Dracula

Dracula
by Bram Stoker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars (really 4.5)

This book tells the story of a small group of people who come into the world of Count Dracula and end up fighting for their lives and their eternal souls. It is told entirely through letters and journal entries by the various characters and is incredibly well told.
According to The Oxford Companion to English Literature (5th ed., 1985) the tale was influenced by an 1872 story called "Carmilla," which appeared in Le Fanu's In a Glass Darkly.  It is difficult to imagine what reading this book must have been like in 1897 when all the mythology of the vampire was not well known. There were many layers of mythology and various actions taken by characters in the novel that must have built the suspense and the mystery of who, and what, Count Dracula is very well. Knowing all the tropes of vampire novels now it was totally obvious why garlic flowers were ordered and what it meant that there were 2 small puncture wounds on someone's neck and why that bat kept lurking at the window. This diminished the suspense of the unfolding tale, but it still deserves credit for the wonderfully built tension.

This book is on my Classics Club List and it counts toward the Back to the Classics Challenge as a book with a single word title.

Review: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book has everything--which it should because it is 846 pages long! Anyhow, in a wonderful tale of the rebirth of English Magic there are historical people and events mixed into the story, footnotes that explain obscure points of made-up history, lots of tight corners that are gotten out of in surprising ways, romance, battles, dancing, architectural details, several threads that all tie in together as you reach the end of the book, lots of books that help (or hinder) the characters in their efforts, and wonderful writing. The style is Charles Dickens, meets Jane Austen, with hints of Bram Stoker here and there (no vampires though, just a similar mood).

"There were sheets of thick paper on every surface and inky rags. There were pewter dishes containing ancient cheese rinds and pots containing pens and pieces of charcoal. There was an elderly bunch of celery that had lived too long and too promiscuously in close companionship with the charcoal for its own good." (p. 584)

The way the stories of the two magicians, and some other folks whose importance becomes clear as the story progresses, is interwoven was very well done. There were some sections that seemed a bit drawn out. I thought the war in Spain, for example, went on a lot longer than the story really required.

If you have reviewed this book please post a link to your review in the comments.