The vampire novel that defined a genre by tapping into our deepest fears and darkest fantasies A junior solicitor travels to Transylvania to meet with an important client, the mysterious Count Dracula. Ignoring the dire warnings of local townsfolk, he allows himself to be seduced by the count’s courtly manners and erudite charm. Too late, the solicitor realizes that he is a prisoner of Castle … of Castle Dracula, his guards a trio of voluptuous young women with sharp white teeth and a taste for blood.
Soon thereafter, the solicitor’s fianc e, Mina, visits a friend on the English coast. The town is full of speculation over a Russian ship run aground nearby, its crew missing, the dead body of its captain, crucifix in hand, lashed to the wheel. A giant dog was seen leaping from the deck before disappearing into the countryside. The ship’s cargo: fifty boxes of Transylvanian dirt. As the beautiful Mina will soon learn, Count Dracula has arrived.
At once a Gothic reflection of the Victorian era and a timeless tale of sinister lust, Bram Stoker’s Dracula has inspired countless adaptations–none with the same power to quicken the pulse as the original.
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really enjoyed this book, read it for the second time. It was interesting to find out that Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula (1897), he did not make up the name. There was a Dracula in the 15th century; Vlad the Impaler, Stoker didn’t know a lot about him, but he came across his name in a book he was researching. A frightening discovery.
The way the book was written, was unusual in a form of Journals. A wonderful scary page-turner. I didn’t want to put it down for a break. I fell in love with his characters and also felt a great sense of pity for some. When you read the book you will know which characters I’m talking about. Also loved the strength found in his female characters.
This book needs no more reviews, but I feel compelled. Dracula is probably my favorite novel of all time – and I’m by no means a horror junkie. I love it for its sheer balls-out originality. Bram Stoker has created a character that is so genuinely terrifying, yet erudite and manly in the classical sense. I challenge anyone out there to find a more interesting anti-hero. Every aspiring author should read this book. Every reader should have it on her bookshelf.
I reread this and it holds up so well. What a classic that should be required gothic reading. I esp. love the clever structure of journal entries and letters.
This was a surprising read for me. I’m not much into vampires but there was so much more to this book. It was wonderfully laid out and enjoyable.
I’m finding this review difficult to write.
It’s been a long time between blood red drinks with this novel. I’ve read it once before, many years ago, and my response to re-reading it is to drop it from 5 stars to 4.
Stoker’s writing style is an uneven mix of brilliance and tedium. His plot development ranges from magnificent to flawed.
His drawing of characters is basically two dimensional and I have to search hard to find examples that provide a greater depth. (I.e. characters are either all good, or all evil, with little in the way of shades of grey. Noting that Renfield, is by his final actions, one of the few characters that shows dimensionality….)
I know some who found the beginning slow. I would disagree. I found the initial journey of Jonathan Harker to Dracula’s castle and his subsequent trials and tribulations there to be brilliantly composed narrative. There is a slow and steady progression from hints to warnings to threats to manifest risk of death and worse than death enslavement of the soul to forces beyond darkness.
The visual depictions of Dracula descending the vertical walls of his castle and the spooky manifestation of Dracula’s brides is effective and affective writing.
The log of the Demeter is another masterwork of the slow advance of impending doom. The hint of a threat that grows with each night as one by one the crew disappear. Until it is a ghost ship that comes to land in Whitby, Yorkshire. This is manifest brilliance.
To say that Lucy Westenra cops it in the neck would be a bit trite. Her eventual fate left me inspired to write a Haiku.
Bloofer lady prowls.
Moonlight reveals blood stained hearts.
Hammer strikes – I’m Free!
Mina Harker (the primary hero of this story as she is the one who has to confront the greatest risk and persevere beyond it) is the brains (on multiple occasions) behind the operations of the Van Helsing Vampire Hunting Club.
Mina gets left behind while the boys go galavanting about Carfax looking for evidence of Vlad and when the obvious happens – no one notices. It’s a raging plot flaw (i.e. Major hero gets in trouble because everyone is suddenly as thick as two short planks) I hadn’t noticed in my earlier read. I must be getting pickier about such things as I get older…
I would also like to note that Stoker’s use of a psychic connection between Mina and Dracula is strikingly echoed in multiple ways by J.K. Rowling with Harry and Voldemort. I think also for the same purpose, as the psychic link is used to move the narrative forward in both Dracula and the Potter books.
Some things I didn’t like which got in the way of the telling.
The use of vernacular by anyone not in the Van Helsing Vampire Hunting Club such as “‘ere like tha’…” Was positively grating.
Van Helsing’s speech was mostly annoying for the same reason as we are asked to ‘appreciate’ that this learned dutchman can’t speak grammatical English…
On the question of writing the whole novel in epistolary form (letters, diary notes, log books, etc). I think it works very well for this novel. However, something could be missing. What I would like to see is a great big diary written by Vlad Dracula…
The bottom line: I love the story but I don’t always love how it was written. Would I recommend it? Yes. Well worth reading for those moments of brilliance that have carried this story for more than a century.
Great book, one of the best that I’ve read. If you like vampire stories, this is the best. The movie will never do the book justice.
One of those books that is just a must for everyone. People think they know it all by having seen one of the many movies, or remakes, but the book just is so much more then you could ever put on a screen. Again, from my point of view a MUST for people, although it is not the easiest book to read. But worth the time and effort.
Just because you seen the movies doesn’t mean that you know the story of Dracula. While some parts of the book could use a judicious editing, this is the book that all other vampire stories come from.
Good afternoon! I’m new here, and this site asked me to recommend a book. So, I’ll recommend one that I read when I was a child. I was a precocious reader, enjoying adult books back when I was seven years old. You really can’t go wrong with DRACULA. It’s an enthralling book with engaging characters. You’ll learn a lot of history, too. The attention to detail is really marvelous. Sadly, most of the movies made from this novel do not do it justice. For example, most of the movies leave out the fact that Dracula grows younger as he consumes more blood. I loved the book so much back then, I read it seven times in a row! I did eventually move on to other books — reluctantly! 🙂 So if you enjoy horror and haven’t read all the old classics yet, put DRACULA by Bram Stoker on top of the list.
The prose and the dialogue in this book is amazing.
This book is why we are all hooked on Dracula…why he continues to haunt our nights and imagination. Beautifully written and scary as hell.
Since most everyone knows what this book is about, I don’t think I need to write a description. The story is told through letters and diary entries and I really enjoyed it, but found parts of it hard to read. Dr. Van Helsing has an interesting way of speaking and I got lost occasionally. Also, the author does an excellent job with the dialect of other countries, but I found those hard to comprehend as well. None of this affected the story, though. It was still written well and intriguing. The author is very descriptive and this adds to the reading experience. It’s nice when you can visualize places and people while reading.
I gave the book 3 stars because of the ending. Most of the book is centered around the group of men tracking down Dracula to end his terror and one would expect a nice faceoff at the end. This story ended very quickly and left me feeling like I had missed out on something. It does have a nice follow up chapter, though.
This original story will keep you on the edge of your seat despite the somewhat stilted Victorian prose. Many scenes will send chills up your spine!!
The only way to get the “real story.
This is one of the sources of the modern vampire story; folklore vampires are rather different! Every vampire enthusiast should tackle it, archaic language and pacing be damned.
Who doesn’t love this story? So many books, tv shows, and movies have found the fascination of this story and retold, copied, or expanded on the theme for centuries. A man/monster trapped in a world of survival, only by being the evil, scary, monster of the dark. Classic tale of fate and entrapment in an anti-hero world.
Again, being curious how the original propagated all the interpretations in movies, tv, etc. I decided to read the original. I was very satisfied with Stoker’s original.
It’s been awhile since I read this classic. I listened to it this time on audio, and really enjoyed it!
Great book, no even better
This is just a good ole’ fashioned, fun, vintage horror story. As you read it, you see how so many books, movies, and other iterations of vampires all took notes from this story. The dialogue, namely Van Helsing tends to drag on at times, but as a high level intellect, may have been Stoker’s ambition, and the depiction of women is also a bit dated. However, as a whole, it is a well crafted and executed classic.