Scan barcode
A review by beaconatnight
Dracula by Bram Stoker
3.0
This year I went for the most obvious Halloween read, Dracula. It's thrilling in its iconic opening act before it turns into the somewhat pulpy tale of Good vs. Evil.
The story is told entirely in form of journal entries, letters, and newspaper articles. It's not as distancing as you might think. In fact, in their writing characters are disarmingly aware of their intense feelings as they reflect on ongoing events. In their conversations they are very expressive about their dark emotions and in solemn monologues they regularly portray themselves as standing at the edge of death or madness.
Naturally, it makes for a pleasantly melodramatic reading. Self-important men praise their own dignity and courage in their all-important stand against Satan's earthly represent. I cannot make my mind whether it was written in honest, but I was delighted to find how faithful the familiar Hammer movie adoptions are to the pathos of the original.
The foreboding presence of Count Dracula exemplifies this perfectly. He's presented as very polite in his manners and surprisingly attentive to his guest (can you believe that he himself carried the luggage?). Yet, he's radiating with pride of his heritage, which might very well be pride of his past deeds. Of course it's not only because of his sharp fingernails or his control over wolves that the reader will already suspect his true role in the story. Still, I was amazed by his personality.
Actually, after about one quarter of the novel he literally disappears into the shadows. The change in scenery took me completely by surprise. It's almost as if the opening act was its own self-contained tale with its own mysteries resolved at the end. We know all about the evil that drives the antagonist, we know about his plans, and about what lies hidden behind locked doors. Our narrator is even able to escape.
To my mind the transition was pretty rough. The narration quickly reconnects with what came before, but it took some chapters before I regained my interest. There was one episode that impressed me, tough. The newspaper story about the ship driving through the storm appeared almost as if an Edgar Allan Poe or Jules Verne story was interspersed with the main turn of events.
The story rebounds when Abraham van Helsing enters the stage. The professor fully appreciates the gravity of the situation. You cannot but imagine this surprisingly resilient man of letters, capable of giving comfort when all seems lost. There is even an episode of old-school science fiction when he and another doctor fight for a young woman's life. They all willingly give their blood to counteract the advancing vampirism, which made for great symbolism.
It would have been the perfect tale of horror if the narrative had been straightened out appropriately. There are many sideshows, repeated quests, and a hell of a lot of exposition. Personally I would have much preferred if there had been a little more subtlety or ambiguity. What bothered me the most was how the final pursuit of Dracula drags on almost endlessly. The Count may have all the time in the world; the reader does not. For once you should applaud the modern efforts to abbreviate excess.
Rating: 3.5/5
The story is told entirely in form of journal entries, letters, and newspaper articles. It's not as distancing as you might think. In fact, in their writing characters are disarmingly aware of their intense feelings as they reflect on ongoing events. In their conversations they are very expressive about their dark emotions and in solemn monologues they regularly portray themselves as standing at the edge of death or madness.
Naturally, it makes for a pleasantly melodramatic reading. Self-important men praise their own dignity and courage in their all-important stand against Satan's earthly represent. I cannot make my mind whether it was written in honest, but I was delighted to find how faithful the familiar Hammer movie adoptions are to the pathos of the original.
The foreboding presence of Count Dracula exemplifies this perfectly. He's presented as very polite in his manners and surprisingly attentive to his guest (can you believe that he himself carried the luggage?). Yet, he's radiating with pride of his heritage, which might very well be pride of his past deeds. Of course it's not only because of his sharp fingernails or his control over wolves that the reader will already suspect his true role in the story. Still, I was amazed by his personality.
Actually, after about one quarter of the novel he literally disappears into the shadows. The change in scenery took me completely by surprise. It's almost as if the opening act was its own self-contained tale with its own mysteries resolved at the end. We know all about the evil that drives the antagonist, we know about his plans, and about what lies hidden behind locked doors. Our narrator is even able to escape.
To my mind the transition was pretty rough. The narration quickly reconnects with what came before, but it took some chapters before I regained my interest. There was one episode that impressed me, tough. The newspaper story about the ship driving through the storm appeared almost as if an Edgar Allan Poe or Jules Verne story was interspersed with the main turn of events.
The story rebounds when Abraham van Helsing enters the stage. The professor fully appreciates the gravity of the situation. You cannot but imagine this surprisingly resilient man of letters, capable of giving comfort when all seems lost. There is even an episode of old-school science fiction when he and another doctor fight for a young woman's life. They all willingly give their blood to counteract the advancing vampirism, which made for great symbolism.
It would have been the perfect tale of horror if the narrative had been straightened out appropriately. There are many sideshows, repeated quests, and a hell of a lot of exposition. Personally I would have much preferred if there had been a little more subtlety or ambiguity. What bothered me the most was how the final pursuit of Dracula drags on almost endlessly. The Count may have all the time in the world; the reader does not. For once you should applaud the modern efforts to abbreviate excess.
Rating: 3.5/5