Review: Dracula

Dracula - Bram Stoker

The legend of Dracula has so pervaded our modern Western cultural consciousness that in reading it, one expects to be denied the suspense, the apprehension, the terror that aught to accompany a genuine horror story. In fact, in our current media climate, vampirism has become almost common, from the teens of “Twilight” to “Vampire Diaries” and “True Blood”, these demons of the night seem to be everywhere in one form or another. Surely this must undermine the strength of our reactions to a book written well over a century ago – a book which contains all of those vampiric clichés: fangs and fiends, castles and crucifixes and blood, blood, blood.

Shockingly, even in 2011, 'Dracula' is surpassingly horrifying.    

Jonathan Harker is a young solicitor on a business trip in Transylvania to confer with the mysterious Count Dracula regarding his latest real estate purchase in Jonathan's native England. The unfortunate Harker soon realises he is a prisoner in the Count's castle. This seems innocuous enough, but consider: Harker has no phone or internet – eliminating all communications that that entails – no car or means of transport, no law enforcement agency to come to his aid. Nothing. He is utterly alone in an isolated medieval castle and at the mercy of the sinister Count. Here, the hapless Harker sees a peasant-woman torn to shreds by wolves at the Count's command, discovers the dungeon where the Count sleeps - glutted on the blood of innocents, and spies his host crawling head-first down the wall of the castle. Once he is eventually free of his incarceration, Jonathan concludes that he must have been suffering from madness, for the evils he had witnessed are too terrible to be real.

Concurrently, Harker's fiancée Mina takes advantage of his absence to visit her dear friend Lucy. Lucy has recently become engaged to the Honorable Arthur Holmwood, having graciously declined offers of marriage from Holmwood's friends Dr. John Seward and Quincey Morris. By some disastrous coincidence, Dracula begins his infiltration of Britain in the same area Lucy and Mina are staying, and Lucy becomes his first victim.

Alarmed by Lucy's inexplicable and sudden decline in health, Dr. Seward enlists the aid of his mentor, the wise Dr. Van Helsing, in the hope of saving her. Van Helsing recognises what none other could: the supernatural cause of Lucy's condition and the broader repercussions of the existence of a vampire. Both men are alarmed by the threat such a creature must pose to not only their countrymen but to humanity, and vow to destroy him before he can create more undead monsters like himself. Quincey Morris, Arthur Holmwood, Jonathan and Mina join Dr. Seward and Dr. Van Helsing on their quest to rid the world of this powerful, terrible evil. The group believe Dracula's intent is to establish himself throughout London, and resolve to sterilise each lair, better enabling them to kill the Count. The Count, however, has plans of his own.

The primal horror synonymous with Stoker's Dracula is a product of the author's successful integration of myth, psychology and anthropology. Having spent seven years researching European folklore on the subject of vampires, Stoker was able to take the most frightening aspects of the regional legends and fuse them into one horrific figure of dread. This method of authorship allows him to simultaneously prey on our existing fears whilst adding to the legend to increase its power and potency.

Bram Stoker is our psychological puppet master, twitching the reader's strings at the height of their tension causing them to jump at shadows (I did that a lot). This is particularly impressive when you consider that the author is able to reach across the span of a century to evoke the desired emotional response from his audience! Exploiting this ability, Stoker's most frightening sequences are not filled with vivid descriptions of gory scenes or violent deaths, but from what remains unsaid, the insinuation of evil: the writhing bundle thrown to Dracula's brides, which squirms and screams ... and is later identified as an infant; or the sated appearance of the vampire as he lies in repose with blood still on his lips – whose?

The Count's intelligence and cunning compound his undeniable supernatural advantages (shape-shifting, control of animals and weather, etc,) to make him a formidable figure of dread. Yet for all that is chimerical and inhuman about Dracula, there remains an essence of humanity in him which grounds his character in reality. We believe in him, fear him even, because he seems so real. He is by turns capricous and accommodating, child-like and ancient, a grandfather figure and a twisted killer rolled into one white-faced, ruby-lipped package.

Dracula is a cult classic with good reason. It remains as chilling, heart-stopping and blood-curdling as it was when first published a century ago. You must read this book, and when you do, have a crucifix and some garlic nearby. Just in case.

Rating: * * * * * (5 out of 5 stars)

Review: A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

One of Charles Dickens' best known books is certainly also one of his most memorable, poignant and best loved works. I am, of course, referring to 'A Christmas Carol'. Its influence is easily seen throughout modern Western culture in one form or another (particularly during the festive season); in dozens of theatre productions, in silver-screen movies, as an opera, and most prolifically in film including adaptations such as 'The Muppet Christmas Carol', 'Mickey's Christmas Carol', 'Ghosts of Girlfriends Past', and most recently 'A Christmas Carol' starring Jim Carrey.

What impact does this extensive media exposure have for the first-time reader?

Review

Assassin's Apprentice – Robin Hobb

The cover of my edition of 'Assassin's Apprentice' has a quote from The Guardian stating “Hobbs is a remarkable storyteller”, and I wholeheartedly concur. She is unquestionably talented and manages to infuse this book with a modicum of originality, which is something virtually unheard of in the fantasy genre these days. In question then, is not the author's storytelling abilities, but the quality of the story itself.

Fitz is many things: our protagonist, our narrator, the bastard son of the King-in-Waiting of the Six Duchies (Prince Chivalry) and an assassin. When his father learns of his existence, he nobly (or should that be chivalrously?) abdicates his right to the throne, leaving little six-year old Fitz to be raised by Chivalry's former retainer, the stoic Burrich. His childhood is spent around the stables of Buckkeep under Burrich's guardianship, with precious little companionship beyond the animals under his care, some of whom he has a special affinity for by way of the Wit, an ancient beastial magic, now forbidden.

Review

Revolutionary Road – Richard Yates 

Since it was first published in 1961, Revolutionary Road was widely hailed as a masterpiece, and is acknowledged to be the finest work of its author, Richard Yates. It is an intense portrayal of the tumultuous relationship of a young couple, Frank and April Wheeler, who live a comfortable life in a comfortable suburb and are yet deeply dissatisfied with their lot in life. Convinced that their discontent is the fault of a consumer-driven 1950's American culture, they become equally convinced that their only salvation from the 'hopeless emptiness' of suburban life lies in Europe. A plan is formed; they will move to France with their children (yes, they have two kids) and April will support the family at a dull day job, whilst Frank 'finds himself'.

Review

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie." Thus begins Alice Sebold's poignant novel of tragedy and loss, familial love and life after death - for both 14-year-old Susie and those she leaves behind on Earth. Susie herself is our posthumous narrator, watching from her own sterile, personalised heaven as her family and friends continue to live their ruptured lives after she herself is gone; raped and brutally murdered by an eccentric neighbour in a quiet American neighbourhood in 1973.