Dracula (1897) | Bram Stoker

I was expecting that this was going to be a different kind of read. 

I was wrong. 

This was something else entirely. It was terrifying and suspenseful. The horror the reader is taken to be engulfed in makes the heart race. No wonder it has created and influenced many other forms of art to this day; from other literature, to movies, games (Castlevania?) and so on.

The way it unfolds is by a series of daily journals by the characters, some newspaper clippings, and memos again assumed written by the characters.

The first part tells of Jonathan Harker's stay/ordeal at Transylvania. Then at what first seemed like a series of fillers, but was actually a set-up for the next set of scenes; The introduction of Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra and her suitors, then her eventual demise. At one point, Professor Van Helsing is called upon to help Lucy. Then more and more of the character's coincide with each other, as they soon find out that the Count is in the city. They hunt him down. Taking away a huge of chunk of the middle and the end here, It is suspenseful until the very last pages.

If this is the benchmark of Gothic Horror literature, it is a high bar.

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