Chat about... Dracula by Bram Stoker

Did you love Dracula by Bram Stoker? Hated it? Seen an interesting article about the book? Felt the book was a victim to superfluous commas? Loved the book, hated the cover?

Discuss it all here! Spoilers abound, enter at your own risk...

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed "Dracula". Not just for the pure "He's behind you!" pantomime aspects of it... (although they were fun:
Jonathan: I looked up what the locals were saying in my dictionary. They were talking about vampires and werewolves. Silly natives! Oh, here's my driver. His teeth are so pointy... La la la....
Lucy: Something is wrong, I feel so weak. I'm afraid to go to sleep because I know I'll wake up even weaker... Oh look, it's that big, fat bat at the window again. Silly bat. Houses are for people!)

... but because when I thought about it, I realised "Dracula" was an Urban Fantasy. Count Dracula decides to move from his native lands and power base to the "modern" big city. And he starts out by learning English from self-help books and then hiring a solicitor to buy him a house in London. A creature from traditional folklore interacts with current society and technology (and in 1897 telegrams and trains were totally hip and cool and edgy). Urban Fantasy!

Also, Mina "I like to memorise train timetables for fun" Murray/Harker rocks!

Ahem, I of course disagree with your categorisation of Dracula as fantasy, whether urban or not. I'd put it in with gothics and/or horror. It can't be urban fantasy - the hook for the sequel is missing, and the protagonists are too well-adjusted. :-)

Talking of trains, I was a little surprised to note how gaily Van Helsing seemed to almost commute from Haarlem on a daily basis. He must have been another train and/or boat fanatic. I'm not sure how fast trains travelled back in 1897, but google maps is throwing out over 6 hours for the car and either train journey via the chunnel or using the ferry Harwich-Hook of Holland. This seems to suggest an average speed of about 40 mph.

ETA: Naturally, just after posting that, I found the info I wanted on the Stena Line Wiki Page. Apparently, leaving London in the evening meant Amsterdam by breakfast. Haarlem is on the near side of Amsterdam, so depending on the timetables (where's Mina when you need her?) probably something similar.

>3 Scorbet: I'd put it in with gothics and/or horror. It can't be urban fantasy - the hook for the sequel is missing, and the protagonists are too well-adjusted. :-)

Ah, but it can't be horror because only two of our Merry Band die, and it can't be gothic because the female lead doesn't get buried alive at any point ;-)

Well I have not actually finished this one yet, but lack of information has never stopped me forming an opinion before.

At first I expected to be somewhat bored by this book. Not through any fault of the book's, but rather there are so many rip-offs, parodies, homages etc to this well-knnown story that I thought it would be kinda boring. Happily however, I was proven wrong. While the story was quite familiar, it was still interesting with some lovely details.

The older styles of speech and manners was also interesting. The off-handed references to lower classes, or the attitudes to women for example stood out. Also the references to "modern" technology were a delight. Although, like scorbet, I was also surprised at Van Helsings casual trips to Amsterdam. Thanks for the explanation.

So why have I not finished it yet? Honestly, I couldn't say. It is through no fault of the book. Perhaps my own unsettled schedule of late (thanks to exams and such) are to blame. Nevertheless, having read through a good 2/3rds of it I would recommend it to anyone.

>5 lon_suder:

I was amazed at how little I knew of the story. I realised that I had never actually seen a movie version or read the book or anything. So despite it being a well-known story it was still new to me.

Regarding the train trips though, I am possibly faced with a 14 hour train journey on Sunday, and suddenly Van Helsing's trips seem rather mad again.

I did eventually get through the final 1/3 of this book, but actually towards the end I really did find myself drifting away. There were a few reasons for this.

First, as it progressed the beautifully detailed scenes given in the beginning faded away and instead we were treated to a lot of hand-wringing followed by an incredibly rushed conclusion. The final chase started and ended so quickly I hardly noticed.

Second, perhaps it was an artefact of my copy of the book, a free Kindle copy, but the grammar started to annoy me. An odd complaint I know and at first I wrote off the differences as being period oddities, but it was so frequent compared to the start of the book I started to have my doubts. For example, verbs were rarely conjugated. Was this the case for others? If this was just the edition I got then fair enough, it is not a point against the book itself.

Finally, the tone of the book changed radically towards the end and the characters went from being likeable folk thrown into an awful situation to rather weepy self-righteous folk who were always complementing each other on their perceived piety. I could only get through some of those chapters my imagining that instead of being intrepid vampire hunters on the trail of some foul demon, they were instead self-deluded religious fanatics hell-bent on persecuting a foreign business man. It made the story a lot more interesting and accessible.

>7 lon_suder: "... instead of being intrepid vampire hunters on the trail of some foul demon, they were instead self-deluded religious fanatics hell-bent on persecuting a foreign business man. It made the story a lot more interesting and accessible."

Hee! That would be a great book!