Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Graphic: Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Ableism, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism
Moderate: Mental illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent
Minor: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol
Despite its sexism by today's standards, our main two, Mina and Jonathan, are decidedly queer characters. Mina in particular fascinates me.
Time to watch many video essays haha.
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Antisemitism, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief
Moderate: Confinement, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Death of parent
Moderate: Ableism, Gore, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Religious bigotry
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, Classism
Moderate: Sexism, Death of parent, War
Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts
Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood
Moderate: Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization
Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Suicidal thoughts
Dracula is very much a novel of its time: the attitudes towards women and religion and people from countries other than Britain are entirely 19th-century, as are the long speeches. Some of Bram Stoker’s long passages of description work really well as scene setting for a horror novel, but others are a little tedious if you’re reading purely for enjoyment and with 21st-century eyes.
That said, it’s not completely possible to read Dracula purely as a horror novel; there are too many things that don’t really make any sense. Why are all Dracula’s victims women, when he does away with plenty of men and has Jonathan Harker at his mercy? What, exactly, does Dracula want in coming to London? Not to mention, there are some pretty huge coincidences which stretch credulity if you’re not looking at Dracula as a metaphor for something.
The essays in the Norton Critical Edition did a good job exploring the many, many different fin-de-siècle fears that Dracula could be read to represent. These are somewhat long and dry if you’re not actually studying Dracula, but still worthwhile in the long-run. (That said, the ones relating to the various cinematic and theatrical adaptations of Dracula aren’t particularly necessary as background information on the novel.)
Bram Stoker’s characters fall into two camps: vampires (and Renfield) vs non-vampires. As there’s plenty of conflict between the two groups, it doesn’t really feel as though conflict between the non-vampires is missing, but it is a little unlikely that fully fleshed-out people would agree quite so completely about everything. Nonetheless, the characters are distinct with very little chance of muddling them up with one another, which is definitely an achievement.
Overall, it was fun to read a horror novel which really felt like a horror novel, and the Norton Critical Edition has hopefully prepared me for interesting discussions on my holiday!
Graphic: Death, Blood, Death of parent, Murder
Moderate: Gun violence, Mental illness
Minor: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Antisemitism, Medical content