Thoughts

This month, I finally opened a book that I bought long ago: “Dracula”, by Bram Stoker. It quickly became one of my favourite books, and, since I strongly recommend you read it, I will keep this post short and avoid spoiling its contents to those who haven't read it yet.

I find the story itself very good, but what made me really love the book is the writing style. The book is written as a sucession of diary entries, letters and magazine news, a style which I just learned is called epistolary, which really adds to the immersion of the reader.

The prose feels authentically Victorian, old and elegant, creating a calm yet dreadful ambiance throughout the whole book. Moreover, some words are written different from nowadays. For instance, today, tomorrow and tonight are written with a dash, i.e., to-day, to-morrow and to-night. I also noticed an intriguing use of the word without in place of what should have been outside. After a quick search, this use of without seems to be archaic nowadays.

Story-wise, I find that the story lacks answers to some questions, for instance:

• If everyone Count Dracula kills turns into an Un-dead, where are the other Un-deads?
• How did Count Dracula originate?

I also find that the book lacks some moral questions from the vampire side, but that is partly answered by clearly distinguishing that the live version and the undead version of people is not the same person.

So overall, I really recommend this book, and if you read it, feel free to start a discussion with me through e-mail or on mastodon, and see you soon!

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