Reading Log - I

Dracula, by Bram Stoker

Plot: Jonathan Harker, an english solicitor, travels to Transylvania on work, and there he meets Count Dracula, a strange person who is with Jonathan at night and disapears during the day.
Curious, Jonathan starts to find out more things about this Count and gets scared.
Meanwhile, in England, life goes on until some suspicious events occur, connected with Dracula without the knowledge of anyone.
Lifes start to change...

It happens in 1897, in differente places: starts in Transylavania and then the story goes on in England, in several places.


Characters:

• Jonathan Harker - english solicitor (no certain discription); it's a strong and brave man, devoted to his work and family (wife-to-be); firstly, is very formal and even curious about the Count and Transylvania; gets curious when meeting the Count; when he finds out that is a prisioner in Dracula's Castle, he gets scared and fearing for his life.
• Count Dracula - wants to buy a property in London; old man, with moustache; strong, aquiline face; arched nostrils; lofty forehead; much hair; sharp white teeth; very pale. He is always firm and calm, and only loses his temper once (until now). Is a very misterious person, very formal and full of secrets
• Mina - Jonathan's wife-to-be (no certain discription). Brave woman, hard working. Goes to Whitby to meet Lucy, and gets excited when arrives. Likes all the misteries of the town and, after a while, starts to get more and more worried and anxious about Jonathan, from whom she has no news, and Lucy, who is apparently sick.
• Lucy - Mina's friend. Sweet and lovely; rosed chickbones. She is a sleepwalker, and even gets out of the house and goes to the street, moment when she loses her characteristic gayety and gets sick. To be married with Arthur Holmwood.
• Dr. John Seward - takes care of a lunatic asylum. 29 years old; handsome, good birth, clever and imperturbable. Is very curious about Renfield, one of his pacients. In the begining he is very sad about Lucy's marriage refusal, working to forget it (he even takes sleeping-pills). When sees that Lucy is sick, starts worrying.
• Professor Van Helsing - from Amsterdam. He is known for knowing about obscure diceases and for being one of the most advanced scientists of his day. Is very open minded and has an «iron nerve, temper of the ice brook and indomitable resolution, self-command and toleration exalted from virtues to blessings, and the kindiest and truest heart that beats». When Dr. Sewards asks for his help with Lucy's condition he gets curious about the case.

Narrator: The story is told by the characters mencioned above in letters, journals, telegrams and more so.

Bram Stoker introduces the story by saying: « How these papers have been placed in sequence will be made clear in the reading of them. All needless matters have been eliminated, so that a history almost at variance with the possibilities of later-day belief may err, for all the records chosen are exactly contemporary, given from the sandpoints and within the range of knowledge of those who made them».

We get to know the story from the organisation of this journals and letters, according with the date and occurance of events.

While reading this book I've been selecting some passages which I liked and found interesting. However, I would like to dedicate on single post to those passages, since there are a few of them. Just like the vocabulary: many of the words and expressions I read were not of my knowledge, so I am preparing a mini Dracula's dictionary, to be posted when I finish to read it, so it can be well organised.

Altough, I do found some Interest Points, or, at least, there are interest points to me. Most of them are related with the writing technique, since it is the way he writes that becomes interesting.

• Stoker doesn't talk about that past, only about the present, so the story does not become to long and tirering (?) with the discription of details. We can imagine until we actually know.
• Those details about the characters, the reason of their apearence and meeting are revealed by bits: not entirely, but little parts which come up with the events. It keeps the reading more interesting, once wedon't know everything by once; we have to read!
• Everything goes just like in a movie: we go back in time with the different journals and letters and like this we know what is happening with all the characters.
• When writing. Stoker uses the some style and techniques. Nevertheless, we can identify which one of the characters is writing without reading who is actually the person in question.

One of the things I understood while reading Dracula is that it is strongly connected with human nature and feelings. We can understand that right in the begining, when Jonathan founds himself fearing for his life, fearing the unknown but, at the same time, feeling such a curiosity about it that can help to find out more about the Count, even knowing what it could happen.

This sort of feelings are often, just like the sense of love and commitment, mostly in the female characters.

Until now, I am finding Dracula more than a horror story, more than a story about vampires. While entertaining, Bram Stoker give us a lesson about human nature.