Review: Dracula
/2019 CHALLENGE: 1 RE-READ PER MONTH 04 / 12
5 stars. Hello there! It's been awhile. Several things happened in life this month: 1. reading slump 2. puppy 3. new Kindle, which took awhile to get used to. I'm behind but I'm going with the flow. And the good news is, I really enjoyed re-reading Dracula.I wrote about 4 billion words on it in college but I hadn't read it for FUN since I was maybe ... 12? I was in the mood for something like this: long, eerie, Gothic, old school.
Three things really struck me about Dracula, this time: One - my impression of this book is really tangled with my impression of the Coppola adaptation. I actually love that film, I love the aesthetics and the performances (yes, even Keanu!), but I thought I'd be able to separate from them in reading. Not so, apparently. Which was fine; definitely made the reading experience a little unusual.
Two - this book could use some editing. I see now that The Historian felt so bogged down and slow to me because it pulled from the flavor of the original. There are parts that sing (Harker's experience in the castle; the mountain chase at the end), but there are incredibly slow parts as the characters try to figure out - ON PAPER - what the heck they are dealing with. I care about the vampire, not about his "child-brain" or whatever. I care about his demise, not which river he took to get home.
Three - OH THE MELODRAMA! I kept rolling my eyes at the extreme emotion of it all - the love for Lucy, the love for Mina, the swooning, the practically spiritual way they all worshiped and praised each other. Characters "overcome" left and right. Even for a Victorian novel, there were so many tears and promises and feelings - from men more than women, which is interesting. Obviously there are a ton of ways to interpret the role of women in this book and there are a ton of papers written about that. It's complicated. But I was really taken aback by the amount of detail dedicated to the male characters' seemingly hysterical reactions to everything.
Truly though, this is a masterpiece. It's rich and brilliant and perfect to study. There's so much to unpack about what was feared and admired in Victorian times, and how each character explores and embodies those themes. I'm fascinated by the way mental health and sanity played a part, as well as desire and religion and spirituality and old vs new. So many delicious ingredients!
I'm so happy that my reading challenge took me in this direction. My house has been chewed up by an 8-week old corgi, my new Kindle has Wi-Fi issues, I haven't "felt like reading in awhile" (which means I'm deathly ill, probably), but I really enjoyed sinking into the Carpathian mountains when I could. What can I say? Vampires interest me, and this one is the OG.