History Trivia / Dracula

** When Van Helsing realizes that Lucy is anaemic because her blood is being drained by Dracula, he orders that her three suitors give her blood transfusions to save her life. Transfusions were performed during this time period, but blood types had yet to be discovered. Depending on the blood-types of the parties involved, Lucy's transfusions could have been fatal in their own right. In the story, they are only unsuccessful because [[SuperPersistentPredator Dracula keeps preying on her]].[[note]]It's worth noting that this does not necessarily make it unrealistic: it's possible, though unlikely, that all of Lucy's blood donors could have had blood types compatible with hers by sheer dumb luck.[[/note]] However, the Victorians not knowing blood types is actually part of what makes Lucy's illness scary, which is where this trope comes in, making it frightening to Victorians and modern readers for similar but opposite reasons--then it would've been a risky, cutting-edge procedure that worked or failed seemingly at random, whereas nowadays, it's a normal procedure performed primitively, and everyone (except, critically, the characters) knows exactly why it might fail.

** When Van Helsing realizes that Lucy is anaemic because her blood is being drained by Dracula, he orders that her three suitors give her blood transfusions to save her life. Transfusions were performed during this time period, but blood types had yet to be discovered. Depending on the blood-types of the parties involved, Lucy's transfusions could have been fatal in their own right. In the story, they are only unsuccessful because [[SuperPersistentPredator Dracula keeps preying on her]].[[note]]It's worth noting that this does not necessarily make it unrealistic: it's possible, though unlikely, that all of Lucy's blood donors could have had blood types compatible with hers by sheer dumb luck.[[/note]] However, the Victorians not knowing blood types is actually part of what makes Lucy's illness scary, which is where this trope comes in, making it frightening to Victorians and modern readers for similar but opposite reasons--then it would've been a risky, cutting-edge procedure that worked or failed seemingly at random, whereas nowadays, it's a normal procedure performed primitively, and everyone knows exactly why it might fail.

** He also never said "[[IDoNotDrinkWine I never drink... wine]]" in the book; that line comes from the 1931 movie.

** When Van Helsing realizes that Lucy is anaemic because her blood is being drained by Dracula, he orders that her three suitors give her blood transfusions to save her life. Transfusions were performed during this time period, but blood types had yet to be discovered. Depending on the blood-types of the parties involved, Lucy's transfusions could have been fatal in their own right. In the story, they are only unsuccessful because [[SuperPersistentPredator Dracula keeps preying on her]].[[note]]It's worth noting that this does not necessarily make it unrealistic: All of Lucy's suitors could have shared her blood type or been O by sheer dumb luck, which is unlikely, but possible, or Lucy could have been AB+; "Universal Receiver".[[/note]] However, the Victorians not knowing blood types is actually part of what makes Lucy's illness scary, which is where this trope comes in, making it frightening to Victorians and modern readers for similar but opposite reasons--then it would've been a risky, cutting-edge procedure that worked or failed seemingly at random, whereas nowadays, it's a normal procedure performed primitively, and everyone knows exactly why it might fail.

** According to Stoker's notes, Dracula's castle could have become a CollapsingLair when [[LoadBearingBoss Dracula was killed]], complete with erupting volcano. Ironically, the ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}'' games would [[OnceAnEpisode run with the idea]] decades later. Freda Warrington would reuse the volcano idea during the climax of ''Literature/{{Dracula the Undead|1997}}''.

** Dracula did ''not'' speak with VampireVords in the original book--in fact, the story even makes it clear he has SurprisinglyGoodEnglish. The accent would come from later adaptations of the story and parodies of it. And in the original book, Dracula never once said "I vant to suck your blood!" and he wouldn't have been caught undead saying "Bleh, bleh bleh!" The original Dracula was far too proud a character to speak in such a manner or accent. Part of the reason he invited Jonathan was to practice his English, so he would not stand out as a foreigner when in England.

* FollowTheLeader: A classic novel being e-mailed to subscribers in short instalments turned out to be so successful that several similar newsletters have sprung up for other classic novels (including ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'', the ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' short stories, ''Literature/MobyDick'', ''Literature/{{Carmilla}}'', ''Literature/{{Waverley}}'', ''Literature/LesMiserables'', ''Literature/GuyMannering'' and goodness knows how many others).