Dracul

‘'A crescent moon dangling in the sky offered the thinnest of illuminations, bathing the world in nothing but faint outlines, silhouettes, and shadows. The tower of Artane Castle was barely visible in the distance, lost behind rolling hills and farmland doted with the small homes of our neighbours. Beyond that were the hazel and birch trees of the forest, their inky branches scratching at the night sky in anticipation of a pending shower.''Bram Stoker's Dracula is a novel most of us have read. It is a work inspired by still unclear sources. Was it Vlad the Impaler or Countess Bathory that inspired him? Whatever it was, Stoker produced a novel that became a ‘'classic'', justifiably or not. I thought that Dracul would be a literary effort to trace the thoughts and the sources that led Bram Stoker to create the (absolutely imaginary) Count figure. I can verify that the atmosphere in Dracul is well-constructed and the characters are interesting and (moderately) developed. However, my reading experience as a whole was extremely disappointing. There were times when I felt that the writers actually insulted my intelligence.Ireland, 1850s. The time of the terrible famine. In the Stoker household, the children are protected from the sorrow of the ones who aren't privileged but they cannot be protected from strange forces that come from a world beyond our understanding. Ellen Crone, though, is there to protect Bram, Matilda, and Thornley. She is the mysterious nanny whose eyes seem to change colour once sickness strikes the house, whose face changes every time Matilda draws her portrait. Ellen is the angel that watches over the children but sometimes, the angels wear black. This will become obvious a few years later...Our story is told through the eyes of Bram, Matilda, and Thornley, spanning the decades from the 1850s to the 1890s. Told in diary entries, letters and in the usual third-person narration, the novel is written in an engaging style and Part I benefits from the multiple perspectives. The background of the novel is exceptional, no doubt about that. Apart from the mystery of the story itself and the alluring blue-eyed woman in black, we get the moon, wolves howling, snakes under stones, naked branches, windows opening by themselves, reflections in the glass, gargoyles, bogs, castles, nightly forests and a few (mishandled) traits of the Vampire tradition that was born in the Balkan region.It takes much more, though, to produce an actual work of Literature...Let me start with the least of the problems. Whitby is a magical place, legendary and haunting. It hurts me to say that the legends associated with the region and its famous abbey weren't treated with the proper respect by the writers. Throughout the novel, there were parts that I would characterize as extremely graphic. Even I had to proceed with caution. In the first part of the novel this was very effective. However, the rest of the book almost read like a 70s Hammer Horror movie. In fact, I think that Hammer films were more plausible. In the end, I just couldn't take it seriously.‘'I'll be okay''? (repeated dozens of times!!!), ‘'I'll be right back''? ‘'Could you just..''? In Ireland, in the 1850s? Are the writers joking? It was so irritating to find these linguistic abominations in a novel that is supposed to be an atmospheric and detailed read. In fact, most of the dialogue ‘'sounded'' odd, unnatural. Vampèry speaks like a 21st-century lawyer in a silly TV-series. In addition, Matilda's letters were a stupid inclusion which resulted in repetition, boredom, and anger on my part. Plus, the feeling that this was an unnecessary long novel was extremely tense. Certain parts seemed ludicrous, cheesy. Vampires writing their memoirs? God, no! Throw a melodramatic love story in the mix and there's me running away faster than my shadow! Also: ‘'We will triumph or we will fail together.''What? No. This is NOT Literature. It may be escapism, I'll give you that. But I am not a reader who seeks ‘'escapism'', this is not what I am looking for in a book. And now, personal rant time: The parts that tried to explain the origins of the Count have nothing to do with the historical facts. Frankly, I am tired and sick at heart to see Vlad Tepeș distorted for the sake of Gothic gimmicks. Was he violent? Well, obviously. People need to read some History...He was the man who stood against one of the vilest forces at the time, the barbaric Ottoman Empire. It is discouraging to see that writers who are too lazy to create stories of their own use historical figures to produce utter trash. The same thing happens with the stories about Countess Bathory. The Author's Notes attempted to shed some light on the inspiration behind the books but they are didactic and preachy. And I wouldn't bet my bookcase on the authenticity of the supposedly ‘'true'' sources.Did I see the connection between the characters in Dracul and Bram Stoker's novel? I did and in that sense, one could say that was all that mattered. But for me, it is too little. Almost everything else ended up in a bloody mess (no pun intended...) and speaking strictly for myself, this book was a chore to read. If you want to read an actually well-written novel that leaves poor Vlad at peace and deals with Folklore, dashing vampires, beautiful cities and the Devil, then read [b:Fear And Servant 9415878 Fear And Servant Mirjana Novaković https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1331904974s/9415878.jpg 14300196] by the Serbian writer Mirjana Novaković. This is what I call ‘'Literature''...My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com

Well written and a suitable prequel to the classic.

The change of perspective for Part III was a bit jarring, I felt it would have worked better if it had been told in the journal/flashback style of the rest of the book.

Overall a very fine horror novel, and if you are into the Dracula legend at all, it is a very worthy read.

4 STARS

I don't usually give up on books but when I got to the scene where one of the Stoker kids is eating saltwater taffy in 1850s Ireland I knew it was time to tap out. There are numerous anachronistic errors throughout, some linguistical, some geographical, some historical but I gritted my teeth and tried to push through. “Saltwater taffy” (a term basically unknown in Ireland, a candy which Wikipedia tells me wasn't even invented in America until the 1880s) was the last straw. I guess I'll never know if Bram Stoker goes on to eat Twinkies and watch baseball.

* Numerous modern words and phrases, along with American spellings in what are supposed to be journal entries and newspaper reports
** Clontarf is described as being “bordered by a park to the east and with views of the ‘harbor' to the west” Any look at a map of Dublin will tell you how wrong that is.
*** Artane Castle was completely demolished in the 1820s; While photography existed in the mid 19th century, it was in its infancy and newspapers certainly weren't printing photographs, let alone of local criminals in what was then rural Ireland.

This started out as a solid four-star read for me, which dwindled as I reached part III and read through to the end. The seams really started to show, small errors recurred enough to become real annoyances, and I just got bored and impatient. If only this had been edited with more attention to detail and more dedication to trim the fat! What could have been a fun and spooky romp at 300 pages became too much of a shoddy slog at 500.

But before dwelling on deficiencies, I'll talk about what's good:
- The idea is charming - what if Bram Stoker was inspired by events in his life to write Dracula? This is a lot of fun to explore.
- The characters of Ellen and Matilda are strongly drawn and each sympathetic and compelling in her own way.
- There's some good spooky stuff, well-coupled with mystery. Going in we all know Ellen must be some kind of supernatural whatsit that could inspire a vampire story. But her origin and motivations really captured my curiosity, and watching the kids investigate and find creepy clues gave a nice atmosphere of dread.
- I liked the hints at Stoker's real development as a writer - his dissatisfaction with civil service and insistence on writing theater reviews, his roommate creepily collecting flies, his reflection on bedtime stories about mythical Irish monsters. It makes me want to read a non-fiction account!

And now, what detracted from all that:
- It's pretty clear that this was originally written as a more conventional narrative, then refitted into the “found documents” format. And probably THEN reorganized to have “Now” sections punctuating the journal entries & letters.
- The authors frequently struggle with verb tense, attempting (and failing) to make the “Now” sections present-tense. This results in cringe-inducing passages like “the roaches parted . . . as men scream all around them.”
- As reviewer Roman Clodia mentions, the found documents format adds nothing - rather than creating unique points of view, underlining different levels of knowledge, or creating any mystery or tension, it simply passes the narration ball. At least once, a character refers to himself in third person in his journal, because the authors forgot who was supposed to be writing. It's not only an embarrassing error, but it highlights how little the characters' voices are individualized.
- The world building is at first intriguing, but ultimately confused and lackluster. What are the rules of vampires in this world? I'm not sure. You become a vampire by renouncing Yahweh and being recruited to Satanic Hogwarts? Or just the renouncing is enough? Or being drained by a vampire? Or do you need to drink their blood too? Wait, there are characters who do that but aren't actual vampires. It's kind of a mess. Similarly, Dracul is as powerful as a god at times, and pretty much an average human at others. Unless he drinks, like, a LOT of blood first? Maybe? And vampires have to sleep during the day. But Ellen never did when she lived with the Stokers, and Dracul doesn't need to except when he does.
- The authors' ending note attempts to convince us that Stoker really believed all this and Mina Harker was a real person and all kinds of nonsense that's just insulting to our intelligence and actually just undermined all that went before.

So close to being a fun, good read! I'm hoping it's optioned as a film and the necessary trimming improves these issues. It seems like a prime target for a good screenwriter and director.

Inspired by Bram Stoker's notes and other texts that he left behind, Dracul is a prequel to the events in his famous novel. This story centers on Bram himself as well as his family, who throughout much of Bram's childhood were served by a nanny with some unusual attributes. Now an adult, the strange occurrences of Bram's and his siblings' childhood are brought back to the surface as they are pulled into a living nightmare.

Similar to Dracula, Dracul is told through the journal entries and letters of various characters, alternating between past and present The tale draws you in and leaves you with a new perspective on the events of Dracula. An enjoyable read for those who liked the classic novel.