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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This is a must read. If you have not, do it today.
Love how the story is told through memos, letters, and diaries. It feels like a narrative but doesn’t at the same time. The words on the pages flow well and it is easy to read even though it is written in the 1890’s language. Great classic book.
Such an atmospheric read. A book that will always be with me. A few years ago I travelled to Transylvania and read Stoker’s masterpiece as I travelled through the Carpathian mountains and it brought the book to life despite the fact the Stoker himself was never in Eastern Europe, but that’s what fiction is all about.
I have to give this book five stars, even if by today’s standards the ending was a bit brief. Reading it was like watching a black and white movie (I like the easy slow pace of old films) So I really enjoyed seeing the beginning of vampire-lit and the rules/ways of vampire’s abilities and weaknesses. Now I’m going to read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
READING PROGRESS
July 13, 2016 – Started Reading
July 13, 2016 – Shelved
July 14, 2016 – page 10
2.46% “First impression isn’t too good, however I will continue on. My beef is with the drawn-out description of the initial coach journey. Could have taken a good few miles off of it. A small detail (at this stage) but could get a tad tedious.”
July 19, 2016 – page 50
12.32% “I’m getting into this book now. So persevere if you’re not feeling it.”
August 9, 2016 –
54.0% “Half way through and now loving this book.”
August 24, 2016 – Finished Reading
I had never read this book before, but I had seen the movies. Even though it was written so long ago, it still scared me, but I couldn’t put it down. It was nothing like I thought it would be, but I was pleasantly surprised. A real page turner!!
This book had it’s moment where I truly took a step back to reflect on the ingenuity of Stoker. However, I found it entirely too tedious for the majority of the book. Many readers share that this is their favorite novel of all time. Dracula didn’t make as many appearances as I would have liked, and I was ready for the ending to be over with by 2/3 way into the novel.
The book that created an icon.
This story is so well known now that it seems absurd that, before this book was released, Dracula was not a name that everybody knew. The story is riveting and the world building is sublime, definitely a ‘must read’.
It was the original vampire book! What’s not to love? These characters have been copied & copied until they reside in a lexicon all their own.
As much as I hate to admit this, this is my first classic to read cover to cover. And I use the term read as in listen- because I wasn’t born in 1897 when this book was written and this sort of daily “speak” was commonplace. I grew up with a sister that devoured classics, and I read one page and then closed them- doomed not to get past the verbiage.
That being said, when I realized that there are classics on Audible, I was super excited. Hopeful that the ability to listen to the book rather than struggle to read it would prove simpler- and it did. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was harder to get into this book- but get into it I did.
In losing myself in this story I realize the effect that this book must have had on the turn of the century readers. In today’s standards, it might be a tad tame, but Stoker is the father of horror, and the creator of a genre of books that he could not have known would come from his character Dracula. Reading it from that perspective really does open your eye as to the brilliance of the book, and the snubbing of what is proper in reading in that day and age. Who would have wanted to read of such things when they weren’t even things people could freely speak of without shocking everyone around them? It is simply brilliant, and to read the book that birthed so many characters and genres is just spellbinding.
Just wow. What a story. And being read to by Alan Cumming and Tim Curry- okay!
The first time I read this classic gothic horror novel it kept me spellbound. There is a reason that this novel has endured and taught many masters of the genre much about how to frighten their readers. Sure, it’s very much a product of the 19th century, but how wonderful that Mina Harker is basically the strongest and smartest character in the book.
Simply the best horror novel ever written.
A classic and utterly original.
Classic!
Over the years, I’ve seen my share of vampire movies and read a number of books about vampires. Because my daughters were teenagers at the height of the Twilight craze, I know about about Edward Cullen and his family. Then there was Anne Rice’s rock star vampire, Lestat. There have been countless others as well; however, it was only this month that I read the original Dracula.
I love Gothic mysteries, and Dracula had plenty of Gothic atmosphere. The book is full of creepy, old castles, dank crypts, and gloomy weather. Like many classic novels, this one used a lot of description, but I appreciated how Stoker painted a picture of the Carpathian Mountains and the old-world charm of those who lived there. As I read, I disappeared into the world he created. I knew the basics of the story, but even so I was swept away. I consider this high praise since I’m generally not attracted to novels written in diary form the way this one was.
I also liked the characters, even if they were a bit over the top. Stoker made Mina, the heroine, out to be a saint and hearing about her perfectly sweet nature got old after a while. I like my heroines a little more earthy. However, considering when this book was written, Mina is a pretty kick-ass woman. She doesn’t see a lot of action (the men want to spare her delicate sensibilities), but she’s fearless and smart. An equal part of the team. I also liked the relationship she had with her husband, Jonathan. The two of them were clearly in love and wanted only the best for the other. These were characters I could get behind.
Dracula himself, however, was a bit of a disappointment. He was evil enough for me, but his evilness wasn’t clever or interesting. I like villains with fascinating backstories who use twisted logic to justify themselves. Dracula was more like an animal acting on instinct than someone with a purpose or will. Obviously, he was clever enough to move from Transylvania to England, but beyond that, he was more of a mystery than anything.
There were a lot of interesting details in the book that subsequent vampire stories have ignored. For example, I was shocked to find that Dracula had a mustache, and that he was an old man until he drank blood from young women. The book was also surprisingly gory, given the fact it was written in the 1800’s.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and I plan on reading more classic horror. I highly recommend Dracula for those who like mysterious, Gothic horror. This was definitely a five out of five star read.
The first half of this book is so eerie. It builds up an atmosphere of foreboding and tension even though little happens. Like all good books it allows the readers imagination to develop the story rather than telling you the story.
This is the classic and for me the only possible book I’d ever want to read on vampires so–sorry vampire authors, but once you’ve read this masterpiece, the absolute best fiction on vampires! you can never hope to meet its match. And I never want to read another!
an education
I read this when I used to like vampire stories, before Twilight, I like it a lot or at least a like the first half of it may be three fourths of it, the story is excellent placed and has great descriptions, but at the end it turns kind of love story which is weird since it is supposed to be part of the foundation of modern horror stories
This book speaks for itself! It’s a true classic horror story. The setting is great. The story is great. It’s really a must read for horror fans.
This single iconic work is a great body of literature in its own right: a slow-burning mystery that evolves into a tale of almost unbearable suspense; a fantasy, a horror story that exists just this side of the plausible; and all along one of the great romantic novels that climaxes as a nail-biting, page-turning thriller.
I must admit, as the plot unfolded I realised I did not know the ending – despite having read it before. There have been so many interpretations that my mind was entirely confused, not least by the recent BBC adaptation, which had prompted me to revisit the original. (On reflection, I have to say, the small-screen version is a triumph of form over content, and elicits neither the constant jeopardy of the novel nor a powerful solicitude in the viewer.)
Of course, on paper Dracula is the epitome of Victorian turgidity and formality, and was plainly written for an audience that had few distractions and plenty of time and patience. But to appreciate its intricacy, and to enter into the belief system of that era, it is necessary to immerse oneself in the original. I interspersed reading with listening, and I would thoroughly recommend the extraordinary narration of Sarah Jane Barry, who imbued the telling of the tale with a curiously exotic and suitably melodramatic period tone.
Quite an epic. Draining, but thirst-quenching.