Review of Dracula by Bram Stoker

Like every Westerner I am infinitely familiar with the vampire trope—fanged teeth, white skin, black cape, receding hairline—as well as the innumerable ways there are to kill and repel vampires—wooden stakes, garlic, crucifixes, etc. But where did all that cultural knowledge originate? A vacation to Romania this summer inspired me to finally read Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897).

Dracula is the story of, unsurprisingly, Count Dracula. But what may be surprising is the fact the famous vampire is rarely presented from his point of view. Stoker chooses to tell the vampire's tale through the eyes of those around him, starting with a London solicitor named Jonthan Harker who, in the opening pages, takes an overland journey to the mountains of Romania to handle paperwork for one Count Dracula who is in the process of purchasing real estate in England. Things steadily twisting surreal for Harker, he is forced to escape, only to discover that the fanged Count has followed him to London.

Looking online, I'm able to find a fair amount of scholarship on Dracula, which is surprising. It seems foremost story for story's sake, little if any effort spent on theme beyond horror. Overt rather than existential, it's primary goals feel like thrills, chills, and drama, which it delivers in a nice little package. I get that everything can be dissected under the modern knives of race, class, post-colonialism, gender, etc., but beyond subconscious gender attraction and repulsion to the vampire achetype, it seems best just to sit back and enjoy.  

In the end, Dracula is a novel that sustains itself surprisingly well given the century+ of time that has passed since its publication. There are many novels of the era which struggle under their own weight. Stoker's style, while adherent to certain norms of his era, is not overburdened, purple, or mawkish.  Instead, it relates the fate of the titular vampire through the points of view of several people in focused, effective fashion. Certainly an archtetype, the reader can easily see how other myths, legends, rip offs, and adaptations of the story have evolved.  But I think the source material holds perhaps the most water?