all dissociation and suppression of consciousness through overbearing unconscious elements. They are a threat from the underworld, a threat to life and the conscious world. The sexual element is prominent and present, let us remind ourselves that Dracula goes to night visits to women, where they participated in the bodily fluid exchange, while the vampire brides are much less subtly erotic and seductive.

Jonathan Jonathan is a young hero that embarks on a journey into the unknown, a distant castle in “one of the most cruel and least known parts of Europe. Jonathan needs to complete the formation of ego and adult identity to function in the real world; the moment he meets his shadow in the figure of Count.

Interestingly, the Count does not attack him, only keeps him as a prisoner in his castle- even protects him from predatory vampire brides. In Jonathan’s case, they are more dangerous than Dracula – they have greater opportunity to besiege and enchant victims as men, have more open sexual magnetism and predatory sexuality unlike Dracula who creates confusion and comes with a deception that is not elaborated.

Dracula and the Brides represent the negative counter-sexual aspects that seduce and offer a lot but take autonomy in the process – through enchantment capture the person in the unconscious.

Here Jonathan’s desire to have sex is transformed into an attack through denial; attraction and love in repulsion and sadism. Repressed sexual desires turn into morbid signals that point to a constant association of sadism and fear – normal sexuality in repression tends to regress to an earlier form, the first of which is oral sadism.

The attitude towards vampires represents the aggression, hatred, and fear toward the object of desire we tend to demonize. Vampire brides also represent the Madonna- whore complex that is engraved in Victorian society – where a woman being sexual equals woman being demonic and evil. In Jonathan’s case, Dracula is a much more concrete character than in, for instance, an encounter with Lucy, we get his most detailed descriptions.

He is a mature person with whom Jonathan has the most communication and contact, Count is here in the archetype of the Wise old man who rules a wild, dangerous area, who has knowledge, precision, organization, clarity and separation – a Logos that protects him from the Eros of women.

Let us not forget that Jonathan sees only himself in the mirror when Dracula is behind him which insinuates that Count is essentially a part of himself and that realization alone causes disintegration and madness. Lucy Lucy is a changeable character, the only one in the novel who was both a human and a vampire, and her physical and mental state fluctuate throughout the story constantly – she is excited and restless; she amuses herself with the erotic possibilities of three husbands and loves the attention of men.

In the strict Victorian era, she is conditioned to dissociate her sexual feelings and strong libido from the conscious mind. Her unorthodox desires can find their expression only in altered states of consciousness – trance, sleepwalking and dreams, all of which precedes the Count’s attacks. Lucy is not at peace with herself – she has somewhat a hysterical personality structure with deep internal conflicts.

During the day she has to have the innocence and purity that are mandatory for women in the era, but during the night, her restlessness, erotic side of the mind, sensuality come out. In Lucy’s case, Dracula is a negative undifferentiated Animus – seducer, even though the relationship is never shown and she has no memory of him or his form.

Dracula is a catalyst for change to the possession of the unconscious- her conscious ego is afraid of change – she is overwhelmed by unconscious content – the weak ego cannot assimilate the content of the shadow without being overwhelmed by it. Lucy has no positive masculine figures to counter Dracula’s erotic animus – only men who are sexually interested in her.

Mina is for her Logos – reason, judgment, differentiation – when Mina leaves her there is no more objectivity or escape from unconscious eros. Her ego was challenged beyond what she could handle and instead of the assimilation, it was shattered and destroyed. Lucy ultimately experiences triumph as a sexualized vampire, takes the blood of more men, a being of flesh, the underworld and the night- Eros, Id and the shadow have won and taken over her identity, destroying her conscious will and persona.

Mina has mental balance, so she can compensate and integrate unconscious content presented by a vampire attack. More integrated than Lucy, her sense of self is well developed and she is well adapted to reality, more firmly rooted in society – she is engaged, has a teaching job, learns new skills that allow her to maintain an active role even when attacked by Dracula. She wants to be as equal as possible to Jonathan, she is practical, active, brave, and has shown that she can deal with uncertainty, fear and distress with firmness.

Opposite to Lucy that has a passive role, waiting for a savior, Mine has an active role throughout, she determines her destiny with her abilities. Her sole source of meaning is not sexuality and men, even though she is accomplished through a stable male-female relationship. Mina has a balance of Eros and Logos; feelings and reason; she is a character who has already progressed on the path of individuation, of formed identity.

She has a male brain Her ability, intellect, curiosity, all of it must be repressed to fulfill the role of an obedient Victorian woman.

Mina is forced by men to play the role of damsel in distress, of a fragile passive woman with which she does not resonate at all.

There she meets her shadow in the Count. But, in Mina’s encounter with Dracula, she does not stay unconscious – Van Helsing hypnotizes Mina and extracts the important pieces of information from her subconscious that help to capture and defeat Dracula. Through the conscious exercise of the rational, in a process similar to psychotherapy, awareness of the unconscious manages to outwit and control the unconscious instinct of Dracula.

Mina manages to keep her ego identity but pities and understands the Count – and in him her own dark and destructive parts that she partially integrates she is the only character that drinks Dracula’s blood. In a way, she feeds off her shadow, but in the process destroys Dracula’s aspects that cannot be integrated, that are ultimately overpowered by positive aspects of masculine figures in her life.

She is, what Campbell calls, the master of both worlds, she has authentic individuality that is connected with the unconscious, even in the darkest realms, but also she remains functional and integrated into society that gains from her maturation.

Even though the novel is called Dracula, Dracula is not a central figure. Dracula lives in each one of us representing the otherness- parts of ourselves that are not allowed by society, drives, impulses and wishes that we cannot admit to ourselves. What Dracula is, depends on us – the dark egoistic sadist that feeds of suffering and others’ life force, the seductive demonic lover, the wise old man. The sexual libertinism and unbridled violence, emotional, grotesque, irrational – Dracula is in complete contrast to the man of reason and morality, yet so infinitely attractive to him.

Dracula is also Trickster that will appear when we pretend to be something we are not, to unveil hypocrisy and show our true face. Above all, Dracula is elusive and indestructible, the symbol of transformation and initiation into another kind of existence and the constant reminder that if we are looking for Dracula’s darkness, we will find it in our own reflection.

View all 13 comments. What started out as a simple real estate deal by an English solicitor and a foreign nobleman, becomes a blood sucking nightmare. The shell shocked Jonathan is imprisoned by the creepy Count, a ” person” you wouldn’t want to see in a dark alley on a moonless midnight walk. Three strange , bizarre , but v “Children of the night what music they play” ; Jonathan Hawker hears those chilling, famous words from the inhuman appearing Count Dracula, in the remote Castle Dracula , Transylvania Romania.

Three strange , bizarre , but very beautiful women, brides of Dracula, the weird sisters, are in his room looking not quite real. When Dracula arrives also, they fade away Next day the Englishman can’t decide if what he saw last night was a dream or fact Either way the terrified Mr. Hawker escapes , as if his life depended on it, not caring about those eerie wolves , surrounding the building and disappears Back in “civilized”, safe England his fiance Mina on vacation in Whitby, is visiting her sick, good friend Lucy Westenra, she becomes very pale too, almost like ill Lucy who is losing blood, why?

Seward with the help of Dr. Van Helsing an expert in little known diseases, gives her Lucy, four transfusions, still she becomes weaker, and small punctures are spotted on Miss Westenra’s neck, what can they be?

A gruesome Bat is seen flying outside the window, lurking about waiting for who knows what Seward, the head of an insane asylum, has a star inmate named Renfield he likes keeping busy, by eating flies and spiders.

Something unnatural is disturbing the disturb man. Renfield even attempts to kill the good doctor. On the continent the dazed Jonathan, is found in a hospital in Budapest, disclosing events, in his journal, read by Mina when they get him back home..

Dracula is seen by Hawker in England, or was this man, the undead fiend , actually the Count? Better speak to Dr. Van Helsing, who they say has read about vampires and is an expert on the subject. This old Dutchman doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty The novel has inspired countless films, books and television shows There is an obvious reason for this phenomenon It still scares people The historical figure was a Romanian Prince, Vlad or Dracula, son 0f Dracul, the Dragon , known as the Impaler, an alias he acquired , and well deserved too View all 8 comments.

I’ve grown to appreciate this more with age – especially as I’ve put more distance between myself and the time I studied Dracula at school. But I still think it’s overrated. Dracula isn’t nearly scary enough, Jonathan Harker is a wet mop of a protagonist, Mina is annoying and the best character [spoiler alert! View all 17 comments. Shelves: favorites , started-but-put-down , heroine-i-adore , occult-detective , classic-horror , epistolary-narrative , owned-copy , vampire , hero-to-die-for.

I highly recommend reading this to any fans of the vampire genre. It is a commitment and investment for the reader, but it is worthwhile. I must say that no movie version I have watched does this justice. Bram Stoker’s Dracula might have been a somewhat faithful rendition, but it took unforgivable liberties with the relationship between Mina and Dracula, and downplayed the de I highly recommend reading this to any fans of the vampire genre.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula might have been a somewhat faithful rendition, but it took unforgivable liberties with the relationship between Mina and Dracula, and downplayed the deep, abiding love between Mina and Jonathan. In addition, it portrayed Dracula as a seductive, lovelorn and sympathetic character. He is none of these. Dracula is a complete and utter fiend. He is unrelenting evil, and I spent this whole book waiting for him to get what he deserved.

I love the use of letters and correspondence to tell the story. It added an authenticity to this story by revealing the narrative through written details of events. One would think that this would create a distance between the reader and the story, but strangely it does not.

Instead it infuses the story with a human element, as we see things unfold through the eyes of the humans who witnessed everything. In addition, the diary entries from Jonathan Harker, Mina Murray soon to be Harker , Lucy Westenra, and John Seward show the emotional impact of the characters to the horror of Dracula. Dracula is very much a Victorian work. It is clear what the mores were at that time in reading this story. It is also evident how society is changing as time speeds towards the 20th Century this book was published in The attitudes towards women as sweet, beloved creatures who should be loved and adored is very much in evidence.

However, Mr. Stoker took the time to show that Mina has a powerful role and usefulness beyond what was expected of her as a woman of her times. In fact, she plays a very pivotal role in this story. Because of the connection between Dracula and herself, she cannot be relegated to a second class citizen in this story. In addition, her view of the situation shows much about how Dracula managed to wreak his reign of terror over poor Lucy and how devastated Jonathan was from his early encounter with Dracula.

Mina turns out to be a real heroine in this story. She is very resourceful, and her methods are a great help in the process of understanding what Dracula is, and tracking him down. I felt for her when she was under his thrall, because her love for Jonathan was true, as well as her abhorrence of the evil of Dracula and how it had affected her. Those scenes added a psychological component to the horror element in this book. This book is not a thrill a minute book. It might be a horror story, but it’s also a crime novel, in that the group composed of Drs.

Readers should approach this story with this in mind. There are some moments that are truly unnerving and scary, all the same, but they are used with good effect. I would be reading right along, and then something really scary would happen all of a sudden. When my heart rate went back to normal and I fell back into the procedural-type narrative, another creepy moment would occur. Thus, my investment of diligent reading paid off, for those scary moments were quite suspenseful. Readers should also be aware that the characters tend to be along sentimental lines.

They are good, decent people. They cry and feel sorrow. The men might be brave, but they are not afraid to break down and sob out their anguish. Each of them invest their heart and life into tracking and destroying the beast. This might strike a modern reader as being too good to be true. But in the historical context, I didn’t have trouble with it. I might expect different characterizations for a modern vampire novel.

I found that issues that I had with the recent movie adaptations of Dracula did not exist in this novel. Mina is not played as the good, innocent foil for the sexually adventurous and slightly wanton Lucy. Lucy is a sweet girl who was preyed on and destroyed by Dracula. Mina is not a fickle woman who would abandon her true love for the seductive wiles of the vampire Dracula.

That always bothered me about the movies. I didn’t see why poor Lucy was deserving of what happened to her. Even if she had been a wanton, I couldn’t say she deserved her demise at Dracula’s hands. Reading about her decline, death and resurgence as a vampire was extremely difficult, not to mention the effect it had on the loved ones she left behind.

Additionally, I dislike how throwaway the love that Mina had for Jonathan is portrayed in the movies. I’m glad it was not this way in the book. Renfield is a character who has been played for laughs in many of the Dracula adaptations and knockoffs. In the original novel, he is a character to be pitied. He was seduced by Dracula, subsequently losing his reason. There are glimpses of his formerly formidable intellect and sanity, as well as a sense of right and wrong that shone through, causing me to feel sorry for him.

Particularly when he warns Seward not to keep him in the Asylum. If only Seward had listened. Seward and Van Helsing are physicians and men of science with profound respect for each other, but who tend to look at situations differently. Seward is very much a rationalist. He tries to approach Lucy’s strange illness from a completely scientific perspective, yet Dr. Van Helsing is a learned man who is trained in modern medical science as well as a pioneer in medicine , but gives credence toward the ancient beliefs, and whose knowledge is shored up by his faith in God.

The struggle that Seward faces in having to accept that Lucy’s demise is due to a powerful supernatural entity is evident as we read his journal entries. Van Helsing is seen through the descriptions of the diary entries of Mina, Jonathan, and Seward. I found Van Helsing quite the character. Without a doubt, he’s my favorite in this book, although I found some of his lines hard to read because of the fact that it is written as though English was his second language which it was. He is a man of compassion, although with a tendency towards bluntness.

I like that he’s able to think his way out of difficult situations, but also relies on faith against his demonic enemy. The movies tend to emasculate Jonathan, but he is a very strong character to have survived his imprisionment in Dracula’s castle, with his body and his sanity intact. His conviction to protect Mina at all costs, despite knowing the depths of the power of his enemy speaks to me.

He might not be a he-man, but he is definitely a worthy man mate for Mina. Arthur Holmwood is a noble, yet he is not protrayed as a prig. He is very down to earth, and willing to do his part to destroy Dracula and to see justice done for his beloved Lucy. He definitely rose to the occasion, despite the seemingly insane ravings of Van Helsing about Un-dead creatures, and the need to drive a stake through the heart and cut off the head of his beloved.

Quincy Morris embodies the Texan spirit in the very best of ways. His devotion to Lucy and later Mina causes him to risk his life in the struggle against Dracula.

Don’t look for a sexy creature of the night in this book. Dracula is a horrid, evil beast. When he meets his demise, I didn’t feel one iota of sympathy. I was cheering instead. It’s refreshing to read about evil vamps without any charisma for once and this from a paranormal romance fanatic. This book is a delicious work to have read.

I’m glad I attempted it when I could fully appreciate its genius. I freely admit when I read it in high school, I wasn’t ready for it. It took me the better part of the week, but I found myself eager to keep reading, despite the somewhat antiquated language.

I wanted to see how things would unfold. You might think, “Well Dracula is old hat. I’ve seen many vampire movies. It’s all the same. You should read this book if you’re a vampire fan.

You will find a resonance that is lacking in most of the modern vampire fare, with its classic setting, genuine characters, and the tangible essence of the unearthly evil of the vampire. And to think that Stoker wasn’t quite as glutted on the rich milk of the vampire legends as us modern vamp fans are. Maybe that’s why this book felt so authentic to me. Another case of me starting a review with no idea how to rate it. This book was…a ride.

This book is quite a feat, either way. Anyway, that all sounds peachy keen, right? Emma, I imagine you saying, what do you mean it could be shitty?

Look at all those themes! I know, imaginary reader. I hear ya. But there are things about this book that are even weirder than that quasi-sex scene.

Truly wild. Because that would be cool. Sexist or feminist; condemning religion or supporting it; racist or accepting; et cetera et cetera.

The book is also straight up teeming with stuff like repetition that can either be thematically significant or just a bad job. Can you imagine being the editor of this book? Too scary. The upside of all this was that this book was such a blast to discuss in class. We would spend like an hour on a page, trying to discern sexism from feminism and desperately seeking homosexual overtones. In-depth textual analysis is like, my favorite thing.

This shindig was intermittently a blast ohmygod! Vampires were fun even in ! What is up with plotlines from That never happens! The characters really sucked, but that happens a lot with classics. Weird that a handful of these endured, though. Still, though, this book impressed me. Bottom line: I think I liked this? I definitely recommend it. Still not that into them though. I say while technically currently reading some dumb book about them.

View 2 comments. Shelves: horror , traditionally-published , irish-author , classics , fiction , he-says , published , favorites. No man knows till he experiences it, what it is to feel his own life-blood drawn away into the veins of the woman he loves. I say “seems” because I swear I’ve read it before. However, that would have been ages ago. Or a byproduct of seeing 10 million different Dracula interpretations before the age of O So it was fresh and relatively new to me. I was surprised by the twists and turns.

I thought I would be able to reasonably pre No man knows till he experiences it, what it is to feel his own life-blood drawn away into the veins of the woman he loves. I thought I would be able to reasonably predict the whole plot – and I couldn’t.

Let’s talk about major issues, because review space is limited and I believe everyone knows the basics of the plot. Evil vampire, blood-sucking fiend, lives in Transylvania, moves to London, and fucks with the wrong people.

Did NOT know who he was fucking with, as Riddick would say. LOL You know the drill. Besides having status updates – with many quotes continued in the comments, I had copious notes and also a running list of vocabulary words that I learned from Dracula.

Sometimes I’d only read one or two pages in a day and just let them simmer inside me. I’ve been thinking about Dracula non-stop for about 11 days now. It’s been my constant companion these last 11 days. I didn’t leave home without it! LOL I sometimes think we must be all mad and that we shall wake to sanity in strait-waistcoats. You knew I’d start with that, right? Non-stop explicit sexist bullshit. Yes, I understand that this was Please don’t lecture me in the comments about presentism.

I was surprised the sexism was so very blatant. There is a lot of talk – by all characters, male and female, about “brave men” and “weak, poor women who are just frail creatures” who “can’t stand strain” and should be shielded from the world and from the truth. Men are praised for being strong and brave and if a man is particularly brave, he’s described as all man. Let’s talk about Mina Murray-Harker. Harker is better out of it. Things are quite bad enough for us, all men of the world, and who have been in many tight places for our time; but it is not place for a woman, and if she had remained in touch with the affair, it would in time infallibly have wrecked her.

She holds sexist myths and sexist beliefs very close to her heart. She even blames Eve and the “apple” for women’s “inherently sinful nature” at one point! I hate that shit. I could not resist the temptation of mystifying him a bit – I suppose it is some of the taste of the original apple that remains still in our mouths – so I handed him the shorthand diary.

Both Mina Murray-Harker and Lucy Westenra are complete angels: good, sweet, pure, kind, “motherly” beings whom men almost literally worship.

Lucy gets three marriage proposals in one day, and even the men she rejects swear undying devotion and fealty to her. Mina fares just the same. Every single male who comes into contact with these women prostrate themselves and declare their undying devotion.

And not in a sexual way! There’s a need to have a woman to protect and champion and care for. And she provides her services as a stenographer, a shoulder to cry on, and a cheerful and beautiful presence to boost the men’s spirits. Now, you may think that this book is a sexist piece of shit, but I was actually surprised and impressed with Mina. She’s smart, capable, and features prominently in the book.

Van Helsing praises her as having “a man’s brain. Which brings me to another point. A very large subplot here is the interaction of Jonathan Harker and Mina. Once privy to Jonathan’s every thought and experience, Mina’s position shifts when the other men encourage Jonathan to stop talking to Mina about vampires and the work they’re doing to hunt Dracula completely, leaving her in the dark and cutting her out of their once coed meetings.

Jonathan does it, convinced it’s the right thing to do, although he feels inside that it’s wrong somehow. This is the man who, just before proposing to Mina, states that there should be no secrets or hiding between spouses and gives her his journal so that she knows all.

But he does it – and is punished severely for it. After that, Mina once again resumes an active role in the groups activities – as it should be, her fighting by their side. Even though it may have been unintentional on Stoker’s part, I was overall pleased with how things turned out, especially for a book written in Is this a feminist text? It is not. I don’t want to give you the wrong idea, it is NOT.

But how about I file it in the ‘not as bad as I thought it was going to be’ category on the topic of feminism? You have Jonathan Harker – Solicitor who is the first in the novel to encounter Dracula.

I thought he was a complete ninny and think Mina could have done much better in picking a husband, but oh well. Quincey P. Morris – Texan. Very fond of guns and shooting things. If America can go on breeding men like that, she will be a power in the world indeed. John Seward – Psychologist who runs a mental asylum. Smarter and more badass than either Morris or Harker or Holmwood. Practical and straightforward.

I always thought Mina should have married him instead of that nitwit Jonathan Harker. Arthur Holmwood – Rich. Engaged to Lucy Westenra. My life is hers, and I would give the last drop of blood in my body for her. An appetite like a cormorant. Welp, that’s a new one. Arthur says I am getting fat. Arthur can go fuck himself. What is this, James Bond?

Fuck that shit. Abraham Van Helsing – Badass name for a badass man. This was the only man I was interested in in the book. Intelligent, ruthless, gets shit done – but is still a kind, loving and polite person. This is who I would be making eyes at if I were in London at the time.

What is my point of listing all these men? So you can discuss whether they are a. LOL No. I mean, obviously I am always going to discuss that. But, the reason I’m bringing up the men here is because of their close friendship. Holmwood, Morris and Seward served together in Korea, for crying out loud. Excuse me? Yeah, I know. It makes the book sound more like it’s taking place in the s or s than the s, but that makes it all the better.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The name’s Plissken. Stoker making these men brothers-in-arms in more ways than one! People who have fought together have a unique bond and trust with each other, and I think that makes these men in particular teaming up again once more – all the more potent.

They unconsciously fall into their old rapport and positions, and, led by Van Helsing, make a stellar team. Mina says that perhaps we are the instruments of ultimate good. Thank God! How can women help loving men when they are so earnest, and so true, and so brave! What can it not do when it is properly applied; and what might it do when basely used!

I felt so thankful that Lord Godalming is rich, and that both he and Mr. Morris, who also has plenty of money, are willing to spend it so freely. For if they did not, our little expedition could not start, either so promptly or so well equipped, as it will within another hour.

Being brave and willing to die fighting vampires is one thing, but it’s almost worthless without money for supplies, transportation, and constantly bribing people for information the way our heroes had to in this book. I’m so proud of Stoker for bringing this up. Good job! However, I did not find the bloodsucking in this novel to be erotic at all, and therefore was undisturbed by it. I know that in this would be considered very erotic bloodsucking – but in , to a pretty jaded vampire-fiction-reader, not so much.

This was a relief to me, I was able to read the blood-sucking sections of the book without being too grossed out. It was more like animals feeding than anything sexual. However, this book DID surprise me by making me genuinely horrified and grossed out. But it wasn’t the bloodsucking, it was the vampire killing. I have a real thing, apparently, against mutilating and desecrating dead bodies. The scenes of “we’re going to open up her coffin! We’re going to stake her through the heart!

Then chop off her head, cut out her heart, and stuff her mouth with garlic! It was very horrifying and gross to me. I felt like they were violating the corpses and violating the very sanctity of death by doing this. I was rather shocked, I had no idea I even thought sanctity of death was a belief of mine until they were gleefully beheading cadavers. O Anyway, that was the true horror of the novel in my eyes. Not the vampires. Very frustrating. When the Brides approach the men seductively, the men are all over that.

Jonathan is ready to strip down and party when the brides show up kneeling in front of him and licking their lips seductively, and Van Helsing himself is not unaffected. They totally want those women on some level. But if it’s Lucy or Mina or a woman who is supposed to be their “pure wife and mother stereotype,” the men react with revulsion and disgust when lustful tendencies are shown. Good luck on Jonathan and Mina ever reproducing if Jonathan’s reaction to Mina coming on to him is one of horror and revulsion.

He probably only wants to have sex with all the lights off and missionary position, ten-thrusts-and-then-roll-off-her kind of thing. Probably with his eyes screwed shut the whole time. Poor Mina. I told her not to marry that ninny! And Lucy, goodness gracious. She was a bit sexual even as a “pure maiden,” fantasizing about marrying three men at a time and shit, thank goodness she view spoiler [died hide spoiler ] before having sex with Holmwood.

I can’t imagine she’d be happy in that marriage. He called her fat – what an asshole! Stoker uses this word 12 times in this novel and it gets seriously annoying. Sometimes it’s multiple times on the same page. It’s as if he doesn’t know of another word to describe a sexual woman. Which is weird, because to me this more describes a certain body type than an attitude, but I looked it up in MW and it says that one meaning of the word is “giving pleasure to the senses,” so I guess it works.

I am alone in the castle with those awful women. Mina is a woman, and there is naught in common. They are devils of the Pit! I shall not remain alone with them I’m always rather hesitant to pick up a book considered a classic and written over a hundred years ago, but Stoker delivers. He uses a lot of modern wording and phrases, the book absolutely speeds along – it’s never boring and he doesn’t get bogged down describing the scenery for 10 pages. That being said, I learned a lot of new words reading this: it was a veritable treasure trove of vocabulary.

Here’s my list: Foreknowledge, missal, unpunctual, prepossessing, perforce, patronymic, saturnine, demoniac not demonic, demoniac! He uses it 9 times – get used to seeing it! Look at how much richer my vocabulary is now! I am a rich woman! It is odd that a thing which I have been taught to regard with disfavour and as idolatrous should in a time of loneliness and trouble be of help.

Is that there is something in the essence of the thing itself, or that it is a medium, a tangible help, in conveying memories of sympathy and comfort? This book is strongly pro-Catholic and Catholic doctrine and beliefs are presented as the truth. Notice Van Helsing’s liberal use of the Host Wafers – he hands them out like candy. Holy water. Even noted Protestants like Harker are wearing crucifixes by the end of the novel. I don’t think this is proselytizing, exactly, but there’s definitely a strong Catholic flavor and undertone to the novel.

Of course, Catholicism wins the day and provides Harker and his friends with the strength and tools to defeat evil, so ending the novel on a strong pro-Catholic note. Some people claim that this book is anti-Semitic – I don’t feel that it is. But one of the most enjoyable things about Dracula is that everyone reads the book differently and brings their own interpretations and experiences to the text.

It’s been claimed as anti-Semitic, queer, homophobic, sexual, anti-sex, feminist, anti-feminist, etc. Dracula and the people who fight him can be stand-ins for anything and anybody, apparently. Choose your own hot points after reading the novel. You can see I chose “feminist” and “pro-Catholic,” but – much like the Bible – you can twist and turn the text until it says what you WANT it to say. I mean, some of the things Dracula did in this novel were obviously just because he enjoys messing with Harker and tormenting him.

They be nowt but air-blebs!

 
 

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