On the morning of May 16, Jonathan Harker began his diary entry with the following words: God preserve my sanity, for to this I am reduced. Safety and the assurance of safety are things of the past. Whilst I live on here there is but one thing to hope for, that I may not go mad, if, indeed, I be not mad already. If I be sane, then surely it is maddening to think that of all the foul things that lurk in this hateful place the Count is the least dreadful to me; that to him alone I can look for safety, even though this be only whilst I can serve his purpose. Great God! merciful God! Let me be calm, for out of that way lies madness indeed. As is clear from this diary entry, Mr. Harker is in desperate straits indeed, less than two weeks into his journey into unfamiliar regions. He is an English solicitor, sent by his employer, Mr. Hawkins, on a business journey to eastern Europe, to the old stately home of a foreign gentleman in order to explain the recent purchase of a home on the outskirts of London. The foreign gentleman is a tall, thin man, pale, with aquiline features. As the entry from Harker’s journal has already alerted us, this gentleman was a count, and his family name was Dracula. When Jonathan Harker received the commission to travel to Transylvania to be the guest of Count Dracula, the name raised no suspicions in him—nor, presumably, in the first readers of the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. It was Stoker who introduced the name “Dracula” into the world of vampires. Thanks for reading Gallagher! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Harker arrived at Castle Dracula on the 5th of May, and after a week as a guest in this old, drab castle, that seems to house only himself and his host, he writes the following: “What manner of man is this, or what manner of creature is it in the semblance of man?” (May 12). I’ll let you discover for yourself in the pages of the novel what leads to this despairing query. But even without knowing the specifics, you can guess in general what has happened. In a week with this Transylvanian count, Harker has gone from considering Dracula a charming if odd nobleman to now recognizing him as sinister and perhaps not human. Unfortunately he will spend several more weeks in the castle, unable to find an exit, and constantly fearful of the Count, but not only the Count. Will Harker survive? Can he escape the castle? Will he be reunited with his fiancee, Mina Murray? I love Dracula because it is one of the most Christian novels I have ever read. The novel Dracula is structured as a collection of contemporary accounts documenting some strange events over the course of a summer and fall in some year late in the nineteenth century. The opening item is a journal entry dated to May 3, and the last entry is dated November 6. There is no narrator; instead, we have diaries, or letters, or newspaper articles. Someone has collected these disparate materials in order to chronicle the facts concerning Count Dracula, as those facts became known to a few friends dedicated to destroying him. These friends are, first of all, Jonathan Harker and his fiance, Mina Murray, as well as Mina’s friend, the ill-fated Lucy Westenra, and also the three men who are in love with Lucy, namely, Dr. John Seward, Quincey P. Morris, and Arthur Holmwood, the future Lord Godalming. And then, of course, there is the friend of Dr. Seward, and his former teacher, from Amsterdam, Prof. Abraham Van Helsing. These five men—Harker, Seward, Van Helsing, Morris, and Godalming—along Harker’s wife, Mina, bind themselves by oath to avenge the death of their beloved Lucy. The collection of papers assembled in this novel—the diary entries and letters and newspaper clippings—describe Lucy’s death and the process of avenging her. We learn near the end of the novel that it was Mina Harker who assembled these documents. Why do I love the novel Dracula? Because it is one of the most Christian novels I have ever read, one of the most virtuous, one of the most noble. I love the novel because the characters bravely entrust themselves to God in their fight against evil. I love it because it inspires me to be a better person, to imitate Jesus more closely. Actually, I have never read the novel Dracula, not in the normal sense of the term “read.” About twenty years ago, before I moved to Alabama, I think, I tried to read it, but after about a hundred pages, I was so bored I put it down, and I have never picked it up again. But a few years later, I was in the local public library and came across a Recorded Books version of Dracula, one read by Alexander Spencer and Susan Adams, and I thought I would give it a try. I loved it. A few years later, I listened to it again, in October, and most years in October I decide to re-listen to that version of Dracula. I have found this version available on YouTube. Highly recommended. I cannot recommend the experience of reading the novel Dracula: I’ve never done it. And I won’t recommend to you any particular film version of the story. I’ve seen a few Dracula films, including the classic 1931 film starring Bela Lugosi, which is a must-see for movie-lovers. But it is not much like the novel at all, and contains little of what I love in the story. But I can recommend the Recorded Books version that I mentioned; I’ve listened to it perhaps a couple dozen times. What about Dracula vs. Frankenstein? I don’t know who would win in a battle, but as for which book is better, that’s easy—Dracula. Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel about a scientist who assembles a man out of random body parts and then manages to create life is, I am sorry to say, pretty boring. The monster does a lot of whining in that novel. It doesn’t even come close to being scary. The recent film version on Netflix directed by Guillermo del Toro is excellent and much better than its source material. Back to Dracula: is it scary? Um, yes, some of it is, or was. Now at this late date, after having experienced the novel so many times, its power to frighten has diminished, though I still anticipate the thrill of certain sections: Jonathan Harker’s growing realization of his dangerous predicament at Castle Dracula early in the novel, and in chapter 7, the captain’s log found in the hands of the dead captain of the ship called the Demeter, who had lashed his own hands to the wheel of the vessel. But most of the novel is not scary exactly, more of a thriller. And I know you also are curious how much sex is in the novel. The answer: not much, certainly not as much as in the film versions. Is there any sex? Well, the sexiest part of the novel is near the beginning, at Castle Dracula in Transylvania, when Jonathan Harker, in a hypnotic state, encounters three women who materialize out of particles or dust in the air. While Harker is vaguely asleep on a couch, one of the women bends over him to—as he thinks—kiss his neck, and Harker admits that her approach excited him, but he also observed that as her mouth drew closer to his neck she strangely licked her lips. As it turned out, the two never made contact. So, like I said, no sex. Dracula moves to London, and there he does shenanigans. Let me tell you very briefly what the novel is about: Dracula moves to London, and there he does shenanigans. I’ve already introduced you to the main characters, including the woman Dracula kills upon first taking up residence in England, Lucy Westenra—or, he does not kill her exactly, but he slowly drains her blood until she becomes no longer alive, but not dead; she is undead. Lucy happens to be best friends with Mina Murray, and the two were on holiday together at the seaside resort of Whitby when the Demeter arrives into port, covered in fog and apparently completely unmanned except for the corpse at the wheel, and carrying only fifty boxes of earth. The local newspaper features a report on the arrival of… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmongallagher.substack.com
