Dracula | Bram Stoker
Title: Dracula
Author: Bram Stoker
This is a horror classic that in many ways has earned its place in the literary hall of fame. I am certain that when it came out it had much more impact than it does now. It has not aged all that well. With that said, there are still parts that are extremely creepy, particularly near the beginning in Dracula's castle and later after Dracula comes to London and the events that take place there. There is stuff in between that's pretty boring and hard to get through, and it's also pretty slow during the 'chase' at the end. I feel like that should have been the most exciting part, and I personally thought that the ending was extremely anticlimactic.
Bram Stoker did a wonderful job, however, giving each character his or her unique voice. You could definitely tell who was narrating each chapter just by the tone and the language used, even if you didn't pay attention to the chapter titles. That's not an easy thing for a writer to pull off, and even now authors regularly fail at accomplishing this.
All in all, it's not a bad read, just a slow read. Three out of five stars.
QUOTES:
"I am longing to be with you, and by the sea, where we can talk together freely and build our castles in the air."
"Even if she be not harmed, her heart may fail her in so much and so many horrors; and hereafter she may suffer--both in waking, from her nerves, and in sleep, from her dreams."
"How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads; to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams."
“It is a strange world, a sad world, a world full of miseries, and woes, and troubles. And yet when King Laugh come, he make them all dance to the tune he play. Bleeding hearts, and dry bones of the churchyard, and tears that burn as they fall, all dance together to the music that he make with that smileless mouth of him. Ah, we men and women are like ropes drawn tight with strain that pull us different ways. Then tears come, and like the rain on the ropes, they brace us up, until perhaps the strain become too great, and we break. But King Laugh he come like the sunshine, and he ease off the strain again, and we bear to go on with our labor, what it may be.”
"Oh, my dear, if you only knew how strange is the matter regarding which I am here, it is you who would laugh. I have learned not to think little of any one's belief, no matter how strange it may be. I have tried to keep an open mind, and it is not the ordinary things of life that could close it, but the strange things, the extraordinary things, the things that make one doubt if they be mad or sane."
READING PROGRESS:
Needful Things by Stephen King: 89%
Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings: 45%
Boys of Brayshaw High by Meagan Brandy: 61%
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith: NOW STARTING
Author: Bram Stoker
This is a horror classic that in many ways has earned its place in the literary hall of fame. I am certain that when it came out it had much more impact than it does now. It has not aged all that well. With that said, there are still parts that are extremely creepy, particularly near the beginning in Dracula's castle and later after Dracula comes to London and the events that take place there. There is stuff in between that's pretty boring and hard to get through, and it's also pretty slow during the 'chase' at the end. I feel like that should have been the most exciting part, and I personally thought that the ending was extremely anticlimactic.
Bram Stoker did a wonderful job, however, giving each character his or her unique voice. You could definitely tell who was narrating each chapter just by the tone and the language used, even if you didn't pay attention to the chapter titles. That's not an easy thing for a writer to pull off, and even now authors regularly fail at accomplishing this.
All in all, it's not a bad read, just a slow read. Three out of five stars.
QUOTES:
"I am longing to be with you, and by the sea, where we can talk together freely and build our castles in the air."
"Even if she be not harmed, her heart may fail her in so much and so many horrors; and hereafter she may suffer--both in waking, from her nerves, and in sleep, from her dreams."
"How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads; to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams."
“It is a strange world, a sad world, a world full of miseries, and woes, and troubles. And yet when King Laugh come, he make them all dance to the tune he play. Bleeding hearts, and dry bones of the churchyard, and tears that burn as they fall, all dance together to the music that he make with that smileless mouth of him. Ah, we men and women are like ropes drawn tight with strain that pull us different ways. Then tears come, and like the rain on the ropes, they brace us up, until perhaps the strain become too great, and we break. But King Laugh he come like the sunshine, and he ease off the strain again, and we bear to go on with our labor, what it may be.”
"Oh, my dear, if you only knew how strange is the matter regarding which I am here, it is you who would laugh. I have learned not to think little of any one's belief, no matter how strange it may be. I have tried to keep an open mind, and it is not the ordinary things of life that could close it, but the strange things, the extraordinary things, the things that make one doubt if they be mad or sane."
READING PROGRESS:
Needful Things by Stephen King: 89%
Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings: 45%
Boys of Brayshaw High by Meagan Brandy: 61%
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith: NOW STARTING
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