Book Reviews of Dracula

Here is my favorite quote:
"'Euthanasia' is an excellent and a comforting word! I am grateful to whoever invented it." - Dr. Seward

I thought it was a really great book. Mina is my heroine :) The diary entries were very cool. It was like discovering some old documents :P

Mandatory high school reading, but it was hard to put down!

Loved this, didn't expect to enjoy the original as much as I did!

This book was pretty good, but a little hard to follow. I had to read it for a college class and after a group discussion of a book I liked it a lot better.

Summary:
Dracula surely needs little introduction, being the most famous tale of vampirism and the one to which all since it was published in 1897 have aspired to. However, with the numerous adaptations and cinematic rejuvenations and rejiggings of the legend (from Nosferatu to Blackula) have come many bastardisations of the original tale and character. The novel is told via the diary entries of the young solicitor Jonathan Harker, his fiancée Mina, Lucy Westenra and Dr John Seward (who is in charge of a lunatic asylum in Essex). We travel to the Transylvanian abode of Count Dracula, a strange and disturbing castle. His purpose is to settle a land deal for Seward but he is drawn into bizarre and horrifying experiences within the castle walls. The action then passes to England as the Count travels in amongst fifty large wooden boxes and on board ship finishes off the entire crew before disappearing at Whitby in the shape of a wolf. Back on land, Lucy is vampirized by Dracula and dies despite the intervention of the wise and knowledgeable Professor Van Helsing. Mina too is in danger and has to be protected from Dracula’s advances. The adventure concludes with a thrilling and conclusive return to Transylviania. Dracula is not Stoker’s only novel, and he also wrote short-stories and dramatic criticism but this tale stands apart. It was influenced by the story ‘Carmilla’ in Le Fanu’s In A Glass Darkly (1872).

Review:
An excellent and wonderfully written classic. A great read for teens and adults alike.

Wow! What an intense and thrilling read! The book is a hundred times better than any movie recreation.

I had heard so many great reviews on this book. But it just wasn't for me. I made myself finish it.

Finally I finished this long-winded book! The story doesn't really need a synopsis as most people are familiar with the theme, whether or not they have read it. It is fascinating to read the book that spawned a whole genre of its own, but I had to constantly remind myself of the time in which it was written (1897) because so many things caused me to roll my eyes, especially the women. Which wouldn't have been so bad in itself, but the author waxes poetic on the virtues of the saintly protagonists ad nauseum. The book could easily have been cut by a hundred pages by reducing those portions in half. I was intrigued by the blood transfusions done without any typing whatsoever with no adverse effects on the victim, and the madman was also amusing. Van Helsing was a most interesting character, as well as Mina, who was given quite a brain by the author but still relegated to the role of the "weaker sex" by being kept out of the mens' discussions of how to deal with the vampire. I was totally exasperated by Stoker's ploy of maintaining the reader's suspense by Van Helsing's secretive manner, doling out information only bit by bit to his comrades, which really did not come across as very credible. That those characters did not insist on explanations sooner also was unbelievable, and became tiresome. The melodrama was over the top, but perhaps it was normal for the time period, and really brought to mind visions of black-and-white silent movies. I imagine it was pretty titillating to Victorian readers! While I'm glad I read it, I'm even more glad it's over. Now I have to gear myself up for Frankenstein.

the classic....

The full original version. Excellent reading