In an effort to engage a little more with this forum, I’m going to start a few threads on some of my favourite books.
I’m considering a re-read of this one. Despite its associations with B-grade horror films, I’ve always enjoyed Stoker’s original book as a fine thriller. Count Dracula himself is a truly diabolical villain, suspense is built up and maintained, and the plot trots along at an engaging pace. It isn’t a particularly deep work thematically (though wiki notes that "Literary critics have examined many themes in the novel, such as the role of women in Victorian culture, conventional and conservative sexuality, immigration, colonialism, postcolonialism and folklore"), but it’s never failed to entertain me. And surely a forum full of Tolkien fans won’t condemn me for mindless escapism...
Last edited by Túrin Turambar on Thu Feb 26, 2009 9:49 pm, edited 2 times in total.
One of my favourites also Lord_M. Renfield always fascinated me as the sort of Vampire wannabe, who feels that by consuming life he will gain more for himself. I find it amusing that while the book is undoubtedly a horror/thrillier it is somewhat disguised as a chick flick, with the 3 men vying for Lucy's affections.
Its also a book that demands all preconceptions are forgotten. People are so familiar with the iconic Hammer Horror Dracula and "I vant to suck your blood" that its difficult to read with fresh eyes so to speak.
Highlights for me are the coach ride to the Castle, the Counts head first descent of the wall (a precursor to Gollum perhaps?) and the offstage account of the ship voyage. Wonderful stuff!
I've read it, Lord_M, years ago. I am terrible at group reads, though: I fall behind, am consumed with guilt, and go hide.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
I read the thing a few years ago, and came away with the feeling of relentless boredom. Sorry.
Now if anyone wants to join me in a read of Carpe Jugulum, I'd be thrilled. Not only is it a splendid story, with vampires (excuse me, vampyres), witches, trolls, an Igor and a proselytizing priest, it contains some of the most profound thoughts on the nature of faith ever written, IMHO.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.
I'll re-read it with you Lord_M! It'll be interesting to see others reactions. I'm particularly looking forward to Impy's given her recent Twilight readings. What will she think of the Granddaddy?
I may as well be...I read it in my teens, when I was in the high school drama production of the play. I had not felt any stirrings of desire to read it since, but I'll join in this.
Mornings wouldn't suck so badly if they came later in the day.
Abraham ‘Bram’ Stoker was, in many ways, one of the last people expected to write a novel filled with gothic terror and sinister desire. He was a public servant and later, a theatre manager, who was known for occasional journalism and social commentary (he was a strong advocate of the censorship of sexually explicit material). Certainly the appearance of Dracula on bookshelves in 1897 turned some of his acquaintances’ heads.
Dracula is an epistolary novel, where the story is told through journal entries, letters and newspaper clippings. It was fairly common in the mid-nineteenth century, although had gone somewhat out of fashion when Stoker used it. The 1880s and 1890s had been a time of remarkable technological progress, when many things previously considered purely magical (like radio and powered flight) were fast becoming reality. It was also a time when the British Empire was virtually unchallenged at the height of its power. Both of these trends are significant to Dracula. Firstly, it revolves in a great degree around the conflict between the modern and scientific and the ancient and superstitious. And secondly, it is one of a number of books published around this time (H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds is another) in which Englishmen come under threat from supernatural or extraterrestrial enemies.
It can be difficult to read Dracula today, as the character has become so ingrained in popular culture that even the most ignorant of English literature will have long-held perceptions about him before he even walks onto the page. To the book’s early readers, though, the first chapter would have played as an unfolding mystery. Who is this man? And what can possibly explain his (and everyone else’s) odd behaviour? Vampires (thanks in a large part to Stoker) are so ingrained in our imagination that we can explain it almost straightaway. It’s a shame, because Stoker’s method of slowly revealing the horrifying truth, piece by piece, is a fine example of writing.
So we need to cast aside our perceptions, and place ourselves in the modern, rational, unsuperstitous mind of the young lawyer, Jonathan Harker, as he races by train through the picturesque countryside of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When we're ready, we can start Chapter 1...
Just read it again on one of those links I posted.
I love the mix of the mundane and the supernatural, his note of the various foods he ate and his memo's to himself to get recipes. I very much appreciate the effort he makes to give us a sense of place and time, while never feeling like he is lecturing us. The reference to the Magyars finding the Huns in place on their invasion gives us a sense of depth of history, much like Tolkiens allusions to past events in LotR, those "unexplained vistas". Even such character as the dirigible driver with his black humour, all the while attempting to save Harker from the fate he seems destined for by rushing to miss the appointment. "For the dead travel fast.". Shiver...
Even in this first chapter there are questions raised. Why are the villagers so afraid of the Count, and for Harker? What is the nature of the coach driver, and will he turn out to be the Count in disguise? What is he doing with the blue flames, and why do the wolves obey him? Will the Landlady's gift of a Crucifix prove significant?
I remember clearly asking myself these questions on my first reading, at age 13 or 14 and I find myself wondering the same now.
