Dracula - Bram Stoker - So You Haven't Read

Wanna watch without ads and see exclusive content?

So you haven't read Bram Stoker's Dracula? The classic tale of one man's travel journal that triumphs over the undead using technology and a little detective work? No? Then pull up a seat and join us for this epistolary tale of spooky vampires and Victorian intrigue!

* Interested in reading Dracula? Check it out at your friendly local library! *

* Thanks for participating in this week's discussion! *

* Want to support the people who make this show? *

* Want more Extra Credits? Subscribe and follow us on social media! *

♪ Intro music: "Coffee Beans" by Mike Wuerth
♪ Outro music: "So You Haven't Read Theme" by Tiffany Roman

#SoYouHaventRead #Literature #Dracula

[extrahistory]

Wanna watch without ads and see exclusive content?

And Don't forget to check out our Vampire Stream tonight on Twitch!

[rolfs]

One thing these retellings somehow always get wrong: van Helsing doesn't decorate the room with garlic _bulbs_ but garlic _flowers._

[DragoniteSpam]

"Victory delivered with the help of the train schedules" has got to be the most Victorian sentence I've ever heard.

[alexandreancel]

I would add that one of Dracula's most important themes to me is the deep respect, friendship and dedication bounding the heroes together, each of them, including Mina, being ready to sacrifice oneself for the others.

[Waffletimewarp]

“A wolf appears.” Is a pretty weak change from the canon scene where Dracula steals the wolf from the local zoo and straight up THROWS said wolf through the window.

[jacobklein]

It's been a few years since I read Dracula so I might be misremembering this, but I really didn't get the impression that Lucy was supposed to be a modern, liberated woman leading along three men at once. In fact, I remember the complete opposite. The impression I got was that Lucy was just so dang sweet and innocent and beautiful and kind that all three of her suitors were just naturally drawn to her. I mean, all three of them proposed to her in the same day and she was so polite and considerate about the whole thing that the two rejected suitors were cool with it and remained good friends with her and her fiancé. If anything, the message of Lucy being turned into a vampire was that Dracula seeks out that which is pure and good and will do anything to corrupt it, to drag innocence down to his level. That's why seeing how brutal vampire Lucy was was so shocking: it was a complete reversal of everything she represented when she was alive.

Also, I think it's important to mention that, before Lucy's mother was killed, she threw out all of the garlic blossoms (not bulbs) in her room and opened the window because she wasn't let in on the whole plan and thought that the strong smell of garlic would be unhealthy and it would be good to let in some fresh air. Her making that mistake was the thing that doomed Lucy in the end. Given how central the group communicating with each other is to their success later, it really served to show the reader how important it is to make sure everyone is on the same page.

[Ajehy]

I’m surprised you view Lucy as “modern” and “tainted”, while Mina is “pure”. Lucy never courts multiple men—she sees Quincy and Seward as friends, not love prospects, and turns them both down before accepting her beloved Arthur’s proposal. There’s no jealousy after that, they really all do remain friends, and the men’s attempt to save her are painted as chivalrous, gallant, and selfless. It’s her purity that makes her Undeath so tragic, as even the sweet and gentle Lucy can be corrupted into a child-eating monster by Dracula.

Mina, meanwhile, is closer to the “new woman” she is fond of referring to in her diaries. She brings up the possibility of “doing the proposing herself”, is clever and independent, and wields out a rifle in the final battle to brutal effect. In fact, the men imposing Victorian social standards on her, by trying to keep her out of the loop, always ends badly.

[cheezemonkeyeater]

While I haven't actually read Dracula, I HAVE listened to the audiobook read by the late, great Christopher Lee.
Highly recommended if you can find it.

[Nightwalker-zkce]

I don’t know if I completely agree with the interpretation that Lucy is supposed to represent a modern woman. From what I’ve been able to gather, it wasn’t incredibly unusual for women in the Victorian era to have multiple suitors at once, what’s unusual about Lucy’s situation is that they all proposed to her on the same day. The fact that these three men are so in love with her is also pretty much the only character trait that Lucy has too, it seems like all she ever talks about is getting married and living a typical Victorian life. I’ve read the novel a couple of times and it always sticks out to me how completely focused on traditional Victorian romance Lucy is.
Mina on the other hand has her own job, travels across Europe on her own to go see Jonathan when he’s sick after escaping the castle, stands up for herself when the other characters say they don’t think it would be right or proper for her as a woman to come hunt down Dracula with them, and possibly the most important thing symbolically, Mina is constantly using technology like typewriters and wax cylinders, which as the video notes were incredibly new at the time.
Another interesting consideration is the way both women view their fiancés, Lucy never really speaks about loving any of the men that much, and it’s seems to be of secondary importance to her when she’s trying to decide who to marry, all three of the suitors too only seem to want to marry Lucy because she’s beautiful. Mina meanwhile is constantly talking about how much she loves Jonathan, and he’s also always going on about how great she is and how he loves her so much, with neither one overly focused on the appearance of the other.

[dramajoe]

There's an excellent board game called Fury of Dracula (look for the third or fourth edition) which surprisingly captures the literary work better than any other adaptation. One player plays Dracula who moves around a map of Europe secretly, leaving behind a trail of vampires and traps, while the other players play Van Hellsing, Mina Harker, John Steward, and Lord Godalming trying to find and slay him. A major part of the game is collecting train tickets and planning routes around Europe.

[randalthor]

Dracula is definitely one of those books that feels so far ahead of its time, both in terms of how it explores some of its themes (although some of the attitudes behind those themes do feel pretty out of date today), and in terms of its structure with the different narrative sources.

[marshmallow]

It's the way Harker wasn't immediately sus when Dracula looked at his blood for me-

[shawnheatherly]

I never knew how the story was told through a series of journals, letters, and newspaper clips. That's really cool.

[Oxtocoatl]

I slightly disagree with the reading that Lucy's being liberated is framed as a deviation that the story punishes. In the letters it is made clear that the proposal from Holmwood is the only one Lucy wanted, and she expresses deep anxiety and anguish over having to turn down the other men. She isn't so much a player as one of those doe-eyed gals everyone falls for. That being said, as her disease progresses, she becomes more flirtatious (though only towards her fiancee, which remains true after she dies). Stoker repeatedly describes her as "voluptuous", which is framed as a bad and unsettling quality. Still, I think Lucy's reputation for getting slut-shamed has more to do with the various movie adaptations than the text itself, in which Lucy is clearly a victim, whose prolonged suffering is meant to make us anxious and scared when Mina is eventually also bitten.

[marcmcdonnell]

I’ve already scene the summary of Dracula from Overly Sarcastic Productions. From an interesting fact were Stoker never met a Texan in his life.

[YouWt]

Something to point out about the chase after Lucy's death, the crew points out how wonderful is the power of bribery and money as they use their pockets and some booze to get that sweet schedule as fast and orderly as possible.

[Suntensatsu]

My colleagues and I are breaking down Dracula as part of our master's program. It's nice to see there is still so much interest in this novel. On a side note, I still think it's funny that when we think of van Helsing, we go to the dark haired grizzled man. In the text he is described as clean shaven with a broad chin, having what amounts to shoulder length red hair, blue eyes, a barrel-like chest, and overall manly with a capital M.

[shawnconway]

This book is basically an at the time catalogue of cool new stuff. Ergo, all the transfusions and hypnosis and stuff.

[Xagzan]

Also fun to read are Dracula's predecessors, Carmilla and The Vampyre, both of which are much shorter and so easier to get through quickly. And no less atmospheric.

[LowSpecGamer]

Honestly, I had never heard anything of this book outside of Dracula´s depiction in popular media, and this epistolary approach makes it WAY more interesting than I though. Adding this book to my reading list.


And thank you for the recommendation of my documentary at the end 😁