Review of 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker

Aaaaand on to the first re-read of the year. I am a BIG Dracula fan. I took my time getting about to reading it the first time, and held off until I was 20. Basically I was still in the teenage phase of not wanting to like something because everyone said it was good so I didn't read it (so many regrets) until way after pretty much everyone on my uni course had given it a go. 

Anyhow, the first time around I read it for a first wave feminism module at uni and it was so interesting to approach the book from that perspective. This time around, however, my reading felt a little less focused and it allowed me the chance to notice a whole lot that I'd overlooked the first time around.

Dracula begins when Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania on business to meet a Count. When he arrives, the locals seem to fear him, wearing garlic around their necks and crossing themselves. He is attacked by wolves on his way to the Count's castle, but saved by the Count himself. Once he's there, he begins to notice that things aren't how you would expect. He never sees the Count during the day, most of the castle is closed off to him, and Jonathan ultimately realises he's trapped.

Back in England, his betrothed Mina Harker is staying with her closest friend Lucy Westenra, who is trying to deal with the (so hard) problem of having three very different men seeking her hand in marriage. However, soon Lucy's behaviour starts to become very concerning. She sleepwalks, and when she returns to her bed she seems pale and almost lifeless. 

Soon begins a battle between one of the most esteemed doctors of the time, Professor Van Helsing, and a force making nightly visits to Lucy, intent on draining her blood ...

This is one of the key Gothic horror novels, sitting alongside the likes of The Monk, Frankenstein and Edgar Allen Poe's poetry. It has all of the key elements of being an OG Gothic novel: a gloomy moody setting, supernatural elements, the sublime, the question of morality vs depravity, and a side helping of sexually depraved women. The language isn't too dense or antiquated, and whilst the book is quite lengthy, it does switch between various narratives to keep you on your toes.

I am such a big fan of the book, and would put it in my top ten all-time reads. I love how much popular fiction has come from the idea of Dracula put forward in this book, and thinking about how much of an impact it has had globally and across time just blows my mind. Basically, if you want to get into Gothic fiction (who doesn't?), this is a great book to start with, or use to delve deeper into the genre. 

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Review of 'The Monk' by Matthew Lewis

Gothic books are undeniably fab. I think every literature student has been through a phase where this genre is just the shit. But, have I ever read 'the original' Gothic novel? Nah. This year I really want to read more classics, and this was definitely a good place to start. The Monk is something that I've been told is a must-read for a good, well, six years now. Being told that however actually made me want to read it less. 

Now that I've read it I have so many regrets about not reading it before. It is one of the best books I've ever read. I really wish I could go back and read it before reading Dracula because comparing the two whilst I was at uni would have made for some fab coursework. 

I was also genuinely surprised at the content, as well as by how much I enjoyed it. Despite being a Victorian novel, The Monk was a whole lot darker than some of its contemporary counterparts. Although, the Marquis de Sade's Juliette was published only a year later.

The Monk is a story all about the vilification of the Catholic faith. It's a story made up of stories; some of which are interlinked by obscure characters and settings. We have the story of the bleeding nun, all about a nun who rejected her veil and was brutally murdered in the past. And in the present we have a pregnant nun: someone who has violated her vows and wishes to lose the veil. There is a monk who commits a vile number of sins against both humanity and his faith. I'm not going to spoiler what he does for you, but it's all filled with a whole load of twists and turns.

This is a novel that both gave me nightmares and made me not want to stop turning each page. It's possibly the first ever truly scary book I've ever read, so if that's your jam then I would 100% recommend it.

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph

Review of 'Edgar Huntly, or Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker'

I promised you guys more reviews of classics, so here we are. This one is a bit of an obscure one, and comes from an American author at the turn of the 19th Century. This was another text that I was *meant* to read during my degree but got slipped by the wayside. I'm not going to lie, I've probably got a good hundred of these on my kindle and in my book shelf. My goal for the next year or two is basically to read everything I was meant to but never actually got around to. I love reading revered books, and ones that will teach me things about different times and places, so I was so disappointed that I simply ran out of time to read so many amazing books on my course. 

I've been making firm progress in this goal recently, especially in the past month, and hopefully you guys will have noticed with the increase in classics posts, and posts in general! I only managed to get one post in in June (shameful I know), but I've whacked out five or six in July I believe, and I really hope this continues in August. 

Edgar Huntly, Or Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker is set in Philidelphia in the late 1700s. The main character, Edgar, sets out to discover who murdered his best friend Waldegrave. As he does so, he comes across a man called Clithero, digging by an elm tree in the middle of the night. Assuming him to be the murderer, Edgar confronts him once they are both awake. Clithero however has an unlikely story to tell, which does involve murder, but not that of Waldegrave.

Here the reader is transported to Ireland, a place that Clithero holds dear in his heart, and taken through a gothic journey to discover why Clithero has moved so far away from everything he loves. Satisfied with Clithero's tale, Edgar takes himself back to his home, only to arise battered and bruised in the depths of a cave. 

From here, we are taken on a fantasy-filled voyage involving jaguars, aggressive Indians, captive girls and a lot of bloodshed. This book examines battles between native Americans and settling Europeans in an incredibly graphic and direct manner. If you're interested in that time period, then I'd definitely recommend giving this a read!

Have you read it? What did you think?

Review of "Dracula"

(image taken from Oxford University Press)

Dracula has been on by TBR pile for about seven years. As a fan of the Gothic I should have got round to reading this yonks ago, but I finally managed it a few weeks ago. And wow, do I regret not having done so before. This is most definitely sat in my top ten books of all time, possibly top five. If you haven't read it, I would highly suggest you got out and do so. There's everything you could ever want in there: love interests, underlying sex scandals, gore, the uncanny, well developed characters and incredible writing. 

Jonathon Harker travels from London to Transylvania to conduct a deal with a man living in a mysterious home. When he arrives, he realises it isn't just the fact the man's home which is a little odd. Count Dracula, Harker's host, soon displays worrying behaviour, particularly when he refuses Jonathon's entreaties to leave the castle. Having arranged for the Count to move to London, Harker soon begins to question what he has done when he encounters the count sleeping in a coffin ...

Thus begins a whirlwind of a hunt against time to save the woman of London from this vile predator. Who will win this ultimate battle?

There are so many issues raised about normative gender roles, the idea of a 'foreigner' and sexual orientation in this wonderfully deep novel. The image of blood runs throughout the text, and gets particularly interesting if you think about its relation to both menstrual blood and semen. Moreover,the corruption of sexually innocent women by this life-sucking European exposes a number of fears held by the British population during this period about immigration. The contamination of blood leading to disease also links to the concern about STIs (though not necessarily ones we would immediately think about). 

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "The Yellow Wallpaper"

This is probably the most boring-looking quotation I've ever headed one of my reviews with - I hope! BUT, in terms of this short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and published in 1892, it is darkly sinister. If you're a fan of Edgar Allan Poe, or gothic texts that deal with horror in subtle ways (think less Frankenstein and more 'The Raven'), then this one is a great quick read that will play on your mind for days.

The narrator, who is never truly named in the text, and her husband John move to a new house after their wedding. Despite her protestations to sleep in another room, he insists that they sleep in the upstairs room with the yellow wallpaper. The narrator is ill and thus spends a great deal of time in the room. She notices that the legs of the bed seem to have been gnawed at, and it looks as though frantic attempts have been made to rip the yellow wallpaper off. Soon she notices that within the pattern of the wallpaper is a woman, but why is she there?

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was deeply engaged in social and political questions concerning the place of women at the time of writing this novel. The narrator exposes some deeply troubling social tensions and issues for an American woman of the late 1800s. Her illness is typically feminine, and keeps her in a room behind barred windows. *SPOILER ALERT* Just as the woman in the wall-paper is trapped by bars in the pattern, so is the narrator - as the narrator begins to become more and more obsessed with unravelling (so to speak) the wallpaper, so her and the woman in the wallpaper became more and more enmeshed. Eventually the reader is left asking who is who, and ultimately does it matter? These women have both been imprisoned by the societal constructs surrounding them, and neither can truly escape. 

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph