Daily Dracula

[RoseMorninStar]

I had assumed the blond to be the most recently created vampire, owing to her blue eyes (compared to the red eyes of the other two) and that she looked familiar to Harker-perhaps someone he'd briefly encountered on his journey to Transylvania. It will be interesting to see if there is any further information about them.

[Túrin Turambar]

Throughout the novel there seems to be some sort of affinity between vampires and their intended victims, and I took the creation of a sense of familiarity to be an aspect of it. It's possibly one of their powers. The way the Brides can make Jonathan almost want them to bite him over his natural fear and revulsion seems to be another manifestation of it.

[Alatar]

I always loved the casual reference to the child in the sack. Horrific in its matter of factness...

[Jude]

So does "phonograph" mean something in Dr. Seward's entry than it does today?

(I'm used to it being an older term for a record (LP or 78, disc or cylinder))

[RoseMorninStar]

This video is of a device from 1903 but I think the book (Dracula) was published in 1897? Perhaps there were other earlier recording devices.

[Frelga]

According to this, "The first phonograph was invented in 1877 at the Menlo Park lab."

Lucy had quite a day, didn't she. I'm impressed - we've met four male characters, not counting Dracula, and all seem to be thoroughly decent guys, if a bit precipitous in proposing. No toxic masculinity for Mr. Stoker.

And in a tangent of folk stories, I am thought this was cute.

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[Voronwë the Faithful]

I was reading a blog post today from Doug Anderson about two anthologies about vampires and werewolves that were published anonymously but that he discovered had been edited by Bernhardt J. Hurwood and I came across this little tidbit that I couldn't help but post here.

He also wrote novels under various pseudonyms, including Dracutwig (1969) as by Mallory T. Knight, (to quote the cover blurb) "the outrageous adventures of a luscious little sexpot who is the daughter of Dracula, has a body like Twiggy -- and turns into a vampire every time she makes love!"

The Tale of Two Anthologies (of Vampires and Werewolves)

[Túrin Turambar]

Lucy had quite a day, didn't she. I'm impressed - we've met four male characters, not counting Dracula, and all seem to be thoroughly decent guys, if a bit precipitous in proposing. No toxic masculinity for Mr. Stoker.

Gender and gender roles are among the most interesting things in Dracula, and people can (and do) write book-length essays on the subject. The novel coincides with first-wave feminism, with women starting to enter the professions and win the vote in parts of the British Empire, and Mina jokes about the "New Woman" who is liberated from being confined to the roles of wife and mother. But neither of the heroines aspire to be "New Women" themselves. Mina is learning secretarial skills, which would have been unusual for a woman of her social class a generation previously, but this is to help her husband in her career. As an interesting aside, in Hungary, Jonathan notes that he should get a recipe "for Mina", recognising the reality that, as a junior solicitor, he will not be able to afford a cook and so his wife will be doing the cooking. Lucy, who seems to come from a much wealthier background and is now engaged to a peer, doesn't have the same concerns.

I'm not the best person to judge, obviously, but I find Mina and Lucy believable twenty-odds.

[Frelga]

With 5 minutes to go in California, it's still World Dracula Day. The novel was published on May 26, 1897.

[RoseMorninStar]

I always loved the casual reference to the child in the sack. Horrific in its matter of factness...

Did I miss this somehow? Or has it not come up yet?

[Alatar]

It was from May 16 with the brides. There's another reference to it coming soon IIRC

"Are we to have nothing to-night?" said one of them, with a low laugh, as she pointed to the bag which he had thrown upon the floor, and which moved as though there were some living thing within it. For answer he nodded his head. One of the women jumped forward and opened it. If my ears did not deceive me there was a gasp and a low wail, as of a half-smothered child. The women closed round, whilst I was aghast with horror; but as I looked they disappeared, and with them the dreadful bag.

[RoseMorninStar]

Oh dear. *shiver* How did I miss that? The dreadful bag. oi.

[Inanna]

So I got it today - June 5 - after ages! After May 28th….

[Frelga]

That's the "real time" part. They only send emails on dates corresponding to letters and journal entries in the book.

Today's email warns that there will be no updates for a couple weeks, due to a time jump in the story.

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[Jude]

One of the drawbacks of reading it piecemeal, with gaps of several days, is that I don't remember who Dr. Seward is. And, glancing back, I couldn't find what he was referring to in today's installment.

[Frelga]

He's one of Lucy's rejected suitors, the doctor in charge of the insane asylum, talking about an interesting patient. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that this patient will be relevant later.

Hidden text.

For a given value of relevant. I remember that part as being super spooky, but I can't recall if it affected the plot or just helped set the atmosphere.

[RoseMorninStar]

As I read the Daily Dracula emails I've also been following along with an unrelated companion Summary & Analysis. The slow pace is maddening!!

[Frelga]

If the pace is not working for you, don't feel like you have to wait. I read the book years ago, so the slow pace is great to refresh my memory and savor the story. As a first time through, I can see how it may not be the best way.

But here it is on Project Gutenberg, for example, in several formats.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/345

[Inanna]

That's the "real time" part. They only send emails on dates corresponding to letters and journal entries in the book.

Then how come Harker is being a lazy git & not writing in his journal.

[Alatar]

You may find out the answer to that soon