Because of the lackluster, spiritless, wishy-washy Mina Harker-like character of "The Wolfman", I was in the mood for more Hammer-like horror. I first read "Dracula" when I was in middle school, or somewhere around there, and have reread it many times since. Reading it now, at 43, I find that some parts of it bog down a bit here and there (notably, the East England accents, as well as the big "this-is-what-I-know-about-vampires" meeting between the principal characters), but that other parts have not lost their power to shock (for instance, Lucy the vampire casually throwing aside the child she has picked up to snack on, and the woman banging on the castle doors ("Monster! Give me back my child!") who is torn apart and eaten by wolves).
One of the highlights of the book for me is Lucy's "sickness", death, and her re-death via her finance's stake. I always liked the character (she reminds me of an old girlfriend, to be honest -- the woman, not the vampire!). Mina, on the other hand, is a little too goody-goody for me, a little too ... Victorian. The contrast between the two women is similar to that of Becky Sharp and Emilia of "Vanity Fair" (another fantastic book... hmmm, maybe I'll reread that next...).
I'm curious to know how the Victorians viewed "Dracula" (published in 1897). Was it shocking for them? But after all, the Victorian world was much more in tune with death than we are. People died young, and frequently violently. It was the age of Jack the Ripper (1888), with Burke and Hare in the early part of the century (1827-28). Hangings were public spectacles, and funerals were big events (I love the Victorian decadence of Highgate cemetery, which I visited some 20 years ago -- now it's all overgrown, but back then, it must have been a massive and thriving necropolis). (Although it wasn't always park-like graveyards: I think now of Dickens' "Bleak House", and the decrepit charnel ground where Esther's father is buried, and at the gate of which her mother dies). (Or should I reread "Bleak House"e next?)
I'm just into the third part of the book, when the actual search for Dracula begins. Once finished, I'll have to rent "Bram Stokers's Dracula" and see how the movie compares.
A quick memory: When I told my Grandma Verna I wanted to read the book, I remember she went downstairs and dug through the cupboards, thinking she had a copy down there to give to me. Alas, she didn't. Whenever I pick up "Dracula" I always think of her.
Dracula is a great read. I like the movie Bram Stoker's Dracula. I think it although it does diverge in areas it stays faithful ENOUGH to the book.
ReplyDeleteHammer Horror. Never really knew what it was until Al introduced me to it. Turns out I had seen some of them before. Including a Shaw Brothers/Hammer collaboration.
Good question. What did the Victorian era think of it?
Did some browsing and found this on wikipedia about the original book.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula
Reaction
When it was first published, in 1897, Dracula was not an immediate bestseller, although reviewers were unstinting in their praise. The contemporary Daily Mail ranked Stoker's powers above those of Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe as well as Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.[11]
According to literary historians Nina Auerbach and David Skal in the Norton Critical Edition, the novel has become more significant for modern readers than it was for contemporary Victorian readers, most of whom enjoyed it just as a good adventure story; it only reached its broad iconic legendary classic status later in the 20th century when the movie versions appeared.[12] However, some Victorian fans were ahead of the time, describing it as "the sensation of the season" and "the most blood-curdling novel of the paralysed century".[13] The Daily Mail review of June 1, 1897 proclaimed it a classic of Gothic horror:
"In seeking a parallel to this weird, powerful, and horrorful story our mind reverts to such tales as The Mysteries of Udolpho, Frankenstein, The Fall of the House of Usher ... but Dracula is even more appalling in its gloomy fascination than any one of these."[14]
Similarly good reviews appeared when the book was published in the U.S. in 1899.
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Some interesting info there. One of Stoker's influences was a novel called Carmilla about a lesbian vampire published by Sheridan le Fanu in 1871.