My personal thoughts of Dracula by Bram Stoker

I have a confession to make, this is the second time I read this story. The first time I read it was back in 2002 or 2003 (again in winter) and I remember being overwhelmed by it. I've always related this novel to those winter cozy readings, maybe because of the beautiful winter descriptions of Transylvania presented by Stoker. I started reading the novel and listening to the audiobook at the same time, but at some point I gave up on the audio thing. Overall though, there are definitely lots of things I liked about this novel. I liked the epistolary format in the use of letters, diaries , memoranda, ship's log and newspaper articles. It also provides multiple points of view from a multitude of characters. The descriptions of characters and places are wonderful and this makes it a turning page novel. However, there are also some weak points. For example, the newspaper articles are not very convincing and the use of the melodramatic long speeches just made me collapse. More than once I found myself wishing they would stop talking and just get on with it.

Although I wasn't properly terrified of Dracula, I did find the narrative quite suspenseful, or at least I thought I did until towards the end of the novel. The climax when it finally came, it was over in a flash. Overall, this was lots of fun. It hasn't exactly converted me to vampire fandom, although I'm thinking about reading its predecessors, Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla" and John Polidori's "The Vampire Tale.". Not anytime soon, though. For now I'll happily go back to avoidng horror.