Dracula


                I have finally finished Dracula!  I had a horrible head cold and didn’t feel like reading for a while.  Dracula was written in 1897 by Bram Stoker.  Stoker was born in Dublin, Ireland on November 8th 1847 and was the third of seven children.  He attended Trinity College and spent some time as a theatre critic.  He eventually became the business manager of Irving’s Lyceum Theatre in London.  He traveled a lot and met a lot of people while working for the theater and one of those people was Armin Vambery, a Hungarian author.  Vambery and Stoker discussed European folklore, including vampires, and it was from these tales that Stoker gained the inspiration for Dracula. 
                I may be a little biased with this review.  Dracula has always been one of my favorite novels and the horror genre is also my favorite genre.  Having read a lot of horror novels, I can tell you that the one thing this novel does very well is build suspense.  The novel begins with Jonathan’s experiences with the Count and his brides during his stay at (Dracula’s house’s name).  Jonathan is there to assist the Count with some property documents but his stay quickly takes a turn for the worse.  We then move on to Mina (Jonathan’s fiancé) and her friend Lucy Westenra.  We learn about Lucy’s recent troubles with sleep walking and the finding of a mysterious ghost ship.  The ship is by far the creepiest part of the first half of the novel.  Onboard is the body of the captain, who has been tied to the wheel, and a large dog who runs away.  The captain has a page of the ship’s log on his person that describes the disappearance of the crew and a mysterious stow-away. 
                The novel is delivered as a series of letters and diary entries from each character.  I like this set-up because it allows you to learn more about each character and see different events that would have been hard to relate through a single character’s perspective.  For instance, we get to see Mina trying to help her friend Lucy with her sleep walking and we also get to see Dr. (Last Name) experiences with his patient, Renfield.  You also get a better feel for each character once you’ve heard some of the story in their voice.
                All in all, Dracula is a great read.  I do think that it loses a little momentum after the first half of the book though.  The end is a bit slow and I think it gets bogged down in dialogue sometimes.  Van Helsing can be very wordy.  If you like this book, or would like to read a more recent book that is similar, try out Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, or Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot.

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