Hi ForeverBookers,
Wow! I did not expect Dracula to be as good as it was...
Spoilers below...
We start off seeing Jonathan in Transylvania looking for the Count's castle. People tell him to not go and to turn back but he feels he must go and see him to do business. He is taken to the castle by an old fellow with his horses.
When he gets to the castle, Jonathan is welcomed in by the Count and is given a room. The Count wants to buy a house in England and they do that business. Then Jonathan is frightened by ghosts that haunt the castle. These ghosts turn out to be real women. Dracula is revealed to be evil in these scenes. He captures Jonathan and holds him prisoner.
Back in England we follow Mina, Jonathan's wife and Lucy, Mina's best friend. For about 100 pages here, I was quite bored as nothing really happened. However after those 100 pages events picked up again.
Lucy is killed by Dracula and it's obvious that Mina will end up drained if she's not protected as well. This book is definitely of its time, with the helpless damsel in distress stereotype used a lot. Lucy comes back as a vampire until she is killed a second time by those that love her.
Also in England we follow Dr Seinfeld as he works with Renfield, a mental patient. Renfield is important to the story as it's him, along with Mina who follow Dracula and can tell what he wants to do.
The rest of the book is about the main characters wanting to hunt down Dracula and kill him before he can hurt anyone else.
They try a lot of methods to do this. Searching for all of the caskets Dracula has to sleep in for example and destroying them as well as using the crucifix to will him away, which works to a point. This again shows the time of the novel as religion was a lot bigger then than it is now.
The characters were written quite in depth, which as this is a classic isn't to be unexpected I don't think. Some of them you're meant to hate, like Dracula, some you're meant to feel sorry for like Lucy and Mina and Renfield and some you're meant to cheer on, like Jonathan, Mr Seward etc.
The last 100 pages or so are just based on the main characters finding Dracula and basically killing him. Killing him is done in the last few pages of the book. Also Mina starts to become a vampire in this section as well. Does she get killed like Lucy or does she survive? You'll have to read to find out.
I gave Dracula 4 stars. Although I really enjoyed lots of it, there were also a couple parts that were quite slow to read, where not much happened. This happens a lot with classic reads though so it was forgivable.
It's not really much of a horror novel I don't think. It wasn't very scary or disturbing. There are definitely scarier novels out there, although this might be due to when the novel was written...I've finished this on Halloween too so it goes with the time of year.
Leave your thoughts on Dracula if you've read it or want to read it below in the comments...
I look forward to picking my next read soon so stand by for that...
Wow! I did not expect Dracula to be as good as it was...
Spoilers below...
We start off seeing Jonathan in Transylvania looking for the Count's castle. People tell him to not go and to turn back but he feels he must go and see him to do business. He is taken to the castle by an old fellow with his horses.
When he gets to the castle, Jonathan is welcomed in by the Count and is given a room. The Count wants to buy a house in England and they do that business. Then Jonathan is frightened by ghosts that haunt the castle. These ghosts turn out to be real women. Dracula is revealed to be evil in these scenes. He captures Jonathan and holds him prisoner.
Back in England we follow Mina, Jonathan's wife and Lucy, Mina's best friend. For about 100 pages here, I was quite bored as nothing really happened. However after those 100 pages events picked up again.
Lucy is killed by Dracula and it's obvious that Mina will end up drained if she's not protected as well. This book is definitely of its time, with the helpless damsel in distress stereotype used a lot. Lucy comes back as a vampire until she is killed a second time by those that love her.
Also in England we follow Dr Seinfeld as he works with Renfield, a mental patient. Renfield is important to the story as it's him, along with Mina who follow Dracula and can tell what he wants to do.
The rest of the book is about the main characters wanting to hunt down Dracula and kill him before he can hurt anyone else.
They try a lot of methods to do this. Searching for all of the caskets Dracula has to sleep in for example and destroying them as well as using the crucifix to will him away, which works to a point. This again shows the time of the novel as religion was a lot bigger then than it is now.
The characters were written quite in depth, which as this is a classic isn't to be unexpected I don't think. Some of them you're meant to hate, like Dracula, some you're meant to feel sorry for like Lucy and Mina and Renfield and some you're meant to cheer on, like Jonathan, Mr Seward etc.
The last 100 pages or so are just based on the main characters finding Dracula and basically killing him. Killing him is done in the last few pages of the book. Also Mina starts to become a vampire in this section as well. Does she get killed like Lucy or does she survive? You'll have to read to find out.
I gave Dracula 4 stars. Although I really enjoyed lots of it, there were also a couple parts that were quite slow to read, where not much happened. This happens a lot with classic reads though so it was forgivable.
It's not really much of a horror novel I don't think. It wasn't very scary or disturbing. There are definitely scarier novels out there, although this might be due to when the novel was written...I've finished this on Halloween too so it goes with the time of year.
Leave your thoughts on Dracula if you've read it or want to read it below in the comments...
I look forward to picking my next read soon so stand by for that...
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