Full disclosure, I had no idea I’d ordered the edited and abridged version from the library, but I decided to give it a go anyway since the abridged version was still some 400 pages. I never had to read “Dracula” in school, and while, like most people, I’m aware of the general premise of the story, my goal of reading at least one classic a year put this on my spooky-reads list for Halloween.
Long story short, A real estate agent, Jonathan Harker, goes to Transylvania to meet a client before his move to England. The client is a creepy dude named Count Dracula who basically traps Jonathan in his castle. Jonathan realizes Dracula is a vampire and escapes, but doesn’t get to England before Dracula has moved. Dracula arrives in England and immediately turns Jonathan’s wife’s friend, Lucy, into a vampire. Lucy’s old boyfriend calls in his friend, Dr. Van Helsing, who’s apparently into the occult, and they try to save her. They fail. She dies, she rises, they stick a stake in her and call it a day. But while that drama’s going on, Dracula finds Minna, Jonathan’s wife, and turns her next. Now that the men-folk know what’s what, they go after Dracula and chase him all the way back to Transylvania, where they get into a fight with some locals and then stick a stake in Dracula and call it a day. Minna is saved and everyone goes home shaking their heads about how weird it all was.
Was there anything spooky about it? Not really. But while I didn’t enjoy this book, it’s not lost on me that the source material is often nowhere near as good as the millions of adaptions that it inspired. In typical Victorian writing style, the story meanders around where the baddies are ‘bad’ and the goodies are ‘good,’ and there’s no clear motivation or complications plaguing the characters other than the plot itself. We never fully understand why exactly Dracula wants to move to England or why he only seems to turn young women. We have no idea what motivates him to imprison Jonathan Harker in Transylvania or why Minna is his victim. It’s just plot, plot, plot.
I did like that the story is told from all the different character perspectives, and Minna has a very active role in a very male storyline. But other than that, the book landed fairly flat for me, and I think I’ll read a few adaptions instead of seeking out the original, unabridged novel.
2 stars.