Dracula - Bram Stoker

Jonathan Harker has been sent to Transylvania to help Count Dracula relocate to Britain. He makes his way there after ignoring warnings from the locals only to come across untold horrors. Barely he manages to escape although his experiences take a tole on his health. Meanwhile his fiance Mina Murray is in Whitby with her good friend Lucy. Lucy has just accepted one of three proposals. Unfortunately the strain has led to the return of her sleepwalking. A danger in itself but more so after a ghost ship crashes into the shores of Whitby. Slowly her life begins to ebb away and it's up to the men who love her and the great Van Helsing to try and save her.

This is the second time I have read this book. I was a young teen the first time and loved it then just as much as I loved it now. It was one listed under The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen challenge. Reading it again was far from being a chore. After my disappointing break from reading classics sinking into this book felt like coming home. I love the style of it. I always have liked that writing style. Written as a series of letters and journal entries in its entirety. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but I love it. It makes the first person less tedious I think.

It has been a long time since I read it before but I think I remembered most of it as I was reading. One of those books I guess that has never left me. I loved each of the characters, especially Van Helsing. Even his odd speech which is shown throughout didn't bother me as it normally would. It was an endearing part of him. Almost like he was the Yoda of the group (at least that's who jumped into my head at times but I am sure that Stoker didn't have him in mind since it was well after his time).

It was more than a little sexist I have to say. That's one thing I don't remember noticing back when I read it the first time. Or maybe I did and just ignored it. Mina Harker was portrayed as everything a lady should be, sweet, honest, pure and brave. As was Miss Lucy at the start. I had to laugh when the men decided that Mina should have no part in their talks to protect her from nightmares. It's a product of it's time though and despite the sexism it still had a very strong female character in the shape of Mina.

As for Dracula himself, I loved his character too. Ruthless, evil and cold. All the characteristics every good vampire should have. Was a shame though that at one point he was described as a child. It really took away some of his scariness. The first half of the book was scarier than I expected. I can't remember thinking it so the first time round. However, the descriptions of Dracula and then those scenes on the boat gave me the creeps. If you are ever going on a long boat journey be sure to check that there are no large boxes filled with earth lying around!

It had a great ending too. The ravings of the lunatic (yep, it was very un-PC too), Renfield, kept it interesting until the great chase at the end. He was an interesting, if somewhat disgusting, character too. As I said though the ending was great. Very exciting and I especially enjoyed it since that was the one thing about the book I couldn't remember. A fantastic horror tale with a real vampire!

This was read as part of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Challenge hosted by Hanna of Booking In Heels. If you want to read what others have thought of these books you can do so here. As for comparing the character in the graphic novel (or film since I haven't read it) that Mina seemed harder. Far from the sweet person she is meant to be in Dracula. The only similarity they really have is their strength. Mind you the League Mina is a vampire which would account for these changes.

Again this is one of those beautiful Penguin Clothbound editions. I loved the black but it did start to rub off onto my hands.

January Book Haul

I decided that this year I was going to spend some of my Christmas money on books since I never get any for Christmas. I know, poor me. The truth is everyone is afraid to buy me books in case I have read them. I am sure most of you are the same. The good thing is that I get to pick out my own. Most of the books I bought were related to book challenges I had joined. I'm not going to bore you by listing which books belong to which challenge as I have mentioned them already in previous posts. Here is a list of what's in the photograph though.

Antony and Cleopatra - William Shakespeare
Macbeth - William Shakespeare
Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare
Hamlet - William Shakespeare
Zoo City - Lauren Beukes
King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard
The White Road - John Connolly
Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell
Dracula - Bram Stoker

Shockingly there is only one book in that pile that doesn't belong to a challenge and that's John Connolly. This is the fourth book in his crime series. I probably could have read them all by now but I am trying to savour them.

The two very pretty books at the bottom are Penguin Clothbounds. The truth is I could have gotten away with not buying them. I have plenty of classics sitting there that I could have read in place of Gaskell. Plus I have an electronic version of Dracula (I was shocked to discover during the clear out I had that I didn't actually have a physical copy of one of my favourite books). I couldn't resist treating myself to two of these beautiful books. I also realised during my clear out that I didn't own any Austen's other than P&P. I forgot it was my mum's copies I had originally read. When I decide which Austen I am going to re-read I have no doubt it will be one of these editions.

Book Blogger Hop - Spooky

The Book Blogger Hope is a meme over at crazy-for-books. A question to answer every week resulting in book bloggers getting to know each other better.

“What is your favorite spooky book (i.e. mystery/suspense, thriller, ghost story, etc.)?”


Strangely enough I was asking people for scary book recommendations the other day. I used to devour horror books in my early teens and it didn't matter if it was Halloween or not. My favourite scary books back then were dominated by Stephen King. To this day some of those old ones remain my favourites. The Stand I loved in particular although I don't think it was one of his spookiest. Not so long ago I re read some of them and I think the spookiest is probably The Shining. I think the fact that the family is snowed into a hotel on their own with no communication links sets it off.


Some of my favourite classics are fairly spooky too. Rebecca by Dapne Du Maurier probably doesn't spring to mind when it comes to spooky but it definitely has a suspense/mystery side to it. Plus Mrs Danvers is one of the creepiest characters I have ever come across. The more obvious ones are Dracula by Bram Stoker and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. It's been years since I have read Dracula but I loved it then. No vampire book has ever quite matched up to it. Frankenstein didn't really scare me. If anything I felt a lot of sympathy for the monster. There was one scene though that I did find spooky. Frankenstein and the monster come across each other at sea. Somewhere near Russia I think and the scene was so well described it gave me the shivers every time I read it.


The last book that scared the hell out of me was another classic, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I read it last year for Halloween. There is just something about ghost stories that scare me to death if done well and this one was done well. The fact that children were involved just makes it creepier and these were seriously creepy children. I swear I had to sleep with the light on after reading that.


I would class all of these as a favourite. I don't think I could pick just one but I am always looking for others. Any recommendations? What's the scariest book you've read?