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laine37's review against another edition
dark
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
I decided to read Dracula. The unabridged version, I take it. This was a bad idea. Or, perhaps, to get into the spirit of things...
Prose
"Meine Got! O! Woe is me friend reader. To think miene flying spaghetti monster would abandon me so, to think that I would fall from its warm noodly arms, which had oh so caressed me . Oh dear, precious juices gone, a life of meatless darkness awaits me! (Mem. Must remember to give the recipe for spaghetti to Andrew) How can I go on alone, cold, and starving. I must steel myself and hold true to meine squelchy beliefs of old, for though I am gone from its warmth, believe and spirit are the only true things is this cold dark abyss of a world. Upon them I shall hold myself and push ever onward. But! So! Well! So is the human spirit strong Meine Herr. Strong such that it may withstand any terrible blow." I breathed in and squared my shoulders. "We must prevail! And vanquish this darkness!"
And that's not 1% of the speeches one Van Helsing delivers throughout this book. Indeed, at (kindle) location 5407 he gives a 1200 word speech. And indeed many a paragraph waffles past 500 words. Scarce, however, is anything of value said.
The only comfort to be found in the prose is the occasional flair of well crafted poetry, but these are rare and short indeed. Otherwise, the verbosity seems to be dedicated to little more than witless sermons regarding the human spirit, given by a man who is possessed of not one ounce such. This brings us to the next topic
Characters
They're cardboard cutouts, all of them. They do not feel as if real people, they feel like Gothic action figures. Utterly 2 dimensional and awaiting directions of the author. Van Helsing is probably one of the earliest Garu Stus put to press. He knows all, he is eternally wise, significantly strong, he has no intellectual equal, and possesses the biggest, warmest heart. Worse than his perfection, however, is his monologues. Meine Got! Whenever he speaks, it's 2 lines or 50, with little in between.
The rest aren't even worth talking about. Apart from Renfield. He was perfectly adequate, but not much more.
Plot
A garbled mess.
Beyond that, however, there's lots of stupid stuff. Like not giving people crosses to wear (As they seem to be the only thing that can fully repel a vampire. Honestly, I'd prefer to take the approach of locking one around my neck if I were in this world, because of hypnotism). Despite them really needing crosses.
The book also makes clear that the antagonist has some pretty easy win conditions (like burying a coffin or picking them off one by one) but he never bothers and instead runs away.
World Building
Not really relevant. It functions.
Social Stuff
One of the female characters does something smart and this is the response "“Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina! She has man’s brain—a brain that a man should have were he much gifted—and woman’s heart. The good God fashioned her for a purpose, believe me, when He made that so good combination."
And I'm just gonna let that speak for itself.
I get it, this book is 130 years old, but the gender stuff is just annoying to read oh so endlessly. Just about every tenth page the men cry for the hearts of their weak womenfolk. Indeed, Dracula has three ticking clocks and all of them are instances of women being at risk of becoming vampires (Mina counts for 2, imo). At one point they decide to keep secrets from Mina, such as to not discuss anything relating to their mission while she is in hearing range, because her poor little heart can't take hearing about the scary vampire. This is made all the more insufferable by how eagerly the women accept their roles.
Having said that everyone in this book seems to have the heart of a child, since they break down crying at rather slight provocations.
There's also much to be said of the antisemitism via Count Dracula. I myself am quite poorly read of Jewish history and stereotypes and so only recognized the nose as a potential source of such hatred, but having seen only than in him, I dismissed the possibility at first. Apparently, however, the whole undead man himself is inspired such. Which colored the latter half of my reading experience somewhat.
Prose
"Meine Got! O! Woe is me friend reader. To think miene flying spaghetti monster would abandon me so, to think that I would fall from its warm noodly arms, which had oh so caressed me . Oh dear, precious juices gone, a life of meatless darkness awaits me! (Mem. Must remember to give the recipe for spaghetti to Andrew) How can I go on alone, cold, and starving. I must steel myself and hold true to meine squelchy beliefs of old, for though I am gone from its warmth, believe and spirit are the only true things is this cold dark abyss of a world. Upon them I shall hold myself and push ever onward. But! So! Well! So is the human spirit strong Meine Herr. Strong such that it may withstand any terrible blow." I breathed in and squared my shoulders. "We must prevail! And vanquish this darkness!"
And that's not 1% of the speeches one Van Helsing delivers throughout this book. Indeed, at (kindle) location 5407 he gives a 1200 word speech. And indeed many a paragraph waffles past 500 words. Scarce, however, is anything of value said.
The only comfort to be found in the prose is the occasional flair of well crafted poetry, but these are rare and short indeed. Otherwise, the verbosity seems to be dedicated to little more than witless sermons regarding the human spirit, given by a man who is possessed of not one ounce such. This brings us to the next topic
Characters
They're cardboard cutouts, all of them. They do not feel as if real people, they feel like Gothic action figures. Utterly 2 dimensional and awaiting directions of the author. Van Helsing is probably one of the earliest Garu Stus put to press. He knows all, he is eternally wise, significantly strong, he has no intellectual equal, and possesses the biggest, warmest heart. Worse than his perfection, however, is his monologues. Meine Got! Whenever he speaks, it's 2 lines or 50, with little in between.
The rest aren't even worth talking about. Apart from Renfield. He was perfectly adequate, but not much more.
Plot
A garbled mess.
Beyond that, however, there's lots of stupid stuff. Like not giving people crosses to wear (As they seem to be the only thing that can fully repel a vampire. Honestly, I'd prefer to take the approach of locking one around my neck if I were in this world, because of hypnotism). Despite them really needing crosses.
The book also makes clear that the antagonist has some pretty easy win conditions (like burying a coffin or picking them off one by one) but he never bothers and instead runs away.
World Building
Not really relevant. It functions.
Social Stuff
One of the female characters does something smart and this is the response "“Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina! She has man’s brain—a brain that a man should have were he much gifted—and woman’s heart. The good God fashioned her for a purpose, believe me, when He made that so good combination."
And I'm just gonna let that speak for itself.
I get it, this book is 130 years old, but the gender stuff is just annoying to read oh so endlessly. Just about every tenth page the men cry for the hearts of their weak womenfolk. Indeed, Dracula has three ticking clocks and all of them are instances of women being at risk of becoming vampires (Mina counts for 2, imo). At one point they decide to keep secrets from Mina, such as to not discuss anything relating to their mission while she is in hearing range, because her poor little heart can't take hearing about the scary vampire. This is made all the more insufferable by how eagerly the women accept their roles.
Having said that everyone in this book seems to have the heart of a child, since they break down crying at rather slight provocations.
There's also much to be said of the antisemitism via Count Dracula. I myself am quite poorly read of Jewish history and stereotypes and so only recognized the nose as a potential source of such hatred, but having seen only than in him, I dismissed the possibility at first. Apparently, however, the whole undead man himself is inspired such. Which colored the latter half of my reading experience somewhat.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism and Xenophobia
carmine_b's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
It just didn't do it for me. I enjoyed the opening section following Jonathan Harker at the castle, most everything with Mina and/or Lucy in the middle, and most everything with Mina and/or Jonathan near the end, but on a whole the story just dragged. I probably would have enjoyed it more if it'd been shorter.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Antisemitism, and Xenophobia
linnylionheart's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Animal death, Blood, and Medical content
Moderate: Mental illness
Minor: Vomit, Antisemitism, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Violence
wlwkara's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Antisemitism
b33's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I’m not sure how I felt about this book. The first 50 or so pages were wonderful. It was incredibly interesting, but as it progressed I couldn’t tell if I was bored or interested. The book wasn’t awful and I didn’t hate reading, but I’m honestly not sure what I felt towards it. Though, the ending was pretty good.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death and Death
Minor: Misogyny and Antisemitism
yavin_iv's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Medical content
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Sexism
Minor: Antisemitism
margztgz's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
If vampire bad why sexy???
Read this for my classic monsters class, this novel feels like an epic tale that is long and laborious yet with some beautiful writing. Mina pissed me off. Literally everything seems to go back to gender roles and sex, but it's brilliantly done.
Read this for my classic monsters class, this novel feels like an epic tale that is long and laborious yet with some beautiful writing. Mina pissed me off. Literally everything seems to go back to gender roles and sex, but it's brilliantly done.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Murder, Stalking, Violence, and Sexism
Minor: Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment
librarianmage's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Antisemitism, Blood, Racism, and Xenophobia
_candela's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Sexism
Moderate: Xenophobia
Minor: Antisemitism
brnineworms's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
If Dracula had ended after chapter four, I might have given it a full five stars. The first fifty-odd pages are undoubtedly the best part of the book. Jonathan Harker is trapped in Dracula’s castle, and slowly realising that he is trapped. The atmosphere is tense and eerie. Both Harker and Dracula are interesting and well-developed characters, and the interactions between them are great.
I want to talk for a moment about Count Dracula specifically. In the first four chapters he is depicted as (seemingly) kind, hospitable, careful, and emotionally intelligent, but there’s something sinister about him too. There’s also quite a bit of queer subtext. Dracula is a complicated and sympathetic character at this point, but later his characterisation changes drastically and he ends up being reduced to a cartoonish villain with very little depth. He also becomes a much less prominent part of the narrative – he’s not entirely absent, but he takes on more of a peripheral role. I wish we’d seen more of him. (Interestingly, this is the exact reverse of my view regarding Frankenstein’s monster)
Of course, I must address the elephant in the room – the bigotry. Dracula is a character crafted from several antisemitic tropes. His hooked nose is emphasised many times, and there are parallels between his vampirism (specifically his preying on children) and blood libel. Something else that stands out when viewing the character through this lens is the way he is presented as both an immensely powerful mastermind and a weakling with a “child-brain” – proto-fascist rhetoric, perhaps? The book as a whole is riddled with xenophobia, racism, ableism, and sexism. In many ways it’s a product of its time. Its age doesn’t excuse these problematic elements, but it does offer some context at least.
I was led to believe that Dracula is slow-paced but for a gothic horror story it’s actually very quick. It’s relatively well-written, and the epistolary format is executed well. Excellent build-up to an anticlimactic ending. There’s so much more I could say about the characters and the story (both praise and criticism) but I think I’ll wrap things up here.
Overall I did enjoy Dracula and I’m glad I finally sat down and read it. It’s certainly not without its flaws but I think it’s worth reading if you haven’t already.
“The last I saw of Count Dracula was his kissing his hand to me, with a red light of triumph in his eyes, and with a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Blood, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Sexism, and Violence
Moderate: Ableism, Alcohol, Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia
Minor: Body horror, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, and Vomit