Another entry in my effort to read more classics. This one I read in installments that appeared in my inbox thanks to Dracula Daily. From their about page:
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is an epistolary novel – it’s made up of letters, diaries, telegrams, newspaper clippings – and every part of it has a date. The whole story happens between May 3 and November 7. So: Dracula Daily will post a newsletter each day that something happens to the characters, in the same timeline that it happens to them.
This was a very fun way to read this book! My main complaint was that sometimes there were such long breaks between installments that I kind of forgot what was going on, which character was which, etc. But I can tell you it was super fun to check my email and yell across the house to Mr. Fiat, who was also reading along: “Oo, new Dracula!!”
Another thing – Dracula Daily really hits the climax around Halloween, and then ends on Nov 7, which is a really fun way to enjoy spooky season.
You all know the story but here’s a summary: Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase an estate near London. Things are kind of weird, but he’s cool with it until Dracula locks him in his room, and he is visited by some sexy but terrifying vampire women. Not great! He manages to escape, but by then the Count’s plan to move to England is already underway. He is aboard the ship Demeter, the weather is weird. He gets to London and spooky things start happening there to our intrepid group of gentleman scholars. The two ladies, Mina and Lucy, have their own encounters with vampires in the night, and things don’t go well for Lucy. The friends call upon Dr. Van Helsing to help them figure out what’s going on. Van Helsing, luckily, is up on his vampire lore and helps the band execute a plan to get rid of Dracula for good.
Immediately after finishing the book we watched the 1992 movie, which I have to say, was not as good as the book! I’m sorry, Keanu, I love you, but it’s true! There’s so much camaraderie and bravery in the book that is simply left out, and although I loved the aesthetic of the movie, I think the character development really suffers by comparison. Everyone in the movie is a bit sleazy, especially compared to the book where the character for sure are a bit doofy (there’s one part where they are discussing vampire lore and then are like, “wow, there sure seem to be a lot of bats around these days! I’ve been trying to shoot them, weird right? Oh well!” like c’mon guys) but good-hearted and loyal. Van Helsing is a bit weirdly macho in the book, but comes across as superior and combative in the movie – I didn’t care for it! The Mina-Dracula mystical love connection thing in the movie didn’t make me mad, I get it, you gotta make things sexy for the movies, and hypnosis plots always make me roll my eyes. But I wish they had made the supporting cast a little more sympathetic and kind. Like, in the book they name their children after each other! That said, Gary Oldman as Dracula was really great.
If you haven’t read the OG vampire story, you should. As with other classics, I have found that reading the original helps me put the later iterations of lore in context – pop culture is saturated with references to the classics and it’s fun to read the source — especially when you can yell across the house “OO NEW DRACULA!”
