Book Review: DRACULA by Bram Stoker
The OG Blair Witch Project
There are countless DRACULA editions and countless book covers — but for some reason I picked this Marvel comics cover, from THE TOMB OF DRACULA instead. (Artwork by Gene Colan. Image ©Marvel.)
Book Review: DRACULA (1897) by Bram Stoker
Few novels have been pored over and (over)analyzed as much as DRACULA. Perhaps everything that can be said about it has already been said. What little I have to add is probably not even new…
Do I need to mention the plot? The subtext? (Have mercy!) Who, at this point in time, is unfamiliar with those?
From a technical point of view, DRACULA was well crafted. It used "found documents" to create an illusion of “realism” which must have felt more authentic in the 1800s — letters, diaries, telegrams, etc. In fact, it is quite “modern” for something written so long ago. (Sadly, photographs and sketches were not included.)
The author was clever in the choice to not overexpose his bogeyman. Dracula does not make many appearances in the narrative. He is mainly talked about, hinted at, hunted down.
There are notable subtleties in the characters:
- The asylum patient Renfield plays a very odd role — he doesn’t actually do much. Is he a kind of “canary in the coalmine”, the lunatic who sees more than the sane characters?
- The eccentric Van Helsing, the vampire expert, stands with one foot in a world of medical science — and the other foot in a world of folk superstition. He is a walking, talking contradiction. He is partly comical, and I think that is a consequence of his contradictory nature.
- The relationship between Jonathan Harker (who Dracula abducts) and Harker’s bride-to-be Mina, is complicated. I’ll let you figure it out, but there is something going on between the lines.
It’s all an entertaining Victorian yarn, but… my problem, as a nerdy reader, is that I can't build up quite enough suspension of disbelief.
Because DRACULA is the precursor to those "Blair Witch Project" movies, where a dutiful cameraman keeps shooting even while he’s running for his life. The reader has to buy into the ludicrous premise that all characters keep documenting events (in great detail), while they are in situations of extreme stress.
It’s like, “As I sit and write this, the door knob is turning and the hideous ghoul is about to enter my chamber, ghastly death is near…” What kind of fools keep writing when their hands ought be shaking too badly to hold a pen?
If you can overcome this technical implausibility, DRACULA will entertain.
Listen to a Public Domain audiobook edition of DRACULA, available at Librivox.org .