In the 130 plus years since it was first published, Dracula has never gone out of print. That’s even more amazing when you consider that the novel was not a big seller until a few years after Stoker passed. I’m pretty sure that is knocking on the door of some kind of record.
My biggest issue with Dracula, and the main reason why I've never managed to finish the book (and my memory may be a bit foggy here, as I've not tried to re-read it for several years), is Van Helsing seems to know what is happening to Lucy when she's losing blood and getting weaker, and he even convinces the rest of the group into allowing him to cut Lucy's head off after her death. Yet, when Mina comes down with the exact same symptoms as Lucy, and is getting weaker and losing blood, he seems to have no clue as to the cause. It always causes me to get frustrated with the story and end up putting it down, thinking, "You've just gone through this exact same thing with Lucy. How can you not know what's happening?!"
It's been awhile now since I've read it, too, so I can't recall that detail, but I will say there were several inconsistencies like that that got in the way of my reading, too. Whoever edited Stoker let him get away with a few things!
I love how you mentioned that after first 60 pages the books kinda changes. I was really enjoying the book until it shifted from Jonathan and as I was struggling to get through the book I came across your video. Trying to read more lately and went back to read some books that I love the movies they were based on. I guess I should get back to it -_-.
Thank you so much for this! I am reading Dracula for the second time, and while I am enjoying it more this time around, I was disappointed in it the first time I read it. As you said, the first 60 pages are thrilling...I love them! But, then the story changes and I do get bored with some of the passages. I am also struggling with the male characters' constant emphasis on how pure, sweet, innocent, and God-fearing Lucy and Mina are. They're good Christian girls...we get it. Can we move on? Haha.
thank you for the tips and the breakdown. i was interested in reading this book because it's a classic. harker's diary entries, even though they seemed like entries at first, started to sound more like thoughts rather than what someone would actually write. at one point he said he wishes he could remember what dracula said verbatim, then proceeded to write dracula's long speech in quotes. 🤷🏻♀️ so did he paraphrase or remember every word? it made me wish stoker just wrote the story in 3rd person to better immerse the reader into the story and still be able to tell us how the character(s) felt and thought. i was interested in the story but finding out that the other chapters are more laborious to get through than jonathan's makes my mind up. i've been on the fence about DNF-ing this book and i'm ready to let it go. lol. i respect it for the classic that it is but i think i'll move on to other classics that are more enjoyable to read. 🤓
