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From School Library Journal
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
for once I say watch the movie!,
By "jfritch53" (Pilot Point, TX United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Dracula (Paperback)
The idea of the vampire is fascinating, but Bram Stoker's book is not. I began reading this novel in the hopes that I might find more depth of character and plot than in the movie. But any hopes for this were demolished by the clumsy form, lack of a real narrator, and lack of character development. At first I found the form interesting. The whole story is related through diary/journal entries by the characters, newspaper clips, telegrams, etc. Yet by the time I had read roughly 100 pages, I was growing tired of listening to the characters bubble on about their emotions, and how beautiful everyone except Dracula is. Towards the climactic scene, the journal form begins to conflict more and more with the plot. As the actions become more time-compressed, the characters have to spend more time writing down conversations and updates to the plot. One imagines them scurrying off after anything happens to go and write it down in their diary. (I don't know anyone in real life who does this.) Also, since he is seen through the distance of the characters' point of view, Dracula has hardly any recognizable presence in the story, except as the invisible menace. Being a boring villain, he is defeated by boring, superstitious means. What reason is there for the vampire to appear in the characters' lives anyway, unless to punish them for a wild imagination and gushing diaries? The only character of interest is Dr. Van Helsing, especially when he speaks of an odd impulse to laughter that comes up at the most inopportune times, and when he speaks of the vampire's "child" brain. Otherwise, the book suffers heavily from lack of a good narrator (who would perhaps scale down some of the gratuitous sentimentalism), and so I suggest watching the Francis Ford Coppolla film instead.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
fast-paced adventure....,
By Craig Chalquist, PhD, author of TERRAPSYCHOLO... (Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Dracula (Paperback)
....but rather pulpish. It says something about a book when some of the movie versions are actually better. Good light adventure, but no real depth, with the Count being just a cardboard bad guy.He's plenty evil all right, but the more psychologically minded reader less inclined to moralizing (and flag-waving) will wonder, "What's behind this?" and not find satisfaction. If you want a tragedy with real depth to it, read Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
To read for education, not for pleasure,
This review is from: Dracula (Tor Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)
Dracula wasn't either the first or the best vampire story, but it was the first that was wildly popular. There are many reasons for its popularity, among other things because it was pretty racy for the time. Also, the vampire theme was and still is a very compelling and manifold subject. However, I suspect there is another reason for its popularity. Stories like "La morte amoureuse," by Théophile Gautier, and "Carmilla," by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, preceded Dracula by many years, and, from the point of view of literary quality, they both leave Dracula eating dust, but few people have read them. The fact is, these are pretty ambiguous stories: good and evil are not separated by neat and precise borders. They are not merely scary, they are disturbing. On the other hand, Dracula is very straightforward and simplistic. On the one hand, you have Dracula, a totally evil force, on the other, the "brave men" and Mina, who represent the forces of civilization and "therefore," they are perfectly good. In this picture, Lucy and Renfield are the most interesting characters, because they are the only ones that stand in a grey area. The "message" of the story is that you can always defeat the forces of darkness, as long as you have the right technology and the right money, and as long as the powers of civilized life are on your side. This is simply not the way it works, however.Most movie Draculas are more interesting than Stoker's Dracula. In the movies, correctly I think, they have generally tried to make Dracula more seductive, and sometimes even charming. In the book, Dracula is more like a rapist, and utterly disagreeable. You might end up rooting for him, though, disagreeable as he is, because the good guys are so nerve-grating. They are more like caricatures than real people. Harker, Seward and Lord Godalming are Ye Olde Stolid Englishmen. Mina, the "New Woman," is too much like the "Old Woman," only typing instead of sewing. But we know that they all are wonderful, because they themselves tell you so, all the time. Let's say there are some books that are important because they are good books, and others are important because of their influence: Dracula enters in the second category. I think it is still necessary to read it, for educational purposes, but not really for pleasure.
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