This is one novel that I have been meaning to read for quite a while. There is no denying that a vampire craze is currently sweeping the nation and everywhere you look there is a new book, movie, or television show with the ever popular drop of blood decorating the title. When one thinks of vampires, what are some of the first things that come to mind? Attractive individuals with pale skin, red lips, slicked back hair and never seem to age? How about cloves of garlic, crucifixes, and stakes through the heart? The current trend made me curious about the origins of vampire fascination and in what ways these new media ventures resembled the classic novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. It is truly unbelievable that this novel, written in 1897, is still being looked to as the prototype for future vampire characters and fueling new ideas that continue to attract today's audiences.
This novel is told through a series of diary entries and letters from several rotating authors. This constant change in perspective and tone presents a frightening story in a well rounded and engaging way. The story begins with Jonathon Harker as he journeys to Transylvania to conduct business with a new client interested in buying property in London, Count Dracula. While there are many strange characteristics that the Count possesses, such as discussing the previous centuries of his family history in the first person, having no reflection whilst in front of mirrors, and maintaining the ability to control wolves, Jonathon Harker is not truly convinced of the Count's demonic nature until he witnesses the Count crawling down the side of his castle one night. From there on out Jonathon Harker is determined to risk his life for the opportunity to escape and return to England. The novel then switches to narrators in London that are all, in some way, connected to Harker. Dracula's arrival in London shortly after immediately affects Harker's fiancée Mina and her friend Lucy. Once it is discovered that Lucy has been bitten by Dracula, Mina and a group of men band together and vow to destroy the demon Dracula, or die trying. The leader of this band of merry men is Dr. Van Helsing. Van Helsing is presented as Dracula's doppelganger and the one individual with the most information regarding vampire's actions and the means by which they may be destroyed. Without giving away too much of the story, I will say that Stoker shows what great feats may be accomplished in the face of evil if you have love, faith, and a group of friends to stand by you.
His face was a strong--a very strong--aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples, but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. (p. 27)
I raised the lid and laid it back against the wall; and then I saw something which filled my very soul with horror. There lay the Count; but looking as if his youth had been half-renewed, for the white hair and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey; the cheeks were fuller, and the white skin seemed ruby-red underneath; the mouth was redder than ever, for on the lips were gouts of fresh blood...Even the deep, burning eyes seemed set amongst swollen flesh, for the lids and pouches underneath were bloated. It seemed as if the whole awful creature were simply gorged with blood; he lay like a filthy leech, exhausted with his repletion. (p.65)
The following excerpts describe the traits of his personality and abilities, some of which are still used today in modern depictions and some of which I had no idea:
We have seen amongst us that he can even grow younger; that his vital faculties grow strenuous, and seem as though they refresh themselves when his special pabulum is plenty. (p. 286)
He may not enter anywhere at the first, unless there be someone of the household who bid him to come; though afterwards he can come as he please. (p. 287)
The Draculas were, says Arminius, a great and noble race, though now and again were scions who were held by their coevals to have had dealings with the Evil One. They learned his secrets in the Scholomance (a sort of devil's academy), amongst the mountains over Lake Hermanstadt, where the Devil claims the tenth scholar as his due. (p. 288)
The nosferatu do not die like the bee when he sting once. He is only stronger; and being stronger, have yet more power to work evil. This vampire which is amongst us is of himself so strong in person as twenty men; he is of cunning more than mortal, for his cunning be the growth of ages; he have still the aids of necromancy, which is, as his etymology imply, the divination by the dead, and all the dead that he can come nigh to are for him at command; he is brute, and more than brute; he is devil in callous, and the heart of him is not; he can, within limitations, appear at will when, and where, and in any of the forms that are to him; he can, within his range, direct the elements: the storm, the fog, the thunder; he can command all the meaner things: the rat, and the owl, and the bat--the moth, and the fox, and the wolf; he can grow and become small; and he can at times vanish and come unknown. (p. 284)
The intensity and depth of these descriptive passages regarding Dracula, the king vampire for all intents and purposes, are enough to fascinate and frighten the reader until the end. The constant opposition between good and evil, biting social commentary, and extraordinary prose are just added bonuses in this classic by Bram Stoker.
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