Dracula Book Review
Jul. 9th, 2020 05:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arias_hollowIt took me a while, but I have finally finished reading Dracula! It was a story I had vaguely intended to read for a while, but the real push to stick with it start to finish was that it was now part of my informal 'reading the horror and sci-fi classics' project. It was overall, in my opinion, a pretty decent book, although it is quite different I think than what a lot of people probably imagine when thinking of it.
The story is written as a chronicle of sorts, with alternating sections being clearly labelled as a journal or recorded diary by one of our main characters, with the occasional news paper clipping or telegram. Structurally I found this an enjoyable and effective approach, as it allowed for the flair and limited knowledge of the first person narrative while also allowing us to jump around and see different perspectives and events necessary to tell the whole story. It made it fairly fun to read, especially since the longer chapters could feel a bit daunting without the different sections to break it up.
Tonally the book was a bit odd, since it was a horror book, and it did have some horrific sequences, but much of the book was the characters doing very matter of fact research, looking over journals and asking house agents and mail persons about things. I guess it's just a Victorian quirk, but it made it harder to feel the tension in certain sequences (the climax was mostly just a travel sequence, with only a few spooky things before everyone does their thing and kills Dracula in the last few pages without too much difficulty. I mean Quincy Morris did die but there was so little text dedicated to that, that there wasn't much weight to it. Lucy's death stood out a lot more). This didn't make me dislike the book or anything, but it did mean I've come out a bit more neutral than with some other books.Some of the research I liked, it was quite cool that Mina got to figure out where Dracula was heading in the end by her own means, but other times the long counsel sessions weren't as gripping.
There were, of course, some very dated elements of the book, mostly in the casual racism and sexism of the time. The 'evil gang of gypsies that work for Dracula for Some Reason' was uh...pretty yikes of course, as was most of the attitude towards the people outside of England. The gender dynamics were very sigh worthy (Mina and Lucy constantly being like 'oh thank GOD for BRAVE MEN what did we women do to deserve them' and the men being all 'we must Protect The Fragile Women'), though I do give credit for Mina being so involved with the action start to finish.
Outside of those elements though, I did find the characters somewhat fun, even if they were all a bit more consistently 'Pure Wholesome Victorian Well To Do' folks than I usually would imagine in a horror story now a days. It was almost comical at times actually, although I doubt that was the intent at the time. Also there was a lot of beseeching God, almost to the point where it started feeling like a stand-in for character moments. As in, instead of really exploring how demoralizing or frightening these experiences were there was just a lot of 'and I was fine-ish because we were in God's Hands *shrugs, does the thing without any issue*'. (Which again, I know is just typical of the time and especially of vampire stories, where crosses and holy water are common weapons, but it was still a little jarring at times) The beginning was actually the most horror-like by today's standards, when Harker was trapped in Dracula's Castle. That was eerie and fun.
There was a sort of inherent appeal to the writing though that made me like reading it, and the pacing was solid even if unusual for its genre. So while I wouldn't say I loved the book, I wouldn't say I disliked it either. It was a decent, pretty good book all in all. Dracula as a classic villain is a bit odd since he wasn't really developed almost at all as a character, but it's true he was consistently threatening and took the whole book to defeat, so I guess that's mainly why. Either way, I'd probably give it an average 7/10 rating wise, because there was some enjoyment there and mechanically it was quite good, but it also wasn't as thrilling as I might have hoped and a little too Victorian Preachy Ideals for me at times, even if it wasn't a huge drawback.
The story is written as a chronicle of sorts, with alternating sections being clearly labelled as a journal or recorded diary by one of our main characters, with the occasional news paper clipping or telegram. Structurally I found this an enjoyable and effective approach, as it allowed for the flair and limited knowledge of the first person narrative while also allowing us to jump around and see different perspectives and events necessary to tell the whole story. It made it fairly fun to read, especially since the longer chapters could feel a bit daunting without the different sections to break it up.
Tonally the book was a bit odd, since it was a horror book, and it did have some horrific sequences, but much of the book was the characters doing very matter of fact research, looking over journals and asking house agents and mail persons about things. I guess it's just a Victorian quirk, but it made it harder to feel the tension in certain sequences (the climax was mostly just a travel sequence, with only a few spooky things before everyone does their thing and kills Dracula in the last few pages without too much difficulty. I mean Quincy Morris did die but there was so little text dedicated to that, that there wasn't much weight to it. Lucy's death stood out a lot more). This didn't make me dislike the book or anything, but it did mean I've come out a bit more neutral than with some other books.Some of the research I liked, it was quite cool that Mina got to figure out where Dracula was heading in the end by her own means, but other times the long counsel sessions weren't as gripping.
There were, of course, some very dated elements of the book, mostly in the casual racism and sexism of the time. The 'evil gang of gypsies that work for Dracula for Some Reason' was uh...pretty yikes of course, as was most of the attitude towards the people outside of England. The gender dynamics were very sigh worthy (Mina and Lucy constantly being like 'oh thank GOD for BRAVE MEN what did we women do to deserve them' and the men being all 'we must Protect The Fragile Women'), though I do give credit for Mina being so involved with the action start to finish.
Outside of those elements though, I did find the characters somewhat fun, even if they were all a bit more consistently 'Pure Wholesome Victorian Well To Do' folks than I usually would imagine in a horror story now a days. It was almost comical at times actually, although I doubt that was the intent at the time. Also there was a lot of beseeching God, almost to the point where it started feeling like a stand-in for character moments. As in, instead of really exploring how demoralizing or frightening these experiences were there was just a lot of 'and I was fine-ish because we were in God's Hands *shrugs, does the thing without any issue*'. (Which again, I know is just typical of the time and especially of vampire stories, where crosses and holy water are common weapons, but it was still a little jarring at times) The beginning was actually the most horror-like by today's standards, when Harker was trapped in Dracula's Castle. That was eerie and fun.
There was a sort of inherent appeal to the writing though that made me like reading it, and the pacing was solid even if unusual for its genre. So while I wouldn't say I loved the book, I wouldn't say I disliked it either. It was a decent, pretty good book all in all. Dracula as a classic villain is a bit odd since he wasn't really developed almost at all as a character, but it's true he was consistently threatening and took the whole book to defeat, so I guess that's mainly why. Either way, I'd probably give it an average 7/10 rating wise, because there was some enjoyment there and mechanically it was quite good, but it also wasn't as thrilling as I might have hoped and a little too Victorian Preachy Ideals for me at times, even if it wasn't a huge drawback.
