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Monday, October 26, 2015

Seasonal Reading: Dracula

In theory, I really love the idea of reading seasonally appropriate books, like founding father biographies in July, or snowy winter tales in January. But in practice? My reading is generally far too haphazard and unplanned to make seasonal reading work. I don't remember to request the right books at the library in time, and therefore usually end up reading my cozy fireplace reads on the beach.

But this October, I decided it was time to give seasonal reading my best effort. The problem with October seasonal reads, however, is that I'm super not in to scary/horror stories. My horror genre absolute limit is at right about Sixth Sense level, and even then I can only handle it if someone has assured me beforehand there is a measure of a happy ending. So I decided my safest bet for a good Halloween read would be to go classic. Thus, I chose the father of the horror genre: Dracula by Bram Stoker.



You guys! Despite being well over a hundred years old, this book was legitimately creepy. I'm sure in its day it was downright nightmare-inducing, thus the reason it's been able to stick around for so long as a cultural icon. A century's worth of spoilers, plus the dated language, watered down the effect to a very enjoyable level for me, but I was still impressed at how well this story has stood the test of time. I think it holds its entertainment value very well.

What I was most surprised about with this book was how much of the actual vampire mythology was established here. I didn't recognize the story at all (these characters and plot-line have not survived in pop culture), but the vampire tropes were all there, from the garlic to the sexy-undead to the only-comes-out-at-night stuff. It was fascinating, like finding degree zero of a major oral myth (although, I'm sure Stoker drew upon already existing cultural myths to create this tale).

Like I said, the story-line was completely unfamiliar to me (the vast majority of the book takes place in London! Who knew?) and most of the characters were unfamiliar and new to me, except Dracula (of course), and Van Helsing. Surprise! I about fell out of my chair when that name came up, because I saw that terrible movie a few years ago (such things happen when you and your husband take turns picking date nights at the dollar theater), and I really didn't know he had any connection to the original vampire source material. Luckily for the book, this Dr. Van Helsing was nothing like his Hollywood counterpart (I'm not even sure why Hollywood bothered to use the name, the two characters are so dissimilar), and I obviously much prefer the book version.

In the end, this was a truly entertaining read with the perfect level of creepiness for me. I will say it is a bit of a long read, and the action sags in some parts, but it's hard to blame it too much, being a century old and all. Really, if you enjoy classic novels at all (especially novels heavy on the letter/journal/epistle format) this one is definitely worth your time.

5 comments:

  1. I read Dracula several years ago and loved it! I'd never seen any of the movies, so I didn't have a story line that I was comparing the book to, which sounds like a good thing.

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  2. I'm listening to Rebecca right now, and the Gothic feel seems seasonally appropriate to me, even though it isn't scary. I have Dracula on audio, but maybe I'll save it for next October.

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    1. Ah yes, I would consider Rebecca to be good October reading. Nice, suspenseful, and even creepy at times.

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  3. I read about half of Dracula a few years ago right around Halloween. I enjoyed it but for some reason did not get around to finishing it! The epistolary format was a bit hard to get into at first...I think listening to it on audio might be really good! I'm better at picking out seasonal books for my kids rather than myself!

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    1. There were parts where the action lagged a bit, so I can see how it would be easy to not finish. But being trapped in the car with the audio going means I can usually power through to the end of any book. And yes, children's seasonal reading is always so much easier (but I still struggle there, especially when it comes to checking the books out early enough to still be in season).

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