In his mysterious 1897 novel Dracula, Bram Stoker artfully details the encounters different characters have with the elusive Count Dracula, thus crafting a detailed, interconnected web of information describing a vampire. Details about the vampire’s existence are revealed through Jonathan Harker’s encounter with the count in Transylvania, Doctor’s Seward’s observations on a madman conflicted between allowing the count to turn him into a vampire and defy death or staying pure in the eyes of God, and Mina Harker’s account of her own and her friend Lucy Westenra’s symptoms while turning. This fascinating Gothic fiction novel is absolutely delightful, especially for readers who are into or just getting into the horror genre. Although it is not too graphic, it still carries suspense by breaking up the narrative into a series of letters and journal entries written by various characters as they travel around England and continental Europe searching for Dracula’s whereabouts. - Jiyu K, ninth-grade teen volunteer
Publisher's description:
When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase a London house, he makes horrifying discoveries in his client’s castle. Soon afterwards, disturbing incidents unfold in England: a ship runs aground on the shores of Whitby, its crew vanished; beautiful Lucy Westenra slowly succumbs to a mysterious, wasting illness, her blood drained away; and the lunatic Renfield raves about the imminent arrival of his ‘master’. In the ensuing battle of wills between the sinister Count and a determined group of adversaries – led by the intrepid vampire hunter Abraham van Helsing – Bram Stoker created a masterpiece of the horror genre, probing into questions of identity, sanity and the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire.