I first tried to read Dracula during my teen years. I think like many moody teens, I was drawn to what some would call consider Goth elements, despite never actually being a goth myself. However, there's something that teens seem to find appealing about dark and depressing media that meant I picked up Dracula expecting to be wowed by what I read. Unfortunately, I was unable to get to grips with the prose style and never finished the book.
Now, years later, I decided to pick it up again and give it another try. I've come to enjoy Victorian fiction over the years, and have read a number of books that are written from different perspectives, such as this book is, that I wasn't put off by the style of the writing and was finally able to read the father of modern vampire mythology.
I'm not really sure what I was expecting from Dracula, I knew a little about the story before going into it, how he captures Jonathan Harker in his castle before travelling to England aboard the Demeter, that Abraham Van Helsing eventually battles the monster. However, much of the smaller details of the story were unknown to me and I was excited to discover what else the story held.
What I wasn't expecting, however, was the length of the story. I don't mean the physical size of the book, but rather the amount of time that passes during the course of the narrative. I expected that once Dracula had arrived in England and began feeding on Lucy things would unfold at a fairly fast pace. I was shocked that the process of the count feeding on the young woman, and her eventual demise, took place over several weeks.
Unfortunately, I found that this longer pace meant that once the villain had arrived in England much of the tension seemed to disappear for me. I thought the chapters where Jonathan was trapped in Darcula's castle were some of the best in the book, and had a lot of creepy tension that built up the more things went on. After that, however, it didn't strike me as a horror story anymore, but rather a group of people trying to get to the bottom of a mystery, albeit one that's based in the supernatural.
I'm not sure if perhaps it's a product of the time the book was written, or just Bram Stoker's style, but the characters always seemed a little too over the top for my liking too. They turned a lot of their conversations into grand gestures and hyper emotional monologues. Van Helsing didn't just promise to protect Lucy or Mina, but had to declare how much he loved them and would protect them because they're such amazing lights in the darkness. It felt a little bit much when everyone acted to arch and more like caricatures than real people.
Despite this, I found that the story was fairly good, and unfolded in interesting ways. It was also clear how much this book has gone on to influence so many other stories, and not just other vampire fiction either. Dracula is a classic, a book that paved the way for a lot of others, and left a lasting influence on the world of fiction. Unfortunately, I felt that the actual book was unable to live up to such a legacy, and was not the world changing novel that I was expecting. A decent read that will keep fans of vampire fiction entertained, and will be interesting for those who want to experience the original vampire novel for themselves; but one that might not be as engaging or exciting as some other works available.
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