I am a big fan of all things vampy, and it occurred to me recently that although I know the vampire legends, about the garlic and rosaries, I had never actually read the source that originally publicised these old myths and legends.
The story begins as Jonathon Harker travels to Transylvania to the castle of his client, Count Dracula, whom is planning a move to England. Harker witnesses great horrors and discovers that the Count is far from human. Later the story transfers to London, where young women complain of nightmares and wake with puncture marks on their neck, children are found pale and lifeless after playing on the heath. Dracula is in Britain and praying on the fresh blood of the young to restore his own youth.
It is a epistolary novel, one which in which the story is told through compilation of diary entries, letters and newspaper articles. Whilst this gives a vital insight into the though process of the characters, I found it frustrating that the one narrative left out was that of the Count himself, who is in my opinion the most intersting character.
Though a little long winded, I did really enjoy the story, however my reception of it was perhaps marred by my current awareness of the legend. In the Victorian era this novel would have taken place in real time, the book describes a vampire in the London they were actually living in. With the Victorian era itself foreign to me the fantasy element was over prominent; it is also harder to shock one who has had access to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight, True Blood and Count Duckular!
I now feel quite inspired by all the explicit imagery used by Stoker; Dracula sweeping into bedrooms and feeding on the neck of sleeping women, a creeping mist flowing over the hills and under the window frame, pale pallid skin and pointed teeth, blood dripping onto white nightgowns....
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