Dracula (Part 1: Chapters 1 - 8)
Fall is here, and that means prime spooky season - the perfect time to launch a horror book club! There are few things I love more than horror and yapping about books, so I decided to combine my passions. Cheers to more opportunities to talk about scary stuff!
My intended cadence will be one book a month, and I plan to do videos and blogs for each book. If you have suggestions or ideas for future readings, let me know!
We are kicking things off with a classic - Dracula by Bram Stoker. I am reading the 2015 Barnes & Noble edition, but there are lots of versions of this book available online for free. I am going to break this book into four sections, in part because it is long and action-packed, but also because I always have too much to say. In this post, I will be covering chapters 1 through 8. Already, there is death, romance, mystery, and lots of foreshadowing.
I will not provide a plot summary here, mostly to save us both time and energy - if you want a summary, check out my YouTube video on part one! This post will mostly hit on themes that stuck out to me, some outstanding questions I have, and other thoughts about this book so far. So let’s get things going.
Let’s start with the narrative style: Stoker chose an epistolary style narrative rather than a more traditional omniscient third-person narration or a single first-person narrator. He tells the story through journals, letters, articles, logs, and other written correspondence, and the result is a multi-vocal recounting of the events from different perspectives. His statement that “a history almost at variance with the possibilities of latter-day belief may stand forth as simple fact” demonstrates how he uses this format to toy with the notion of fact vs. fiction. In fact, he pulls inspiration straight from actual events when he describes the wreck of the Demeter, a plot point based on the real-life Dmitry, which crashed onto Whitby’s shore in 1885.
Because he is sharing the story through these written accounts, he cannot give a direct narration of events. Instead, he pieces together the plot through different perspectives and experiences, which the reader has to connect. For example, when the Demeter crashes onto the shore and a large dog is seen jumping off and running inland, it is not clear to the news reporter writing the article that the creature might be some age-old vampire exiting the ship. Or, when Mina finds the sleepwalking Lucy in the cemetery with a shadowy figure looming over her, Mina doesn’t know there is a vampire afoot. But we readers are in the know. We can tell that those pin-prick marks on Lucy’s neck are, in fact, teeth marks.
I think this narrative style makes the text more engaging and improves the pacing of the story. One of my hesitations for starting this book was the (unfounded) notion that the writing would be dry and dense. Instead, the different styles, forms, and voices incorporated throughout the chapters keep the action moving, allow for character development without long exposition, and build more and more tension through the slow release of information.
In that same vein, I was pleasantly surprised by just how scary this book actually is overall. I fear that modern horror (and the fact that I have consumed so much of it) has made me a bit jaded when it comes to how frightening I find different media. I thought that a book written over 100 years ago, especially one with such a famous plot, would not be that scary, or the horror would be rooted in a more general, atmospheric eeriness. I was wrong. I find this book getting under my skin in surprising ways. The scene where a distraught mother comes to the castle and begs for the return of her baby that was kidnapped by the Count, only to be torn apart by a pack of wolves? Horrifying. The image of Dracula scaling the castle walls like a lizard? Gross. The description of a ship crashing to shore with only one person on it, a dead captain tied with such force to the wheel that the cord is cutting into his skin? Haunting.
On that note, I will pivot to a lighter topic: the role of friendship. I was surprised by how interested I was in the dynamics between friends in this book. The most obvious example is Mina and Lucy, who have a deep connection and take care of one another while their respective fiancés are travelling. I loved the reprieve that their letters give after Jonathan’s harrowing experiences in the castle (talk about contrast). Lucy shares about her romantic drama, which feels like a rom-com plot. What is up with that trio of men? Did they know each other before they all fell for Lucy? Do they hang out as friends normally, or did they just want to hang out and celebrate Arthur because they are happy for the engaged couple? Will that even matter later in the story?
What I was most intrigued by was the intimacy of the women’s friendship. Mina describes Lucy with a great deal of adoration and is very intent on taking care of her during her somnambulation. She is concerned with the health of Lucy’s mother and with making sure Lucy’s reputation is not ruined by her late-night sleepwalking incident. She constantly monitors Lucy’s well-being. If she is overly protective and paranoid, I cannot blame her. She is anxious about her AWOL fiancé, Jonathan, and is starting to recognize the weird events happening in town around her (albeit too slowly for my tastes; she needs to ask more questions). I would probably be stressed, too.
Lucy and Mina made me think about my friendships and modern friend dynamics more broadly. I am so curious about how friendship as a general social phenomenon has changed over time and how it varies across cultures. We all know that we have an epidemic of loneliness and isolation right now due to living during late-stage capitalism, so maybe that is why I am so drawn to the idea of interpersonal connection. That could be a whole thesis in itself (or maybe a whole separate book club series).
In addition to the two women, there are several other friendships and pairings that I found intriguing. Mina forms a casual friendship with an old man in Whitby named Mr. Swales, who seems like the loud, opinionated old man that exists in every small town. He ends up portending the yet-to-be-revealed horrors of Dracula’s arrival by talking about his fear of death and his own mortality. Unfortunately, he does die soon after, apparently of fear (a truly horrible way to go).
You can’t call Renfield and Dracula friends, but they do have a distinct power dynamic in which Renfield seeks power through his devotion to the Count. Dracula pretends to sort of befriend Jonathan as a way of disarming him at the beginning of his stay. The responsibilities of different relationships, be they transactional or personal, healthy or toxic, are a big driving force in this book. Heck, Dracula needs to consume victims to maintain his power, and he needs lawyers, business associates, and his devotee, Renfield, to get work done, so in a twisted way, he is even deeply dependent on others (no one is an island!).
One last topic I wanted to discuss before rounding out this first post is the connection with another famous vampire novel, Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. The first (and second) time I read Salem’s Lot, I was not aware of the subtle influences King drew from Dracula. Obviously, the Count looms over so many subsequent vampire narratives due to his immense cultural influence. However, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities in how Barlow relies on business transactions to transport his body to his newly purchased home in a new town and on his human assistant, Straker, to conduct his personal affairs. It seems like vampires are savvy strategists.
I will pause there so as not to make this first post too long. I have more to say, but we still have three more installments! If you decide to read along, or if you have already read this book, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts. I would say no spoilers, but considering this book was published in 1897, I would say it is fair game by now.
