Dracula

I have long been a fan of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles book series. I’ve probably mentioned before that I consider Interview With The Vampire one of my favorite books. But despite this, I had never read the granddaddy of all vampire novels, Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Because I enjoy thematic reading, I decided that I would finally dive into this gothic novel around Halloween.

So I started Dracula at the end of October. Six weeks later I was still reading the book. Now this was in part because of illness and in part because of the holidays. But mostly it was because the book was long. Sure, the edition I have was only around 420 pages, but it felt much, much longer. Let’s just say that Bram Stoker could have used a better editor. He never met a word he didn’t like.

And not only was the novel long, it was completely different from what I expected. Dracula is the tale of the mysterious Count Dracula, who of course is a vampire, and those hunting him in order to destroy him, including Jonathan Harker, his wife Mina, and of course, Dr. Van Helsing. Stoker tells his story using diary entries, letters, and fictional newspaper stories. I’m not exactly sure what I expected, but I assumed the majority of the book would take place in Dracula’s castle and in and around Transylvania. And while the novel does begin with Harker (who’s an attorney) travelling to Castle Dracula to bring legal documents to the Count related to a real estate purchase in England, we leave the castle around page 60 and never return. And I also expected to have a lot more of Dracula in the book. He only appears in a few scenes and the rest of the time it’s the other characters discovering more about the evil Count and plotting his demise. Even the final battle is relatively anti-climactic, and actually rather boring.

I wanted to like this book, but there’s not much to recommend. It’s long and wordy (not unlike this review) and the story is thin (amazing considering the length). You’d be better off just going to see the Dracula puppet musical from Forgetting Sarah Marshall (cue Dracula song by Jason Segal). I think you'd get the gist in about a million less words.

Next up: After the holidays I’m a bit behind on book reviews, but I’ve finished both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Maltese Falcon.