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Dracula
Bram Stoker
An Irish novellist Bram Stoker’s Gothic horror novel ‘’Dracula’’ was first published in 1897 . The story is about vampire that tries to find new blood for himself and the hunt for him. Also you can find a little romance in the book. It takes place in Transylvania, Romania and in England . The novel is written in diary -form and several characters are telling their story by keeping a journal . Entries are written in six months by four persons.
In the novel there are nine main characters: Jonathan Harker, whose writings are seen first; Count Dracula, of whom all the story is about, but he does not keep a diary; Wilhelmina ‘’Mina’’ Harker, early Murray , wife of Jonathan Harker; Lucy Westerna, a friend of Wilhelmina; Arthur Holmwood, Lucy’s fiancee, who also doesn’t write; John Seward, a doctor ; Abraham Van Helsing , a Dutch doctor, dr. Seward’s teacher , writes letters ; Quincey Morris , one of Lucy’s suitors and Renfield, a patient of dr. Seward, both not writing anything . Also there are mentioned three sisters that are servants of Dracula and gypsies, who are protecting Dracula while he travels.
The story begins with the entry of Jonathan Harker, who is driving to Transylvania to meet Count Dracula in his castle . He describes his ride and the scenery of Romania. Though finding his journey to the castle creepy, he finally meets Dracula, who seems to be very well-mannered yet awkward. He thinks Dracula is odd- looking and they never meet in daylight, also he does not seem to be eating anything. Later he finds himself as prisoner of Count but manages to escape.
Next entry is by Mina, who is very worried about Jonathan and her letters to her beloved friend Lucy. Somehow she recieves a letter from Jonathan’s friend who says Jonathan is in Bulgaria . She quickly decides to go to a hospital in Bulgaria, where Jonathan is and they finally get married there.
At the same time, Dracula has travelled to England and he seeks for Lucy, who has been proposed by three man, but she accepts Holmwood’s while remaining friends with the other two.
Later on, Lucy starts to act very strange and dr. Seward decides to call his teacher, Abraham Van Helsing. He quickly finds out the problem, but the results are no good .
The story continues when Van Helsing tries to enlighten others, what had happened and they all are trying to resolve the problem. One key to find the solution is dr Seward’s patient Renfield, who is under a spell of Dracula. Jonathan and Mina join them in their hunt for Dracula but discover later, that only Mina and Van Helsing are able to find him so they travel back to Transylvania. The story ends with a note from Jonathan, written seven years after.
The novel has 27 chapters . All the chapters are journals of characters. Also the book has ten pages of notes which are explanations of different places , names and expressions .
‘’Dracula’’ has cathegorised under many different genres of literature – vampire literature, horror fiction , gothic novel and invasion literature. For me it is mostly horror fiction, although I find this more as a fantasy literature or thriller. I do not think there is something really horrifying but there is the excitement of what is going to happen next.
In my opinion, ‘’Dracula’’ is a story about the good and the evil . People in England are trying to save their country , even the world, from the evil of Count Dracula, who definitely has great power to do that. Of course , this fight has its ups and downs, as usual in the stories of good and the evil. As it appears, there are no winning without loss so this is a great example of good defeating the bad.
Bram Stoker’s writing is his own kind. It is simple yet complicated while describing the nature , the scenery of happening, also the looks and emotions of characters, which are actually quite fictional and the portraits are very embellished. Although there is nothing pretty in furious vampire that is ready to attack, Stroker manages to say it in words that make this even magical. Furthermore , everything he writes about the scenery is very accurate, so this story seems to be happened and it is even claimed that vampires were also real , but this likely still did not happen and Stoker used a lot folklore which makes the story even more interesting .
And because of his simple writing that does not contain long a difficult senteneces and the ability to describe actions and people very accurate and interesting, it is very exciting to see what is going to happen next.
Although the tale is very intriguing and well-written, it gets in some point a little tedious. For example, the entries are mostly written following the dates . One character writes two days and the next goes on with another two days. It is easy to follow and nothing goes missing , but there is a setting when four people are describing their day in their point of view, but this is pretty much the same as described by the first person. It will give the better picture of the climax but as said before , Stoker can write very clearly so it seemed for me little boring to write it over and over.
In conclusion , it is a great book to read. It has journeys and excitement, it is written very simple which makes it readable to everyone who is interested in history and loves the stories about good and evil. Although it is more for advanced reader while there are some words that are not used very often and need to be look up from a dictionary; some stranger names, places and expressions that are mentioned can be looked up from in the notes behind the book, but all this can cause a little confusion. Overall this is a nice story in my opinion, with some magic in it and definitely author’s writing-style is remarkable.