Opinions on Dracula by Bram Stoker?

[paeng]

I used the ff. for a Gothic Lit class (one novel or collection of stories a week) because they were the ones that were surely available in print form locally with public domain e-text backups online:

The Gothic and Fantasy 1: “The Masque of the Red Death,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “William Wilson,” “The Black Cat,” “Ligeia,” “The Premature Burial,” and “The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe

The Gothic and Fantasy 2: “My Kinsman, Major Molineux,” “Roger Malvin’s Burial,” “The Gray Champion,” “Young Goodman Brown,” “The Minister’s Black Veil,” “The Birthmark,” “The Celestial Railroad,” “An Artist of the Beautiful,” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Gothic and Fantasy 3: “The Colour Out of Space,” “The Call of Cthulhu,” “The Dunwich Horror,” “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” and “At the Mountains of Madness” by H.P. Lovecraft

The Gothic and the Psyche 1: R.L. Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Gothic and the Psyche 2: Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Gothic and the Psyche 3: Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw

The Gothic and Forbidden Knowledge 1: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

The Gothic and Forbidden Knowledge 2: H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau

The Gothic and Forbidden Knowledge 3: Bram Stoker’s Dracula

The Gothic Anti-Hero 1: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

The Gothic Anti-Hero 2: Faust (Part I) by J.W. von Goethe

The Gothic Anti-Hero 3: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

then mixed them with excerpts from media (such as clips from film versions).

I did not have much to say about Dracula in terms of philosophical musings (I recall focusing on the few things that Dracula says), but it was one of the easiest to read in the list, and it has lots of media references.

[New Devilry]

I always say the first four chapters of Dracula is one of the best bits of literary terror ever written. It very much captures the sense that things are not as they seem, that they are askew or even wrong, with some undefined menace lurking around the periphery. And it's all compounded by the isolation of being in a foreign country and then a strange and powerful man's castle.

The OP has already made it past that part, obviously. I will add my voice to those who say it is well worth it to try for a bit longer.

[Zaharoff]

Quote Originally Posted by Hidden X

For those wishing to develop proper understanding and appreciation of Dracula, David J. Skal's recent mammoth biography of Stoker makes for some great reading: (as long as you have a fair amount of free time to spare, that is)

Not mentioned here at TLO, but Mr. Skal died last month.
Brian Showers wrote a lovely tribute to the man.
Remembering David J. Skal | Swan River Press

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE