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Original poster

Bram Stoker's Dracula

68 replies

suzywong · 01/04/2006 15:10

Anyone care to join me and spacedonkey for a reading?
That's a reading in private without lips moving and a discussion online?

Hmmm?

Any takers?

OP posts:
spacedonkey · 06/04/2006 11:23

Do hurry up wong, I am scared to discuss it any further now!

Original poster
suzywong · 05/04/2006 12:12

steady on there

OP posts:
spacedonkey · 05/04/2006 09:33

I'm on Chapter 6 now (Whitby) and frankly the old man and his Yorkshire dialect is a bit tiresome to wade through.

spacedonkey · 04/04/2006 16:19

I have now decided Dracula is my bathtime reading. Read up to Chapter 5, when the narrative of Harker's journal ends.

Oh my gosh, that scene at the end of chapter 3 really is erotic isn't it? Harker is both repelled and seduced by the promise of the three vampire women - it sets up a deep conflict in him (and I'm guessing that conflict was felt throughout Victorian society?).

Harker seems to me to be a straight-laced lower middle class sort of young man, one to whom propriety is important. Did Keanu Reeves really play Harker??? It seems impossible. I'd cast someone like David Tennant myself.

Original poster
suzywong · 04/04/2006 11:09

all duncery and dullardry excused

OP posts:
spacedonkey · 04/04/2006 11:07

Oh do join us MI!

I've never studied literary criticism, so please excuse any duncery in my posts

motherinferior · 04/04/2006 11:04

I will be very boring if I do Grin Dracula is one of those things I used to know about, long ago.

Original poster
suzywong · 04/04/2006 11:00

yes that's it isn't it, it is hard to imagine the initial impact but by the same token it must have been thrilling for readers to see the first filmic representation, Nosferatu ( which made me roar with laughter first time I saw it)

hello MI, are you joining us? Smile

OP posts:
spacedonkey · 04/04/2006 10:58

although that's something you can't appreciate in any case really isn't it?

spacedonkey · 04/04/2006 10:58

I rather enjoy the added dimension this gives the book, although it does make it hard to appreciate the impact the book must have had on those who read it at the time of publication

motherinferior · 04/04/2006 10:53

(Also difficult to impossible not to conflate this with other popular representations of vampires and/or the Gothic tradition more widely. Many people get Dracula and Frankenstein confused, despite the fact they operate - and arguably to some extent define - 100-plus years of Gothic tradition.)

spacedonkey · 04/04/2006 10:48

It is impossible not to be influenced by the popular representations of Dracula when reading: it's actually rather distracting as I find myself thinking about portrayals of the count on film and wondering what the rationale was behind their interpretation as compared to the book's portrayal.

Original poster
suzywong · 04/04/2006 10:47

chop chop come on

OP posts:
spacedonkey · 04/04/2006 10:46

Am v impressed. Will mull on questions and report back.

I haven't even got to chapter 3 yet!

Original poster
suzywong · 04/04/2006 10:30

yeah I know, and I am blowing up balloons for the fragrant boys at the same time

OP posts:
spacedonkey · 04/04/2006 10:28

golly Blush

Original poster
suzywong · 04/04/2006 10:27

OK let's get this started:

Chapters 1 - 3

Style
What devices does Stoker use to isolate Harker from his comfort zones other than the physical Journey to Dracula's Castle?

Legend
It can be argued that owing to the many representations Count Dracula on film and in popular culture it is impossible to view Stoker's Dracula with fresh eyes even one is reading the novel for the first time. Were you disappointed with Stoker's Count and in what way and to what ends do you feel his image has been bastardised and embellished over the years?

Symbolism and Meaning
The description of Harker's encounter with the 3 Vampire women at the end of chapter 3 is at once terrifying and erotic. Does Stoker direct this scene as terrifying because it is erotic or erotice because it is terrifying. And which way do we think the Count swings?

OP posts:
spacedonkey · 02/04/2006 11:19

Rationale being, if I read the introduction I won't draw any conclusions of my own. Because I am a sheep.

Original poster
suzywong · 02/04/2006 11:17

no
that is OK

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spacedonkey · 02/04/2006 10:35

I have the same edition and no, I haven't read the intro or preface ... I never do until I've read the whole book - is that very wrong?

Original poster
suzywong · 02/04/2006 10:35

And another question: are you reading the preface and the introduction?

I have the new Penguin edition with the Munch picture on the front, I read the preface which is cheifly about Stoker but I don't think I'll bother with the more analytical introduction

OP posts:
spacedonkey · 02/04/2006 10:35

Shock coachman and count one and the same?!

Original poster
suzywong · 02/04/2006 10:33

It ain't, love, it just isn't

I am greatly enjoying the journey to the Borgovo ? Pass
I didn't twig that the coachman and the count are one and the same.

I also have keanu and gary in my mind's eye

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spacedonkey · 02/04/2006 10:31

Here's my first question then ... how is it possible to read Dracula without images of Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee/Gary Oldman et al looming in one's mind's eye?

CarolinaMooncup · 01/04/2006 16:19

yes, it is AS Byatt and it is fab. A bit heavy going at times, but you can skip the longer poems if you can't be arsed. The rest is so well worth it.

They were setting up to film a bit of the film version last time I was in Whitby, at the jet shop at the bottom of the steps up to the abbey - don't know if it made the cut though.

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