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Summary: Dracula, better than the movie......all of them.
Review: Dracula, a 19th century horror book, is holding true to its genre, despite its age. This book had me at the edge of my seat, wondering what would happen next. The book is set up in a journalistic/letter written style, making it more suspensful. You may find that the letter you are reading is a simple entry in the character's life, or the last letter/entry that they'll ever write. This book takes its time by showing the characters emotions and lives than rushing through it like most movies. This is Dracula, in his freakiest form...his first.
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Summary: Dracula, could it be the best book ever written!
Review: When I first started reading the book it was confusing but as time went on the plot became clear to me. My favorite part of the novel is when Dracula takes his first victim, Lucy, to the darkside. Mina went looking for her in the middle of the night and found her outside with a creature on top of her. Another one of my favorite scenes in the novel is when Jonathan Harker meets Dracula for the first time and experiences the strange occurences around the house. For example, when he is shaving in the mirror and Dracula walks upbehind him and Jonathan did not see his reflection. I also liked the end of the novel, though Mina lost her love caused by his death it was death of true love and Dracula had had his many years in eaternal life and to get his true love back broke the spell that he had cast upon himself that ungreatful day so many years ago.
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Summary: Bram Stokers Dracula
Review: Bram Stokers Dracula is written in the form of journal entries and letters. At the begining of each entry there is a title telling who is writing the entry, this makes the book easy to follow because you know who is talking. There is also alot of suspence in the book that keeps you hooked from one page to the next. Even though the book can be dark it also have emotions thoughout the book.
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Summary: A classic full of obsession, loyalty, and evil.
Review: I recently finished reading Bram Stoker's Dracula and found it to be a very enticing. I was filled with much misconception before reading this novel because of all of the movies out there that never seem to quite follow the book they are basing it on. I thought the book gave a lot of feel and it almost seemed personal, as though the letters in the character's journals really are personally for each reader. I normally am not a fan of books that are written in that way, but I seemed to forget quite often that I was reading someone's journal. The story line is very creative, and I especially enjoyed it because I believe that Bram Stoker got his idea to write about Dracula, from Vlad Tepes II who took on the name Dracula after his father had taken the nickname Dracul. To me, it made the book far more interesting. Some things were just a tad bit too dark for my taste, but other than that... the characters were developed very well. It is a fantasy, so everything is going to be unrealistic, such as the characters not having many flaws to show forth. I was curious to know more about Dracula, and how he became the way he did. Overall this is a great book and I encourage anyone who doesn't mind lots of gore, to really dig into this book. It is suspenseful and it sends chills up and down your spine.I personally think that although this story will remain an unforgettable classic... there should be something written about the real Dracula, Vlad Tepes.
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Summary: Creepy, especially the beginning
Review: Stoker's classic is certainly worth the read. It's tame by today's standards for a horror tale but there are still quite a few moments of strong suspense. The young solicitor Jonathan Harker is sent to Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the paperwork necessary to purchase an estate in London. Dracula initially seems like a nice enough guy, but Harker soon discovers some terrifying details of his lifestyle. This first section of the book contains some of the best horror ever written! The second part of the book takes place in Yorkshire, where the Count has alighted after leaving Transylvania. The action continues as a new bunch of characters put their heads together to finally establish what the Count is. In addition, we see firsthand what happens to a vampire's victim. The rest of the book takes place in London and then eastern Europe. The characters are well-developed but don't really have any flaws, which seemed quite unrealistic to me. Dracula is portrayed very well but only appears in a handful of dramatic scenes. I wish Stoker had made him show up a few more times, perhaps focusing a bit on his character during the day when he isn't out for blood. The story is told entirely in hindsight through journal entries by the major characters. This unique style of narration has its merits (e.g. it's easy to describe the same events with different points of view) and Stoker handles it very well, but on the whole I would have preferred straight single viewpoint narration or perhaps third person omnicient. Dracula is a fairly long book, with the Penguin edition weighing in at nearly 500 pages. Though the story never really dragged for me, I feel that a couple parts of the novel could have been condensed, e.g. the mission in London to find and destroy the Count or the events dealing with Dr. Seward's wacko mental patient. Minor nitpicks aside, Stoker's writing and plotting are first-rate and easily allow this one to attain the status of "classic". Overall, a gem of a novel!
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Summary: Unforgettable -- but tedious
Review: Dracula really existed. The old legend has at its core a historical figure: Vlad Tepes, the impaler, a 15th century Transylvanian nobleman noted for making kebabs out of captured Turkish soldiers. The legend of Dracula will probably outlive the works of Dickens and Tolstoy, but the life of the real Vlad Tepes -- if it could be written -- was probably more interesting than this tepid, late-Victorian novel that takes place mostly in England. The best part of the book is the first 50 pages: Jonathan Harker's journal of his visit to Transylvania and his frightening encounter with Dracula. The rest of the book could be condensed by one-half and even then it wouldn't be all that exciting or frightening.
So, read the book because the story of Dracula is hugely important in popular culture -- but don't expect too much.
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Summary: Gripping, multi-layered novel retains the power to chill
Review: Dracula may be an iconic figure in film and television, but his appeal is not diminished in print. This truly is a wonderful, absorbing read; I enjoyed it far more than I expected to. Stoker's prose is pleasantly easy to read (although the footnotes do come in handy for some of the more obscure references to medieval eastern European history). The narrative is generally well-paced, only occasionally sagging under the weight of unnecessary scene-setting and backstory. It is told from a multitude of viewpoints with an almost postmodern attention to point-of-view distortions. This device also goes a considerable way towards breathing real life into the engaging characters. The story is a familiar one, of course, particularly to anyone who has seen the 1992 film version. With Coppola's slightly salacious additions stripped away (Lucy is a giddy charmer here rather than a perpetually-tipsy flirt, for example), this is an often stark tale, redolent with folkloric eerieness, as fin-de-siecle scientific triumphalism battles vainly against an older, altogether darker set of laws. However many versions of the story you've seen, _Dracula_ remains a surprisingly rich and unnerving read - all the richer, indeed, for the cultural resonance it has picked up since it was first published. We have seen Jonathan Harker reach his slow realisation of the true nature of the Count countless times, yet this knowing shiver only adds to the creeping unease when Harker first enters Dracula's castle. This a gem of a novel, waiting to be rediscovered.
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Summary: The original; the best
Review: So you think you know all about Dracula? Seen the dozens of movies, including the badly misnamed "Bram Stoker's Dracula". Read the hundreds of vampire novels? Big fan of "Buffy"? Tired of the subject? Even if you can say yes to any of the above, going back to the original novel will be well worth your while. Although the vampire legend goes back centuries in many cultures,it took an obscure writer in late 19th century England named Bram Stoker to create the basis for the most enduring and pervasive of horror characters. At times, the dialogue is almost ludicrous (where in the world did Stoker get the idea of how Americans talk?), the plot drags a little in the middle, the language is often too flowery and ornate for 21st century tastes but if you read this novel with some suspension of our modern tastes (and don't play amateur psychologist and try to overanalyse it), it is a great story. Love, horror, history, culture, suspense, action - this book has it all and even the best movie, book and/or miniseries has yet to fully do it justice. The characters of the Count and Van Helsing are written so well that it is easy to see why they are classics, but most of the other characters - especially Johnathan and Mina Harker - are also memorable. The best of the action and narrative take place in the opening and closing chapters, while in Transylvania, but the entire book is one that any horror fan should add to their collection.
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Summary: It's a shame what Hollywood did to this
Review: I can't much improve on two reviews here chiding Hollywood for moving so far away from Bram Stoker's original vision. In the future, I will suggest to people to read the book before watching a single Dracula movie. The size of the book IS daunting, but once one is finished reading it, you get a better picture of the Count. There is one thing that a reader should NOT look forward to when reading Stoker's masterpiece and that is any sexual overtones. Francis Ford Coppola's version of the book took that concept and ran with it (although I love that version!). In fact, Mina couldn't stand the Count and played a very active part in his destruction (something that few movie versions, if any, address). Fantastic read!
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Summary: Surprisingly Fresh
Review: The story of Dracula is a tired subject to modern readers. USA films production of the historic Vlad the Impaler, Hollywood productions of rewritten stories with new twists, and the entire (now hopefully dead) Goth movement have completely clouded the beauty, intrigue, and mystique of the original Dracula. It begins with a train-ride into Transylvania, but it takes readers far closer to intellectual ecstasy than many other books of its type. It is not a book for mild entertainment, rather it is a work that requires thought. Imagination cannot help but flourish as Stoker vividly describes his characters in appearance, speech, and emotion. Their surroundings are equally portrayed as real, common-place scenes. There is little of a supernatural bent to the work, really. It is the essential frightening look at what could happen to ordinary people in ordinary circumstances when something sinister and something extra-ordinary meets them. The original story is so far from the modern revisions that one will find it surprisingly fresh. It is like going through an entire genre of multimedia productions before coming to the one gem of them all. In this case, the original. Many are intimidated by the book's size and their preconceptions from modern mistakes. I believe that the real Bram Stoker's, 'Dracula' will excite and please more than people realize. I have bought copies for numerous reading-partners who have equally enjoyed this book when we have disagreed on so many others. 'Dracula' is well worth the consideration.
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