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Dracula
What Else Are You Reading?
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"Dracula" by Bram Stoker (Daily Read May-Nov)
sure.. sounds good. Its been a while since i have read the book
I’ll be joining you!
This is one of those books that I've always thought I should at some point check out, if only because of how genre defining it was. Seems like a good opportunity to me.
Thanks for starting this Ed! 🧛
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I was waiting for you to chime in Ines!
I haven’t read it since college but yes I am in!!
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I read this almost 30 years ago, so the details are gone completely. I had no idea back them where exactly Jonathan traveled to except that it was over *there* somewhere. I was living in Germany at the time. This time I just had a little look-see on the old Google maps and found Bistritz, Moldova, Bukovina, Transylvania and the Carpathian Mountains (which are apparently heavily wooded with Bears and Wolves according to Google Maps).
I love this book. I read it every couple of years. (It and Frankenstein and Jane Eyre.) If you have access to it, the audiobook narrated by Tim Curry and Alan Cumming (and others) is a great find!
That’s the narration I’m listening to! On audible for free if member at least in US.
I am reading on Libby app. Lots of free copies if you have a library card in US. Loving the description of all the paprika laced food. Rather interesting tying in imagery of a spicy red spice right away. Clever!
There is a deli a block from me that makes Chicken Paprikash sometimes. And lucky me, today is one of those days, so I'm going out to get some! For me, the paprika isn't a big deal, but the tons of sour cream make it good.I don't know where to find mamaliga (meat-stuffed eggplant). I may have to make it myself.
This line stands out: "The women looked pretty, except when you got near them..."
Ed wrote: "This line stands out: "The women looked pretty, except when you got near them...""yes and "more barbarian than others" 😒😒
Ines wrote: "Read entry 1 of this guy Jonathan's travel blog. He sure seems like a judging fellow. Maybe he didn't get out much before. Hope his travels teach him a little about the world. I'm sure this Mina gi..."💯
This confused me for 4th May entry today:"do you know what day it is?" On my saying that I did not understand, she went on:
"It is the eve of St. George's Day. (view spoiler)
Now I would not usually pick it up, but we've already had St. George's Day here, (it fills up the tiny space in my calendar)- it's not tomorrow. In England our patron Saint's Day is 23rd April! So I looked it up, and it said that in Dracula, Bram Stoker used the Western Gregorian calendar, because St. George's Day is the date observed by the Eastern Orthodox churches in that area, and of that era.
DivaDiane - "Carpathian Mountains (which are apparently heavily wooded with Bears and Wolves according to Google Maps"Our dog Wolfie came from near the Carpathian mountains - it took 3 days to England in a lorry from Romania :) I did wonder if he would understand the howling dogs it talked about.
I’ve totally missed that BR and I just saw it. So I checked both Polish translation and the original with an intention to catch up. It starts with a diary entry from Bistritz (it’s Bystrzyca now) and I was there yesterday! OMG what are the odds! It’s a beautiful little town with some medieval churches and towers for sightseeing and two little marketplaces.
I was on holiday in the mountains nearby and it was the closest place with an ATM XD Just got home.
Funny thing is that Frankenstein (now Ząbkowice) is quite close to Bistritz. There is the Museum of Frankenstein where we have learned how an article about grave robbers from Frankenstein had inspired Mary Shelley.
***
Edit: Ahhh, but it’s different Bistritz.
I caved and downloaded the free Audible plus edition onto my phone. It has named chapters, but they don't include the dates. I could google myself, but if someone has already done it, why bother :D Is there a list of the days and which ones are in each chapter?Audible+ Dracula: https://www.audible.com/pd/Dracula-Au...
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I suspect he's making these superstitions and exaggerations of the locals up to make his story seem more interesting. I mean, anybody in his right mind would at least do some more research into this weird Count and his castle after hearing all those warnings. If he wants to seem especially brave or dutiful, it isn't working for me.
I think he should have started a food blog instead, not sure if travel blogging is really his thing.
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Anna wrote: "Is there a list of the days and which ones are in each chapter?..."Yes, sort of. If you look at Ed's first post, and follow the 3rd link, you will get each daily chunk sent to your email. We are still only part way through the 1st chapter, although we've had 2 days :)
That doesn't really help, because I want to know beforehand which days are in each chapter. I took off my lazy pants (and put on another pair of pants so I'm not posting half-naked), and found this, which has the info I was looking for:https://www.preceden.com/timelines/29...
I did a little research (i.e., I went to wikipedia) about St. George, since his eve is coming up.It is amazing how many different locations and cultures around the world celebrate him. And yet, there is a great deal of confusion about who he was, when he lived (and how many times), who killed him (and how many times), and how many dragons he slew (0 or 1).
According to some versions, he came back to life after being killed. And then was killed and came back to life 2 more times, or even more.
(PS: I've added Anna's link into the first post.)
thanks Ed! i was curious about that... so interesting! lol at dragons
DivaDiane wrote: "This time I just had a little look-see on the old Google maps and found Bistritz, Moldova, Bukovina, Transylvania and the Carpathian Mountains (which are apparently heavily wooded with Bears and Wolves according to Google Maps)."I did the same right before coming to the thread! I made little labels so I can follow his path.
1. I keep thinking I need to figure out the best translation, then remember it's already in English! Are there any editions with especially good annotations, or original illustrations etc? I'm getting the emails but I want all the toys2. The Readers Review (another GR group, for classics) read this for Halloween a few years ago.
Background information:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Week 1: Chapters 1-5
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
I looked for recipes of food from those entries (paprika hendl, mamaliga, impletata)and ran across this; it has some historical info on Transylvania:
Mina Murray's Recipe Book
https://colonelmustardinthekitchen.wo...
Bonnie wrote: "1. I keep thinking I need to figure out the best translation, then remember it's already in English! ..."If you insist on finding a translation, you could look for English translations of the Swedish or Icelandic book Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula.
This version is thought to be a translation of the first draft. It spends a longer time in the castle. "One of the principal differences between Dracula and Makt Myrkranna is that the bulk of the latter concerns Harker's stay at Castle Dracula with the story that makes up the majority of Dracula appearing only a very abridged form. Harker's visit to Transylvania takes up 80% of Makt Myrkranna."
Swedish version:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powers_...
Icelandic version:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powers_...
Although May 5 in the USA is the day when we put guacamole on everything, to the people in this novel it was a day when "all the evil things in the world will have full sway".Maybe that is why my egg this morning had 2 yolks.
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Glad to see Jonathan has not given up on the idea of food blogging. I'd like to read more about that instead of exaggerated descriptions of the superstitious locals. He sure is milking that trope. I do enjoy the little occasional info about the history and current state of the region, though, wish he would write more about those.
But man, those locals did seem really suspicious when they were trying to lure him away from the pass. I get the feeling they don't like this Count person. No wonder, I'd make up all sorts of scary stories too, about a guy living out there in those woods with those scary wolves, all by himself, apparently.
He seems nice enough, though, even carrying Jonathan's luggage himself. Maybe he's nicer to his guests than to the locals.
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I am enjoying the relatively short daily reads, which make it easy to focus on detail. Also enjoyed May 5, lots of great stuff there.
Yeah, May 5 was long. But part of it was after midnight, so could have counted as May 6. Anyway, I got caught-up today.I was confused about the idea that the coachman seemed transparent at one point. But now our character has the idea that maybe the coachman and the count are the same person. Interesting possibility. The count certainly understood that May 5 was a day when normal people would be unwilling to travel about, yet he insisted on sending for his guest on that specific day.
I don't understand how he is able to cook and set the table and do all the other little duties so quickly on his own.
On at least two occasions already, the narrator has raised the idea that maybe he was describing things he saw in his nightmares brought on by eating rich foods before bed. Some people still think that eating before bed can cause nightmares, and maybe it can, but I think that idea was more widely discussed then.One of the foods most likely to cause nightmares was supposedly Welsh Rarebit. Windsor McCay was doing an almost surrealistic cartoon in the early 1900s called "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_o...
And the 1902 book Welsh Rarebit Tales contains some weird fantasy and early examples of Sci-Fi stories. I think I'll try reading some of those.
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https://www.themarginalian.org/2019/0...
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I’m playing catch-up with this read along thanks to the free (for members) Audible recording. Should be fun to re-read Dracula with the Internet.I hadn’t noticed Jonathan Harker’s obsession with food before but now I definitely did! He should have given up on the idea of visiting Castle Dracula and started a food blog instead. “Travels through the cuisine of Eastern Europe: Fat but not exsanguinated”
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Wonderful, memorable scene at the end of today’s instalment.
So, he’s shaving, right? And he is startled because Dracula sneaks up behind him and isn’t visible in his mirror. But he doesn’t speculate how that is possible or anything? It just startled him.
DivaDiane wrote: "So, he’s shaving, right? And he is startled because Dracula sneaks up behind him and isn’t visible in his mirror. But he doesn’t speculate how that is possible or anything? It just startled him."I think our friend Harker is a bit... thick!
Oh man that is great lolToo bad I don’t do Twitter
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Welsh Rarebit Tales (other topics)Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula (other topics)
Dracula (other topics)
This novel is written as a series of letters and journal entries spanning May 3 to November 10. We will discuss each entry on the day it was written.
Rules:
* On May 3 we begin. You may discuss anything that happened in the May 3 journal entry starting on May 3.
* On May 4 we read the May 4 journal entry. You may discuss anything you read in the May 4 entry, or earlier entries.
* And so forth until the end on November 10.
* If you read further ahead, don't spoil anything.
* Feel free to start late and catch-up.
* The day begins at 00:01 am London time.
The first entries are on May 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, midnight (treat as May 9th), and 12.
Use any edition you want. Purchase a copy if you want, or use one of these:
Online at wikimedia:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dracula
Online or download from Project Gutenberg:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/345
Optionally, you can sign-up with "Dracula Daily" to have each entry sent to you by e-mail here: https://draculadaily.substack.com/about
Dates per chapter given here, along with spoilers.
https://www.preceden.com/timelines/29...
(I am not a part of that substack project, but it did give me the idea to post this here.)