About a month ago I eagerly read about a third of this book over a day or so, then set it down and forgot about it for a month. It started out so promising as a travelogue, with a train trip into eastern Europe, enjoying the local cuisine and languages, but it didn't stay like that. The forced conceit of the book, that everything must be told after the fact from some form of journal, diary, etc. starts to wear heavy.
Its also a bit of a hurdle to get over that you know this story from countless retellings. Cliches are just worn out tropes that used to be new, so you just have to get your mindset back to when it was fresh. I am pleasantly surprised that the language hardly feels old at all.
Trying to start up again, familiarity with the story lets me dive right in. Go back a few pages and there's crazy Renfield awaiting the coming of his master, Mina's growing concern for her friend Lucy's increasingly odd condition, Van Helsing joining the investigation, Jonathan recovering from his ordeal in Dracula's castle. Its hard to shake the images of the movie (you know the one, all star cast, 1992), but the purple prose is actually helping me get back to the 19th century. Sometimes it reminds me of Lovecraft's writing, and that also helps me get back into context.
2017.03.07
I still really like this book when I pick it up, but I go days without thinking about it.
Up to about the part where Lucy is being finally put to rest, the book was mostly parallel to what I knew from the movies. Now its really starting to diverge. Where's the seduction of Mina? We quickly move from our heroes meeting and sharing information, to fighting Dracula off of Mina's body. Was all that vampire romance just from the movies? I think I like this creepier Dracula more, he's less relatable as a human, and more of a predator, but still cunning. And the heroes do hardly any bumbling at all. They communicate and plan, and their few mistakes are understandable. Even leaving Mina out of the council, at the cost of her getting caught up by Dracula, is explained reasonably well in the story, even as the author leaves hints that this is what is going to happen, and its their fault. To our heroes credit, they realized their mistake quickly.
2017.03.14
A snow day makes for a great reading day.
I can see the finish line in sight, and I am forcing myself to keep a steady pace, and not break into a mad dash. I take little breaks to give me some time to reflect on what I just read. I force myself to make food, but read while eating.
The extreme verbosity becomes really jarring as there are more and more action scenes. Characters are capable of remarkable half-page length soliloquies while a key turns in a lock, or one character moves from one room to another.
I'm surprised how much the last third is starting to feel like bits and pieces of all the role-playing games I've encountered over the years, as much as and at times moreso than even Lord of the Rings.
Only a millimeter or two of pages to go...
For a story that seemed to drag on for so long, the ending was non-stop action. As I turned the last few pages I thought perhaps this copy was defective and missing pages, as it seemed unlikely this story could wrap up this fast, faster even than the movie version. That makes sense as I consider what makes for movie action scenes compared to the action scenes in the mind's eye.
I don't think the "7 years later..." reunion, with obligatory child named after the fallen, was in the movie. I don't really remember the story ending this conclusively upbeat, but our heroes earned it. Even if we want the mythology of Dracula to keep going.
I like this book, and the story in it. It feels fresh and more alive than the movie version, but in some ways the movie makes for a better package. I guess the seductive powers of movie Dracula, and the tacked on romance revenge story, was just an update for modern sensibilities; if it was in the book it was submerged under many layers of Victorian lace. Nobody in the book wants sexy time with Dracula, he's simply a very smart - and very hungry - monster who can generate a little charm when needed, but is not even remotely likable as a villain.
Its a good and fun story, and would be an easy read if not for the often extreme prose diahrea. Still worth a read though, if for no other reason than to get the story straight. What other good things from the 19th century have I missed?
