Dracula

I give 'Dracula' three stars. It was ONLY "good," and I'll explain. This book really did nothing for me as a reader. It did not grasp my attention. I wouldn't say that I was bored with the book. It's just that I didn't learn anything new of the story that I haven't already seen in the movies. So this book was tough to rate because of that. Because who hasn't seen the movie first? Exactly. We all know of the garlic and crucifixes.
I was really put off at first by the fact that this book was written in diary form. I almost didn't purchase it because of that reason. As I began to read, it didn't matter in the slightest. It still felt like I was reading a story.
On the back cover of the book, it says that today's critics see the story of Dracula having undertones of Victorian repression of the erotic and the fear of a womans sexuality. This is the reason why most people want to read this book.
I didn't like the fact that there was no explanation as to how Count Dracula came to be. As book lover's know, we LOVE detail! The last couple of chapters were very suspenseful and I loved how the book ended. I usually don't like how classic literature books end.
There were some spirituality to the story which wasn't surprising considering that Count Dracula was an evil creature. It's usually good vs. evil. I have to say that I gave out a little yelp when the men in the story used the Catholic Host to ward off Count Dracula. Obviously this story isn't true but it still made me feel that way about the Host. Catholics know that you are to recieve the Host immediately by mouth as soon as you recieve it. I can only imagine what Catholics thought of at the time that 'Dracula' was published, back in 1897. 'Dracula' has never been out of publication. Wow. Amazing.
Charlotte Stoker wrote her son Bram Stoker a letter and told him that she thought that his book 'Dracula' was just as good as Mary Shelly's 'Frankenstein.' She went on to say that her son's novel had originality and terror and that Poe was no where to be found! Yikes!! Edgar Allan Poe died when Bram was two. Hey, you can't blame a Mom supporting her son!
I thought that this story was very original if not genius for the author to come up with such and imaginative creature. It really is amazing. And the author did a fabulous job convincing the reader that Count Dracula was real. Mr. Stoker has you asking yourself, "There's no vampires right?" No! And thank God for that!! Just what we DON'T need in this life, Vampires!! Also the author makes you question if you would kill anyone. No! Absolutely NOT!! But would you kill the Un-Dead to set their souls free?! Hey wait a minute and lets get into "reality!" Thank goodness that there are NO such things as Vampires!! You can see the men struggling with this in the story. As if the story was real or something.
It makes you wonder about these author's who write about such dark stories. I find myself asking this question to myself, "Was so-and-so (an author) demented in real life? Hey it makes me wonder. If not, it goes to show their amazing talent in their creative writing, to say the least.
I hope you all enjoyed my review.
Happy reading!
Anne