Book Review - 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker
One of my favourite books ever, and one of my favourite covers, I don’t know how many times I’ve read this over the years.
I hadn’t planned on re-reading it, but after the ‘WTH-pretentious-disaster’ that was the third and last episode of the recent BBC adaptation of ‘Dracula’ – which was an absolute shame as the first two episodes had been brilliant! – I wanted to lose myself in the original and the best.
‘Jonathan Harker’s Journal – “But the Count! Never did I imagine such wrath and fury, even in the demons of the pit. His eyes were positively blazing.”
Memorandum left by Lucy Westenra – “What am I to do? What am I to do? I am back in the room with mother. I cannot leave her, and I am alone… Alone with the dead! I dare not go out, for I can hear the low howl of the wolf…”
Dr Seward’s diary – “We could see that the lips were crimson with fresh blood, and that the stream had trickled over her chin and stained the purity of her lawn death-robe.”
Dr Van Helsing’s memorandum – “There was one great tomb more lordly than all the rest; huge it was, and nobly proportioned. On it was but one word, Dracula.”’
The story is told, in first person, by myriad characters via their journals and letters.
Jonathan Harker is the first one we meet. A solicitor, he’s travelling to Count Dracula’s castle in Transylvania to finalise legal matters to do with the Count’s purchase of properties in England. As this is his first time travelling to a foreign country, he decides to start a journal.
Then we have his fiancée, Mina Murray, who also keeps a journal, which she writes in regularly.
Mina’s best friend is Lucy Westenra. A sweet young woman, she finds herself in the awkward predicament of being wooed by three men – Dr John Seward, who’s in charge of a lunatic asylum; the Honourable Arthur Holmwood; and Quincey Morris, an American. All three men happen to be good friends.
But Arthur is the one Lucy truly loves and it’s his proposal she accepts, even though it hurts her to refuse the other two. Yet, they all remain on good terms.
We don’t meet the final character, Dr Abraham Van Helsing, until we’re almost a third of the way into the story. He’s a friend and former tutor of Dr Seward, and he becomes a part of the story due to Dr Seward inviting him to attend to Lucy when she’s struck by some inexplicable malady.
The story begins as Jonathan journeys to the Count’s castle, and we stay with him as he gradually realises, he’s being kept a prisoner right up until the moment he attempts to escape from the place. During his time there, he sees thing that can’t be explained, things that terrify him, and we’re left in no doubt as to the danger Dracula presents.
By chance, it happens that Mina and Lucy, along with Lucy’s mother, have decided to take a small holiday together in Whitby, a small town on the Yorkshire coast.
Innocent enough, except that happens to be where the ‘Demeter’ pitches up. Unknown to the locals, it’s the ship Dracula has arranged to transport “a number of great wooden boxes filled with mould”, and the cargo is consigned to a solicitor in Whitby.
The only reason it generates interest is because it manages to beach itself in one piece despite “one of the greatest and suddenest storms on record…” And the only person on board is dead, “… fastened by his hands, tied one over the other, to a spoke of the wheel. Between the inner hand and the wood was a crucifix… kept fast by the binding cords.”
Despite this rare excitement, Mina is preoccupied by the lack of any news from Jonathan, and by Lucy’s constant sleepwalking, something she used to do as a child, but which she believed she’d outgrown. Mina has to keep the door locked in the hopes of confining the sleepwalking Lucy to their bedroom.
Alarmingly, Lucy manages to find her way out and wanders up to the ruins of the abbey in the dead of night. Mina rushes after her, hoping to find her friend before anyone else does. When she catches sight of her… “There was undoubtedly something, long and black, bending over the half-reclining white figure… something raised a head, and from where I was I could see a white face and red, gleaming eyes.” But when she gets to Lucy, she finds her friend alone with no one else in sight.
Mina tells no one of Lucy’s experience. She doesn’t want to worry Lucy’s mother, who’s not in the best of health, and she doesn’t want any unfounded rumours to tarnish Lucy’s reputation.
Almost two weeks later, Mina receives a letter with news of Jonathan, and she has no choice but to leave Lucy, believing her friend is recovering from whatever had afflicted her after that fateful night.
The story then focuses on Dr Seward and Dr Van Helsing trying to save Lucy, with the help of Arthur and Quincy. And then the focus shifts to doing all they can to stop Dracula.
What I like about the layout of the story is, despite the different points of view – Jonathan, Mina, Lucy, Dr Seward, and Dr Van Helsing, and a number of letters – it’s easy to follow.
Even though we’re reading of events that have already happened, it’s told in present tense, as that’s the way most journal-entries tend to be written. The story feels immediate, adding to the tension.
Some may find the style too wordy, but for someone who doesn’t go into too much description in my own writing, I like Stoker’s descriptions.
Jonathan Harker, writing of the start of his coach ride to the Borgo Pass, to meet the Count’s carriage, which will take him to the castle: “… the sun is high over the distant horizon, which seems jagged, whether with trees or hills I know not, for it is so far off that big things and little are mixed…”
Later: “Before us lay a green sloping land full of forests and woods, with here and there steep hills, crowned with clumps of trees or with farmhouses… There was everywhere a bewildering mass of fruit blossom – apple, plum, pear, cherry; and as we drove by I could see the green grass under the trees spangled with the fallen petals.”
The approach of sunset before the onset of the storm at Whitby: the sun’s “… downward way was marked by myriad clouds of every sunset-colour – flame, purple, pink, green, violet, and all the tints of gold; with here and there masses not large, but of seemingly absolute blackness, in all sorts of shapes, as well outlined as colossal shapes.”
The inside of a tomb: “… the flowers hung lank and dead, their whites turning to rust and their greens to browns; … the spider and the beetle had resumed their accustomed dominance; … time-discoloured stone, and dust-encrusted mortar, and rusty, dank iron, and tarnished brass and clouded silver-plating gave back the feeble glimmer of a candle…”
Despite the book being titled ‘Dracula’, the Count himself doesn’t make many appearances. It’s the threat of his presence, as opposed to his physical presence, that permeates the story.
I like the way Stoker has written Dracula not as the all-powerful vampire able to fell his enemies easily. While alive, he was a great man, with a voracious appetite for knowledge. When his body ‘died’, his “brain power” survived. Familiarising himself with the way the new world operates, he’s feeling his way around, much as a child does.
So, our heroes, confident in their surroundings and knowing how the world works, are pitting their adult mind against that of a child who’s experimenting his way through situations. And that slows him down, giving them the advantage, which they must seize. Because once he’s satisfied with what he’s discovered, there’ll be no stopping him.
Every character is distinct with their own voice, and each one, strong in their own way. Considering Stoker wrote this in 1897, he’s written Mina as an empowered woman, one who retains her femininity. She’s a clever woman who doesn’t feel the need to hide her cleverness. Neither does she shy away from stepping up and doing the right thing. Obviously, she’s still constrained by the expectations of Victorian society, yet that doesn’t come across as a negative. It’s such a part of the story and setting, I barely noticed it, if it was there at all.
The men are empowered too, each in their own way. It was refreshing to read about men who know their place as ‘men’, if that makes sense. And their treatment of the women, of Mina and Lucy, makes for lovely reading.
This wonderful article, by English Heritage, explains “how Bram Stoker’s visit to the harbour town of Whitby… in 1890 provided him with atmospheric locations for a Gothic novel – and a name for his famous vampire.”
I’m glad I re-read it. Apart from when I read it the first time, this is the only other time I remember it having such an effect on me. Even though I knew what was going to happen, I still couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. There were even a couple of scenes that had me close to tears.
Despite my overall disappointment with the BBC’s ‘Dracula’, I’m grateful I watched it as it encouraged me to re-visit my favourite vampire novel.