I certainly understand why this book is considered a classic, especially in regard
to the Horror genre. It is filled with inventively horrifying and gruesome
situations. It's a definitive work in the modern lore of Vampires. Unfortunately to
my taste it has too much empty space. I would say that this book has three main
stories that each get their own sections of the book, that is to say they are told
subsequently and not concurrently. The first story is about Johnathan Harker
meeting Dracula and staying as a guest in his castle while slowly realizing that
Dracula is some sort of monster from whom he needs to escape and make it back home
before he is killed. The Second story is about Lucy's friends trying to save her
body and soul from some unknown evil and in the process realizing it's Dracula.
The next story is about hunting Dracula down and trying to kill him. Overall to
review this book I would say each of the three sections is great and each section
has its own thrilling climax. The problem for me is in the space between theses
sections. After picking up so much steam and having a great climactic scene all
of the tension dies down and we're left waiting for some event to come and trigger
the next part of the book. The transition from the first section to the second is
pretty smooth because we're being introduced to the full cast of characters and the
setting so it's an important part and you feel like you're learning something about
the players in the story. The transition into the final part of the story is
horrible though. There are no new characters or really any new information at all
to be introduced and yet Stoker keeps typing away. I feel like the author either
didn't know how to transition into the final act and thus did it in a really
boring, long, empty, tedious way or he just wanted to make the book longer for
some reason without having any more content to add. After the clear end of the
climax to the Second Act there are 50 pages of the protagonists twiddling their
thumbs slowly deciding what to do and repeatedly interviewing Renfield, who
ultimately has no real effect on anything in the plot through either his actions
or words. He is a creepy and excellent character and he served a great purpose in
exposing Seward to early suspicions regarding Lucy's case and overall added to the
creepiness of everything but his over-involvement in the story after the second
part felt tedious and circular. Also in these 50 vacant pages is allusion to the
idea that now Dracula is after Mina and replaying the events of Lucy's demise,
something that never occurs to any of the characters including Lucy which is a
horrible oversight on the part of these characters and a really stupid writing
decision on Stoker's part. Another criticism I have of the overall story is the
amount of attention given to the process of collecting all of these records. The
narrative is delivered as a collection of journals and letters from key players in
the book and even a newspaper article or two. We as readers understand by the sheer
act of reading the book that these documents were collected and don't need so much
overt explanation from the characters. There was an extremely efficient entry from
Mina explaining that she had typed up her and Jonathan's accounts, as some were
written in short hand, to be shared with Seward. In the same scene she explained
that she would spend some time listening to Seward's accounts and typing them up,
she had stated earlier that she practiced stenography so this all made sense. They
also acknowledge that all these accounts should be shared with everyone involved so
they can be on the same footing. This brief scene was a nice effective (albeit
unnecessary) explanation of how the accounts became collected and that going
forward Mina would keep an interest in continuing the collection for posterity.
Unfortunately it wasn't enough for Stoker and far too often the story is put on
pause so one of the characters can explain how these records will be collected and
maintained, and that they should even if no one believes them, and what happened
to the original documents, and so on. Other than those two complaints the writing
was overall engaging and the characters were great. The mood is intoxicating and
terrifying.
Regarding the individual sections themselves; the first story is incredible.
Jonathan Harker's account of the events in the Castle Dracula progress at a
perfect pace. Stoker's depiction of a man slowly beginning to question his own
sanity and approaching his own doom is amazing. The story builds a creepy
atmosphere which only gets creepier. I think this first part is perfect, if the
book were only this part I would give it five stars. I definitely recommend reading
this book just for the first section, you can even stop where this plot line stops
and it still works as it's own story. Though if you read this part you'll be drunk
with curiosity over what fate will befall London after the Count's arrival and
you'll have to keep reading.
The second section is the longest section of the book and is considerably slower
in building the tension but it sets out to do a lot more so it's understandable.
This section is told much more collaboratively and it features the accounts of
many different characters who ultimately converge. My only real complaint about
this section is regarding Dr. Van Helsing. He spends so much of the story
basically saying "I know what's going on and I'm the only one who does but I
won't tell you. Have patience though for I will tell you but not yet as you are
not ready. Anyway you'll just have to trust me and do these oddly specific things
that seem to have no bearing on our current situation while this girls life hangs
in the balance because I'm the only one who knows what's going on and you don't."
This continues for way too long and he even gives these lengthy vague monologues
that are supposed to prepare Seward for the knowledge bomb he'll eventually drop
on him. These monologues are mostly him listing things that seem strange and
unbelievable but are actually true. It's unbearable as a reader who already
understands that it's Dracula and doesn't need all of this mysterious language.
It's probably really annoying for Seward too who is probably only listening to
these long tedious monologues because he hopes to gain insight and then the
monologue ends and he just goes "What? What does this all mean and what does it
have to do with Lucy?" and Van Helsing basically says "In time you will know but
right now you can not know." and they're right back where they were. This same
interaction happens several times and Van Helsing doesn't even slowly give more
clues each time he just delivers the same type of monologue with equally useless
information. This section is overall great and the tension builds in spite of
Helsing's monologues. The climax is thrilling and the end of this section is
definite.
Now part three starts with 50 pages of pointless crap. I'd say the tension doesn't
even start to build in this section until Mina is found in the clutches of Dracula
which prompts the protagonists to finally make haste in their plot to defeat
Dracula, which they should have been doing the whole time. The interviews with
Renfield are an extreme waste of time. The rest of this section is mostly great.
The systematic hunting down and blessing of Dracula's resting places and the chase
to Transylvania to attempt to catch Dracula before he can return to the castle are
very exciting. Once the characters have gotten into action the only complaint I
have is with the bit of pointless transit that's documented by the characters.
Harker is bored on a boat for like five pages and I was bored along with him.
Every day Helsing hypnotizes Mina to see where Dracula is because they now have
a spiritual connection. Every single time until the last time it's essentially
the same thing "I see darkness and I hear water. I felt like I was reading the
same page over and over. Otherwise the climax was phenomenal.
