bleodswean (
bleodswean) wrote in
the_scent_of_lilacs2025-03-15 12:33 pm
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Bram Stoker - Dracula Book Club
Book discussion here. Starting with Jonathan Harker's Journal
The Source Material, eh?
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Dracula, by Bram Stoker.
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This is FANTASTIC stuff. Stoker can write and he can certainly depict a character and spin a story. He could have, possibly, used a more skilled editor, but I think today his biggest hurdle to being recognized as a brilliant writer is the fact that we all know the story!!! Shelly has a similar hurdle, as does Austen and perhaps Shakespeare. Now the novel must be read for artistic interpretation and to luxuriate in the original creator's vision, the world HE built.
I've highlighted so many quotes and will try to share some of the more astonishing ones.
I like Novel!Harker. He seems less quaint and dorky than Movie!Harkers. So, the films do round him out quite a bit.
Also, his arc in the novel is NOTHING like his experience in the castle in the films. What's that all about????
Here's a quote that stopped me dead in my tracks:
I was not sleepy, as the long sleep yesterday had fortified me; but I could not help experiencing that chill which comes over one at the coming of the dawn, which is like, in its way, the turn of the tide. They say that people who are near death die generally at the change to the dawn or at the turn of the tide; any one who has when tired, and tied as it were to his post, experienced this change in the atmosphere can well believe it.
Foreshadowing much?
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And I agree, when (some) modern folks read Dracula, they may not realize that this is THE source material, the original granddaddy of all the Dracula / Nosferatu versions that have followed.
Yes, novel Harker is a more interesting character that how he's depicted in films.
As I re-read the book, I'll have more thoughts to share.
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Let's do a journal or missive challenge!
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Jonathan's time in the castle is, like everything, is usually very rushed in the movies. It's easily the best part of the book for me, though I wish it did more with developing Dracula's character and exploring his castle, which Stoker appears to be ultimately disinterested in doing.
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I'm really really really enjoying the book. I will be posting more soon.
Happy to have an educated voice join us!