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Bram Stoker: Dracula

Darren

Darren

Active Member
Synopsis
When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes a series of horrific discoveries about his client. Soon afterwards, various bizarre incidents unfold in England: an apparently unmanned ship is wrecked off the coast of Whitby; a young woman discovers strange puncture marks on her neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the 'Master' and his imminent arrival.

Bram Stoker's classic horror tale...
 
I picked up where I'd left off a couple of years ago (page ten :eek: ), and I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I am. I've been reading it faithfully every day on the train to and from school, and it makes the time fly by. I'm somewhere halfway now I think.

It's funny how I seem to have known the tale of Dracula forever, but now that I'm reading it, it all seems new to me.
 
Is it just me, or is the ending a bit of an anticlimax?
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lies, I agree. The climax and epilogue all finished in what, 2 pages? Rather abrupt, considering all the lead-up.

What did you think of the format? - i.e. A series of letters and journal entries? Before reading this, I didn't know much about Bram Stoker's version of Dracula other than what I gleaned from watching part of the movie (which I found terribly confusing).

I also thought Van Helsing's "accent" was a bit odd.
 
I think the format worked for this particular book. Usually, I'm not one for first person narrators, especially not in a diary sort of way, but it didn't bother me too much in Dracula. I think Stoker managed to pull of a omnipresent narrator using a first person all the time. I don't think any other format would've been able to do that. (unless a real omnipresent narrator of course, but I imagine the book would've turned out completely different.)

Funny thing is I recognized a lot of my mother's English accent in Van Helsing's speech... The way he used some of his verbs looked very familiar. I was wondering whether or not he'd talked to Dutch people before using that particular accent, cause in some ways, I think he was spot on.
 
I was wondering whether or not he'd talked to Dutch people before using that particular accent, cause in some ways, I think he was spot on.
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I guess I haven't heard enough Dutch people speak English (other than an occasional movie) to recognize the accent properly.
 
Originally posted by Ell
I guess I haven't heard enough Dutch people speak English (other than an occasional movie) to recognize the accent properly.
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This essay indicates that Stoker's research into dialects and accents was thorough.
 
hi, I read the book three or more years ago, so i'm sorry, if I can't remember everything, but I when i've read it, i was like a prisoner, I couldn't put this book away!! anywhere in the middle, I guess, I was lost for a few pages, it was really confusing with all this different diary entries and the end was a kind of sad, i mean "Dracula", i expected something powerful and cool, if he had to die.
bye
 
I really like to read this book because the narrator tells the story from a diary view! That means that I know only what the diary holder is thinking, but it makes me guess what is going on as well. The book is interesting afterall. :)
 
I did this book at uni, and apparently the book has a whole undercurrent about sex and syphillis (nice) because at the time of publication blood was used to symbolise sex. The scene when the three female vampires attack Jonathan was very risque at the time. Random piece of trivia but that's what stuck in my mind when I studied it...

I also believe the end is an anti-climax but loved most of the book. Except the excerpts written by Mina, she is so holier-than-thou she did my head in...
 
Dracula

Dracula is my favorite book of all time. :D The only thing wrong with it is over the years the movies have turned Dracula, a monster, a killer, a heartless beast, into a romantic attractive, cursed love able person. :eek:
I do have a very small group on Yahoo all about this book if atleast some people here like this book too. Though i don't know if i'm alloud post the adress here. The original Dracula, well the third, movie with Bela Lagosi was probably one of the best, also the Dracula movie, Dracula The Dark Prince, was good. Though Dark Prince should be rated for adults only. There is blood, blood, blood, you can even see the pipes on the set. There is also nudity in it. So i like the Bela Lagosi version more, plus dark prince really plays off the real Dracula which Bram Stoker did not intend in this novel. I'm not here to go back and forth through movies. The book! That is what the movies should totally be based on! Not added parts to make it gory! Or romantic like the one with Frank Langella.

Can i post my groups adress on this sight?
 
I think the book was very well done! the climax did not end abruptly, the point of view you guys are looking through is killing Dracula. Though was that climatic? No, it was not! The real climax was when Mina was going to be cursed, was trying to be pulled away by the 3 brides. Yes i know the definition of climax! It is when the plot the problem really breaks out. The ending is when the problem is done. The climax, in my mind, is when Mina is under the influence of Dracula. Which does last untill he is dead.
 
mojo said:
I did this book at uni, and apparently the book has a whole undercurrent about sex and syphillis (nice) because at the time of publication blood was used to symbolise sex. The scene when the three female vampires attack Jonathan was very risque at the time. Random piece of trivia but that's what stuck in my mind when I studied it...

I also believe the end is an anti-climax but loved most of the book. Except the excerpts written by Mina, she is so holier-than-thou she did my head in...
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We did this for one of my classes as well and my teacher beat us over the head with the whole symbolism thing....

Lol about the Mina bit. There's a very interesting book called Mina that picks up just after she was attacked and the whole end of the story was different. Not a patch on the origional but an interesting read.
 
WitchyBelle4u2 said:
We did this for one of my classes as well and my teacher beat us over the head with the whole symbolism thing....

Lol about the Mina bit. There's a very interesting book called Mina that picks up just after she was attacked and the whole end of the story was different. Not a patch on the origional but an interesting read.
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Cool, who's it by? Would definately be interested in reading that...
 
I live in Romania... Transylvania actually! I must say the story is not hystorically accurate... the king that inspired the book is actually a well loved figure over here. Just thought i'd let you know.
 
Sabenankh said:
I live in Romania... Transylvania actually! I must say the story is not hystorically accurate... the king that inspired the book is actually a well loved figure over here. Just thought i'd let you know.
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To be fair, I don't think people buying a vampire story are expecting it to have the historical accuracy of 'The Diary of Ann Frank'.
However I agree it's off the mark, I used to live near Whitby and can assure people it's nowhere near as interesting as the book makes out, if indeed it is at all.

Regards,

K-S
 
Sabenankh said:
I live in Romania... Transylvania actually! I must say the story is not hystorically accurate... the king that inspired the book is actually a well loved figure over here. Just thought i'd let you know.
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Vlad Tepes is well loved? I thought that he was a bit of a tyrant (I'm not meaning to be offensive or anything like that - that just surprised me!)
 
Well hmmm, he protected the country against invadors and upheld justice in the country... so yeah maybe it's my history teacher's fault but we never thought of him as a tyrant.
 
Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian goes in to some detail about Tepes' battles against the invading Turks. I knew very little going in about the region's history, and for that matter, Tepes' history. I got the impression that the people loved him for keeping out the invaders but feared him for his monstrous cruelty.
 
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