This is the book that started it all! All the vampire movies and all the vampire books that came after were inspired by what Stoker wrote way back when. It dawned on me recently that even though I have read many other books about vampires, I had never actually read this Classic. And now, I know why.

It is not an easy read! I usually fly right through a book once I have started reading it, and this one took a long time. It is not written in a narrative format, but rather, in a series of letters and journal entries written by each of the characters. Some characters know things that the others do not, and that makes things a bit confusing. The letters and journal entries are written in a loose chronology, but not exactly. The reader ends up jumping back and forth in time in places, and sometimes ends up reading the same event twice from different characters points of view.

To add to the complexity, Stoker has included many incidental characters, who all seem to speak a different form of slang English. The words themselves are confusing, and there are apostrophes appearing in odd places. Some I could figure out, such as when the text said ‘ouse, I knew it meant house. But other words were a mystery. There is a point in the story where one of the characters that is difficult to understand is describing a storm at sea, and a boat affected by it. There were sailing terms and weather terms that were unfamiliar to me, and I ended up having to go back and reread parts just to figure out what the heck was going on. The copy of Dracula I was reading is a Barnes And Noble Classic, and has notes in it to help describe many things in plainer English. The notes were especially helpful when Stoker was refering to different countries and cities in Transylvania, and naming off different groups of people who lived there. None of that was familiar at all. The notes also make it more clear when Stoker has his characters using railroad stations in England, some of which I was familiar with, others I had forgotton the name of.

Then there is Van Helsing. Forget anything you think you know about that character from other books and other movies. In Stoker’s Dracula, Van Helsing is an almost elderly Dutch doctor/professor. He speaks English, but puts together sentences in blocky, choppy, ways. He refers to other characters as “Friend John”. There are two characters with that name, one a John, and one a Jonathan, so it made things a bit difficult to follow in parts.

If you are determined to read Dracula, it does get a bit better, once you get through these difficulties with the language. The action is really slow and subtle, however, so, don’t expect a big, exciting, fast moving, vampire story with this one. In fact, don’t assume that this book is much like the movie that was based on it called something like “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”. (I think it had Winnona Rider and Keanu Reeves in it, and Gary Oldman as Dracula). The movie is only loosely based on the events in the book, and moves the story along much faster.

I am glad that I did struggle through this book, because it really is the Father of all other vampire books. If I ever read it again, I think I am just going to skip over many of the more confusing parts!
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