I am proud to announce that, upon my third attempt, I have read Dracula in its entirety! Any, as I expected, I liked it. It's dark and creepy, but well-told. I can see why it became a classic, any why it has inspired so many later iterations in other forms of media. Maybe next year around Halloween I will undertake to watch some of the films inspired by the book. Among the better ones appear to be Nosferatu, the 1931 version of Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, the 1979 version starring Frank Langella and Laurence Olivier, and the 1992 version starring Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder.
Back to the book though. I very much enjoy stories that are told in an unconventional fashion. Dracula comes to us in the epistolary style, mostly through journal entries of the team that's fighting the vampire, plus a few letters, telegrams, and other documents. I wonder when I read a book like this if the author knew all along that it would take this form, or if the tale began as a straight narrative but the author later decided that a different telling would be better. And this is not just one person's journal; several of the characters journal entries are incorporated, as well as correspondence with other folks who play only a small, passing role but which is vital to move the story along. This multi-voice format requires the reader to integrate each person's perspectives in order to put together the full picture on the appropriate timeline.
I'm not sure that this is one that I'll go back and read again, but I sure am glad that I gave it the third try after so many years. Highly recommended!
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