Dracula

Bibliography
Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Read by David Horovitch, Jamie Parker, Joseph Kloska and Alison Pettitt.
Naxos Audiobooks. 2015. Audiobook.

image from: http://www.naxosaudiobooks.com/0190.htm


My Thoughts
I started listening to this book during a full moon. When the narrator describes the full moon in the story, as Jonathan first sets out to the Count's home, I thought that was eerie.

The story's pace is slow. The description is superb. The violence is hardly there by modern standards. I was so proud to finally have this "classic" story read (even if I actually listened to it). I made connections about who Van Helsing is and now know the "rules" of vampires. I kept thinking about how popular "vampire stories" are now, and in part, without Stoker's story, I'm not sure we'd even have the genre.

Chapter Two gives a vivid description of Dracula. I could see him in my mind throughout the story. He is not the Count from Sesame Street! HA!

When the other characters' stories began, I wondered why we were going off in another direction with the story and not staying with the Count and Jonathan. Listening to Mina & Lucy's letters back and forth made progress in the story slow for me, but then they finally connected to the Count.

I liked Van Helsing's role in the story. I was amazed at how fast he could travel from England to Amsterdam, so I wondered for awhile if he was "inflicted" or not.

There was a reference to a character being a "stranger in a strange land." I wondered if that is where Robert Heinlein got the title for his book.

I'm glad that Mina was a strong, female character. She played a crucial role in helping make the connections to hunt down Dracula.