After many, many, many months years of starts-and-stops and dragging my feet, I finally finished reading the classic horror novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker.
What took me so long, you might ask? Well, to begin with, I’m a VERY slow reader (right now I’m actually reading a book that supposedly will “teach” me to read faster – I really hope it works!!). Second, I pretty much only read at the end of the day, before going to bed, and oftentimes, I only last a few minutes, if that. Last, I had the Italian translation, which you would think would be easier for me to read, since it’s my first language, but I’ve been reading in English (which has a very different, simpler, and more direct sentence structure than Italian) for so long, I actually struggled more to read the book in Italian than I would have in English.
Anyway, it’s finally over and I’m glad I read it. It’s a captivating story that’s well written, even though the style was not something I had encountered before and I’m not sure I’m a fan.
The book is written from the point of view of the different characters, all of whom seem to keep shockingly detailed diaries of everything that happens in their day to day lives. It is organized in chronological order for the most part, so it makes sense from a point of view of understanding what’s going on, but it just feels weird to imagine all these people busy writing down every occurrence and conversation. It’s also quite far fetched for one to believe that a person could remember ever word of a conversation he or she had with someone else in such detail.
Aside from that, the book is good and I would recommend it, especially with the current revival of all things vampires. Given that Stoker is credited with actually inventing the whole mythology and, unarguably, the most famous vampire of all times, if you (like me) like this sort of thing, it’s a must-read.
Grade: 8
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