From the Bookshelf of Reading the Classics…

Dracula

Bram Stoker

Start date: March 1, 2013

Finish date: March 31, 2013

Discussion: Past Group Reads

Why we're reading this: Won the poll for March group read.
[close] Won the poll for March group read.

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Past Group Reads

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What Members Thought

May 27, 2011 Erin WV rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, on-my-shelves, 2010, read-in-undergrad, global-reading-challenge

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I LOVE Dracula. I’m not a vampire person. But with Dracula, you don’t need to be an aficionado. You don’t need to be addicted to the lore and the gothicism and the undercurrent of unfettered sexuality. (Although if you are still into those things, you will still find them.)

For me, Dracula is a straight-up thrill ride. I’d set it beside any mainstream mass-market BS in terms of being a page turner. Jonathan Harker goes to Transylvania to close a business deal and before he can say, “Things here a I LOVE Dracula. I’m not a vampire person. But with Dracula, you don’t need to be an aficionado. You don’t need to be addicted to the lore and the gothicism and the undercurrent of unfettered sexuality. (Although if you are still into those things, you will still find them.)

For me, Dracula is a straight-up thrill ride. I’d set it beside any mainstream mass-market BS in terms of being a page turner. Jonathan Harker goes to Transylvania to close a business deal and before he can say, “Things here are weird,” he’s been imprisoned by the count and is trying to negotiate an escape for himself. And things get crazier and crazier from there. Not vampire baby crazy, but good crazy.

Characters die. Respectable gentlemen break into houses and dirty their cuffs by fighting. A mental patient eats flies. And the count hits harder and harder—and more personal, and close to home—until a group of men that some literary types have dubbed the “Crew of Light” just go to find the count and kill him dead. It’s full of action, really, but also not short on creepiness. One of my favorite moments is when the crew is traveling up the mountain towards the count’s castle. It’s nighttime and the men are asleep en route. Van Helsing wakes up to see Mina, who has already been victimized by the count (see: infected though not quite vampired yet), sitting up, just staring at the campfire. Just…staring. Van Helsing has already noticed that she’s been sleeping a lot during the day—he thought from illness—but here he catches on to what’s really happening. She is slowly and gradually becoming nocturnal.

It’s that insidiousness—the way that the vampire sneaks up on its prey, slithers in through an open window and has a woman under his thrall before anyone, including her, realizes it—that has kept the vampire a prominent cultural symbol for this long. And let me tell you, Stoker’s book has got power, and it’s going to last. We’re talking about it a hundred years later and we’ll be talking about it a hundred years after that, when emo abstinence vampires are a cultural footnote. Nothing against them, understand. They don’t need to compete, which is something we literary snobs sometimes forget. ( And that’s good for them, because they totally couldn’t.) ...more

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Oct 23, 2010 Tango rated it really liked it

i really enjoyed the first half of this particularly. The descriptions of Dracula's castle and Harker's initial impressions of Dracula were very atmospheric. I liked the way that there were no explicit references to vampires until well into the second half. Once they were dealing with the vampires (and they had been recognised as such) I felt that the book lost some momentum.

the characterisation of Lucy and Mina (the two central females) was quite interesting. Lucy's introduction is her explaini ...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Gideon Burton rated it really liked it

Shelves: audible-audiobooks, classics

As someone not a fan of the whole vampire fiction thing, I was pleasantly surprised by the original story by Stoker. My student, Jennifer Winterton, got me to read this, and I was well rewarded. I found it to be compelling in part because I listened to a very fine audiobook version produced by the BBC which I got from Audible. This was mesmerizing.

This is a story that is more about cooperative action among an ensemble of protagonists than it is a horror story about an evil creature and his acts ...more

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Nov 24, 2011 Chris rated it really liked it

Originality: ****
Writing Style: ***
Characterization: ***
Overall Rating: 4

Ahhh, Dracula! I’ve wanted to read this one for a long time! It was interesting reading of a vampire who, you know, doesn’t sparkle…
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It was really interesting and definitely informative read. I enjoyed it thoroughly! It’s in no way a horror book, but the dark mood, underlined by the gothic settings, gave it the kind of charm most contemporary fantasy books lack today.
I did have some issues with it too. I have problem with bo ...more

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