Ok so this book is not appropriate for Thanksgiving weekend I agree but I really did start it before Halloween which did seem appropriate. Really! However it wasn't the only book I was reading at the time soooo. At any rate when I saw it on the Goodwill shelf I grabbed it because, as you know, the previous summer was "read classics" summer. So I figured this book was a late continuance of that theme. I had wanted to read it a few years ago but never got to it for whatever reason.
So I finished it yesterday. I have to say that I do like the front cover of this edition. I think the artist did a great job. During October I saw on the TV a thing about Bram Stoker and I have to say that the original design imprinted on the original book cover was demurely simple. I like it too.
So how was the story? Did I like it?
Well it wasn't what I thought it was going to be because I was expecting gore and frightful scenes but it didn't live up to my expectations. I can see how it was different from other books written during that time period and that it would catch people's attention but it was slow and plodding and slow and plodding. I think my favorite character was Van Helsing. Why? Because Bram gave him a funny way of talking and I liked reading it and I could picture him. I suppose I used the visual in Polanski's "Fearless Vampire Killers" I saw a billion times one summer in a drive-in theater in 'Little Washington'. All the snow and the scenery and the non-reflection in the mirror of Dracula during a ballroom dance and the horses pulling a carriage through the small villages and out in the wild towards Dracula's castle. And Van Helsing being this lovable, funny but fearless old man. Wow! I really need to see that movie again!!!
But you never see that movie anymore? Why don't they show it during all the ones that are on the TV leading up to October 31rst?
So the question is ... should you read it?
Of course. It's a classic after all.
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