Dracula

In my adventures in reading, I try to keep the genres changing so I do not fall into a rut and so I read things I might not normally. One of the more difficult genres for me to pick from is classics, not because I do not like classic novels, but because there are so many I want (or feel I should) read. Last week, I crossed another one off the list.

Dracula by Bram Stoker was a book I started reading online at my old job when I was on phone duty, but I did not finish it electronically. Before moving, I had a Half Price Bookstore gift card to use (no Half Price here - sadness!) and bought Dracula, among other things. I thought it would be much like Frankenstein in its build-up and execution, but it was less tense and foreboding. That is not to say there was not an element of darkness to it, only that it was infused with a hope from the characters.

Something I did not realize is that the book is epistolary. I thought it would make for a confusing read, jumping from character voice to character voice, but Stoker wrote each character with a distinctive voice and perspective, it was not difficult to follow in the least. The way each person is introduced and developed is smooth, with the exception of some of Lucy's suitors who seem like passing characters only to show up later in more significant roles. The novel never lags; each chapter is purposeful and moves the story forward, whether fully understood at the time or not.

The biggest "complaint" I have is that the story would have been so much cooler if I had not known the "punchline" already. It takes about half the book for the characters to figure out that (spoiler!) Dracula is the vampire. To have read the book before it was common cultural knowledge must have been surprising. However, since there is nothing I can do about knowing the twist, the method of "I know something you don't know" was employed when reading.

One of my tiffs with novels, classics especially, is that the end trails off. As a reader, I want the ends tied up, resolution to most of the major and minor questions and something that is not a "five years later..." scenario. Dracula wrapped everything up, not necessarily in a neat little bow, but the characters progressed in the short term and what each ended up doing suited them. They did not join up and become vampire hunters ala Ghostbusters. In fact, I would say that their lives returned to what they had (or were in the process of moving toward) before Dracula came into the picture.

Overall, Dracula was an excellent book. It kept me interested, did not bog me down with some of the writing styles many classic novels can do (sentence structure and verbiage), and was a lot of fun to read on top of it all. A book I would think about returning to on a rainy day...or a dark and stormy night.