Dracula in Around the World in 80 Books

Jan 21, 2012 Linda Martin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, gaaaaaah, fiction, geo-england, geo-romania, horror

This book is not as scary as it sounds. It started out in Romania, when Jonathan Harker went to Castle Dracula to finish paperwork on the sale of a mansion in London. Count Dracula welcomed him and then some weird stuff started happening. Let's just say it was not a happy visit for Jonathan! Dracula's intent was to go live in London, to find more fine people to feed on.

Since we all already know the Dracula fable there's nothing too shocking or frightening in the pages of this book. It is told fr This book is not as scary as it sounds. It started out in Romania, when Jonathan Harker went to Castle Dracula to finish paperwork on the sale of a mansion in London. Count Dracula welcomed him and then some weird stuff started happening. Let's just say it was not a happy visit for Jonathan! Dracula's intent was to go live in London, to find more fine people to feed on.

Since we all already know the Dracula fable there's nothing too shocking or frightening in the pages of this book. It is told from the point of view of several English people, and one Dutch man. It is all about good versus evil, and the dedication of those good people who are called on to confront the evil.

What I love about this book is that it is an epistolary novel, meaning it is presented as a series of documents. These documents are mostly journal entries, with some letters and other documents tossed in from time to time. I very much enjoyed reading these journals, and found the entire reading experience to be a pleasure rather than a fright.

The main characters are Jonathan Harker, his fiancé, Mina, her best friend, Lucy, a doctor who works for a mental hospital, and a few others, including the notorious Dr. Van Helsing. The Londoners are portrayed as innocents who are attacked from outside England by great evil. Also the man with all the answers, Van Helsing, comes from outside England. Ancient mysteries from the continent, there to disrupt and destroy, or enlighten and heal.

Though I've known the Dracula fable for many years, I never knew the entire story, so in reading the book there were surprises for me. While reading I also did some research. For example, I had to look for the River Danube on Wikipedia - there's a nice map there. I also looked for many other places on Google earth, as they were named in the book. Now I know a lot more about Romania and the Carpathian Mountains, Transylvania, and the places that are possibly known as "Dracula's Castle" though Bram Stoker said his Castle Dracula was fictional.

He got the idea for this book from a dream! What a great way to get novel inspiration! ...more

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Sep 23, 2020 Eleanor rated it liked it

Shelves: classics

This was a better, more interesting book than I expected. The classic, familiar Count Dracula in his castle in Transylvania was the centerpiece of the story. The plot was strangely compelling and interesting even though there were many places where it dragged by too much repetition and lengthy, old fashioned dialogue. Some of the dialogue became very tiresome, like the constant reference to "Our poor dear Madam Mina" but even with this it was suspenseful and worth reading. ...more

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Oct 18, 2011 Lisa of Hopewell rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2012, 1001-books-to-read-before-you-di, bbc-big-read-2003

Trying to finish this one now.

Went back to this today. Amazing how many times I've "seen" this story--cartoons, comedy sketches, etc, but really didn't know how bizarre it was! I never have gotten into Twilight, but if you like Vampires, don't settle for imitation, read the original.

1/2 way thru--some really boring, some really good parts so far. Not keeping up with the book club, but don't care!

Reading with the Catching Up On Classics group here on Good Reads. Starts out way better than I expec ...more

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