Dracula (Wordsworth Classics)

I have to admit that I purchased Dracula almost as an afterthought and left it to gather dust on the bookshelf for a year. I started reading it though a few days ago and having just finished it am glad to impart my two cents. What can I say?....It was gripping. Stoker is proved as a skilled writer for his superb balance of suspense, mood, reasoning, action and macabre imagery. The documentative style utterly had me in the thralls of the characters and their predicaments; even more so when something troubling or chilling occurred or threatened to do so serving only to pull me deeper and deeper into the nightmarish reality of the Count. Several other reviews point out issues with the pacing especially with regards to the middle of the novel. I don't believe this to be an issue although I will be honest and say I had to employ an act of will in order to get by 2 or 3 chapters in the last quarter of it. One might attribute this to the fact that I was up all night finishing it though. :) There are several contrived scenarios regarding character proximity which have to be taken with a fairly large grain of salt but since it was quite obviously intentional it poses no problem as long as the reader can suspend belief. Van Helsing can be long winded at times which in and of itself would not be troublesome but for the fact that his English is only passably grammatically correct which forced me to at times jump back a line or even paragraph or two to discern his true meaning. There is a flip side to this coin however as I can't imagine Stoker painting him with a different brush. It is therefore that Van Helsing's mode of speech is both a blessing and a curse. Stoker weaves his plot and characters tightly, interlacing polarising myriad feelings and themes of love and hate, sadness and joy, hope and despair, sickness and health and ultimately life and death. An emotional roller coaster that is worth your attention and at £2 what more could you ask for? In closing you may wonder why I have not touched deeply upon the antagonist. I will leave that to Stoker. "It seemed as if the whole awful creature were simply gorged with blood; he lay like a filthy leech, exhausted with his repletion."

It seemed about time that to read this gothic classic. It didn't seem right to read it during the summer, given it's dark nature, so I waited for cold, dark and rainy November before reading it. Like so many classics, I could have given you a reasonable appraisal of the plot before I'd even read it. However, vampire folklore has become so convoluted in recent years with the pop culture of Buffy, Twilight and True Blood that it could be hard to discern the wheat from the chaff. However, I hoped to come to this with as open a mind as possible. The book is divided into two very distinct parts. The opening third of the book is set in Transylvania, and gives the account of Jonathan Harker's time as a guest in Castle Dracula. This section reads almost like a short story, with the rest of the book being tagged on the end to make it into a novel. The style of writing is that of a composition of letters, journals, telegrams and memoranda from various characters, although Stoker has spent little effort in distinguishing the individual voices from their writings. i.e. all the characters write with the same mannerisms. This makes the book feel like an early literary equivalent of "found footage" films such as The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, and I think that they do owe some debt to Stoker for this style. This first third is an absolute masterpiece and the zenith of gothic fiction. The remainder, where the action moves to England, is still good, but doesn't quite live up to the blistering opening. There are a number of new characters suddenly introduced into the plot, though the author only expands on a few of these, with 2 characters in particular, having a very similar role in the book, though with little to distinguish between them. The flow of the book is very good for the most part, though Stoker's keen interest in hypnotism led him to use it as a plot device in some places, which left me feeling a bit cheated, considering how contrived it felt. But that shouldn't detract from a classic book. While it has been copied and derived from since, none have come close to Stoker's original. I would highly recommend this to anyone considering reading it.

This book gets off to a terrific start with The Journal of Jonathan Harker, where the young lawyer's visit to Transylvania takes the successive forms of an exciting trip, then a terrifying journey, then a nightmare imprisonment from which Jonathan is lucky to escape with his life. Following this, the letters between Lucy and Mina, dealing with domestic trivia, offer the sharpest possible contrast - until events at Whitby and London cast an altogether different light on matters. At times the book drags, in the way that 19th-century novels usually do, though there are a number of exciting incidents which kept me turning the pages. However, nothing in the later chapters matches Jonathan Harker's adventures in Transylvania. This is partly because of the presence of Dracula himself during these early incidents , whilst when he is in Britain we see very little of the man himself, just his various manifestations. Little effort is made to differentiate between the main male characters, the vampire-hunters, except through accents (ie Murray and van Helsing). In a novel dealing with the supernatural, the main principal is that the events should link up in a believable manner, that the narrative should be internally consistent. We are prepared to suspend our disbelief just so long as the author does not keep making extra demands on our credulity. This is a difficult business when the writer is virtually treading new ground. Although vampires, or stories about them, had been around for a long time, Stoker laid down ground rules which are being followed to this day (mirrors, garlic, crucifixes, bats, stakes through the heart etc etc). It's hardly surprising that in pioneering this kind of fiction the writer made a number of false steps. Renfield is (IMO) a superfluous character , the "Bloofer Lady" incident is ridiculous (is no-one keeping an eye on these kiddies? Where's Plod? What about the press? Vigilantes?) and the ending is unforgiveably abrupt after the long-drawn-out chase - the reader expects and deserves a dramatic and violent showdown with the Count. In fact, Dracula's power and menace seem to be greatly diminished in the second half of the book. I thought also that van Helsing should have shared his suspicions about Dracula's activities regarding Lucy - he should surely have been able to save her if he taken Seward, Morris etc.into his confidence. The narrative method - journals, diaries etc from several of the characters- is extremely effective and generally well-handled. It adds immediacy and credibility to the narrative. The originality of the idea, the many vividly described scenes, and above all the opening Jonathan Harker chapters make this a brilliant read. It's infinitely better than Frankenstein, a book with which it is often compared.

Classic story and possibly my favourite story ever told. This edition is deliciously satisfying in that it has a great flop to it. It’s a lightweight paperback too so the flop was completely unexpected, but it makes ready a really comfy experience.

This and the other books I bought for my granddaughter at University. She is very happy with them, especially The Miller's Tale with the space for making notes.

Great purchase, I havn't read it yet but the price was good, it's the perfect size for carrying in your coat pocket to read if you're travelling by bus or train. Delivery time ⌚ was very good, all round a good purchasing experience.

An invaluable edition of the classic Gothic novel . A must have edition for all Bram Stoker fans .

Bought for my son for an Xmas stocking filler - he is very pleased with it and enjoying it immensely.

Si tratta di un testo che ho acquistato per l'Università e l'ho trovato veramente ottimo. Ciò che mi è piaciuto è la carta utilizzata per il libro, ma ancor di più l'introduzione del testo, che ne spiega i particolari e i significati che altrimenti non sarebbero riconoscibili dal lettore. Spedizione ed imballaggio ottimi grazie al servizio Amazon (nel mio caso Prime). Trovo quest'edizione particolarmente eccezionale, poichè presente un'introduzione molto chiara, è tascabile, molto pratica da portare in Università, in treno, in autobus, in metro etc! La carta inoltre è molto piacevole al tatto e non è plastificata, permette dunque di appuntare note e traduzioni senza particolari problemi. Lo consiglio molto, come consiglio l'acquisto di qualsiasi altro libro di questa collana.

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Tyvärr så höll inte denna måttet. Samtliga Sid-kanter var problem med

A classic and affordable! Took me a while to read all of it but I loved all of it. Seeing the story unfold through the perspective of different characters is one of my favorite things in literature. The horror and mystery of Dracula has made it one of my favorite books.

Great book, decent cover and quailty.