Last year I read Frankenstein and realized that most of the followed fictions based on the original were taking a lot of liberties from the source material. So, this year, I thought it would be nice to test the other most famous monster of gothic literature: Dracula.
The book in itself is a marvel of time traveling capsule. People are writing journals and letters, they travel slowly by boat, horse carriage and train, medicine is all the hype, and the appearance and respectability are somewhat very important in the doomed Victorian society. Every action seems to take forever involving always a lot of feelings, and often secrecy.
We follow several characters relating their adventures around Dracula tentative to take over England. First Jonathan Harker, then later his wife Mina and her friend Lucy, including all her suitors, which among them the doctor Jack Seward and his mentor Van Helsing. They are going to investigate Dracula’s crimes, his plans and understand his abilities and weaknesses.
Dracula is a disguised threat and power of nature from the beginning and a predator until the end. His abilities are much stronger than the vampires in nowadays productions: he can walk during the day, the daylight only limiting his powers/transformation, he can transform into a dog, bat or rats, and mist, he can control the weather elements and wolves. His weakness are also a bit different: he can only sleep in the earth from his land ; he doesn’t need to sleep in coffin, but he still has to be invited to enter into a place.
To kill a vampire, a stake into the heart is required, but not only: the head has to be cut and the mouth filled with garlic. When the vampire is very old, he turns into dust when dying.
Dracula is also a real piece of shit: he steals and gives babies to feed his brides, he rapes women, kills whenever he wants and tortures and torments poor souls.
The book pace is very slow. People are often waiting a lot for things to happen. It takes forever for Mina’s friend Lucy to become a vampire. Many nights monitoring the windows, using garlic flower, performing blood transfusions from everybody and everywhere, it’s all slow and heavy. Later, it also takes forever for Dracula to arrive to a given place. Many night waiting, describing nothing but daily life under anxious anticipation.
The events are always described after they happen, since most of the book is written from the perspective of the characters journals, phonographs and notes. It gives place for lengthy descriptions, clean and polite dialogues and condensed action scenes without too many details. It took me a few weeks until reaching the end without being too painful.
I particularly enjoyed the first part in Dracula’s castle, and the calm but at the same time frenetic Dracula’s hunt at the end. Van Helsing is one of the most fascinating and smart character, and Mina is just the best heroine I’ve seen in a long time.
I highly recommend this book, particularly now around Autumn and Halloween time for its beautiful atmosphere.
BONUS: quick comparison with the 1992 Coppola Dracula movie!
After reading the book, I felt like rewatching this classic and make a fresh comparison. Here is a table to summarize. I was not very happy with the treatment they gave to Mina which went from the smart one to the dumb slut.
| Aspect | Book | 1992 Movie |
|---|---|---|
| Dracula | a super natural cunning predator coming from Transylvania, who has beaten the Turks at some point, and violating women when he can | A sad romantic warrior Vlad the impaler, tortured sexy lover sex machine. Gary Oldman is great, but the character sucks. |
| Mina | a very intelligent, practical and faithful woman organizing all the knowledge and investigation around Dracula | the devil’s little whore. I hated it. |
| Renfield | a crazy lunatic | Dracula’s ex solicitor before Jonathan. Actually this was a good addition to the story. |
| Sexuality | Some sensuality involved with Dracula’s brides attacking Jonathan | Too much and unnecessary. Good old 90’s. |
| Jonathan | Main/most important character | Third wheel in between Dracula and his wife |
| Dracula’s master plan | Dracula has backups of backups and a few moves ahead most of the time | Which plan? Drink some absinthe please. |
| Van Helsing | Yeah. | Oh yeah. |
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