Of all the Victorian literature I've read, I think Dracula has been the most legitimately gripping. While it's full of themes and proposes philosophical discussions, it's still an engaging story first and foremost with some good scenes of horror and dread to keep you reading.
The book is divided into arcs of sorts. First, Jonathan Harker slowly learns on a trip to Castle Dracula that the aristocrat he's selling a house to is an undead evil monster. Then, Dracula comes to Harker's home in England and begins preying on his fiancee's friend Lucy, whereupon Dutch scientist Van Helsing comes in for a vigilant battle to save Lucy's life. Simultaneously, a mental patient named Renfield is studied as he seems to be beholden to Dracula's will, and then the party begins to plan against the Count once the pieces are all put together.
It could be argued that the massive pop culture awareness of vampire lore that this book codified and popularized has dampened the surprise, but I think it's just transformed the horror into another type—knowing exactly what the characters are facing while they are still clueless. Dramatic irony has changed the reading of the horror mystery into just "no, please, don't you know what you're up against?"...but that's still effective. The relatively obscure nature of the actual book's narrative also makes the story fairly surprising and some scares work really well for it.
The book is also very very dated. Ethnic groups are stereotyped and patronized and misogyny is prominent. Vampirism is used as an allegory for the supposed evils of sexuality and that's not fun, particularly in the way vampirism has women brutalized and "fallen" afterward in a mishandled way of evoking sexual assault as trauma. The fears of sexual deviancy awakening in "pure" women make the horror of mindless monsters less fun when those are unpeeled. Religious themes are also heavy. Still, the female lead is harmed by not being included in the men's work and does a lot to further the investigation and planning, so who knows. Vampires are fun and scary and the surface reading of the book works, but their metaphorical application here speaks to values that don't age well.
This is a good horror book with questionable values. Fun for a scare, but certainly of its time.
A successfully creepy book preying on unsympathetic fears.
Of all the Victorian literature I've read, I think Dracula has been the most legitimately gripping. While it's full of themes and proposes philosophical discussions, it's still an engaging story first and foremost with some good scenes of horror and dread to keep you reading.
The book is divided into arcs of sorts. First, Jonathan Harker slowly learns on a trip to Castle Dracula that the aristocrat he's selling a house to is an undead evil monster. Then, Dracula comes to Harker's home in England and begins preying on his fiancee's friend Lucy, whereupon Dutch scientist Van Helsing comes in for a vigilant battle to save Lucy's life. Simultaneously, a mental patient named Renfield is studied as he seems to be beholden to Dracula's will, and then the party begins to plan against the Count once the pieces are all put together.
It could be argued that the massive pop culture awareness of vampire lore that this book codified and popularized has dampened the surprise, but I think it's just transformed the horror into another type—knowing exactly what the characters are facing while they are still clueless. Dramatic irony has changed the reading of the horror mystery into just "no, please, don't you know what you're up against?"...but that's still effective. The relatively obscure nature of the actual book's narrative also makes the story fairly surprising and some scares work really well for it.
The book is also very very dated. Ethnic groups are stereotyped and patronized and misogyny is prominent. Vampirism is used as an allegory for the supposed evils of sexuality and that's not fun, particularly in the way vampirism has women brutalized and "fallen" afterward in a mishandled way of evoking sexual assault as trauma. The fears of sexual deviancy awakening in "pure" women make the horror of mindless monsters less fun when those are unpeeled. Religious themes are also heavy. Still, the female lead is harmed by not being included in the men's work and does a lot to further the investigation and planning, so who knows. Vampires are fun and scary and the surface reading of the book works, but their metaphorical application here speaks to values that don't age well.
This is a good horror book with questionable values. Fun for a scare, but certainly of its time.