Book Club: Dracula by Bram Stoker
My ladies book club got together this week...it was supposed to be last week, but there were too many sick kids, and none of us wanted to pass it around. The book for the month of October was very appropriately, Dracula.
We showed up on a very snowy night to a house filled with the scent of garlic. After imbibing blood red punch, and copious amounts of garlic bread we settled in to discuss the book.
A brief synopsis for those that haven't read it: Jonathan Parker, solicitor, travels to visit a client out in the middle of no-where. After a very interesting journey, he arrives at a very creepy castle, with an equally creepy, but apparently solicitous host. He is slow to notice the strange habits of his host (not eating, not having servants, climbing out of his window upside-down etc) but does eventually figure out his peril. Eventually Dracula leaves for England, and Jonathan escapes.
Dracula arrives in England and begins stealthily terrorizing Miss Lucy. It goes badly for her. Then he turns his sights on Miss Mina, Jonathan's lady love. They finally bring in a Dr. Van Helsing who no one can understand because of his atrocious accent, he figures out the problem and takes steps to fix it. The entire party chases across England, and a good portion of the continent tracking down Dracula to end his reign of terror.
That's the basics..I recommend reading the book, it's excellent. The hardest part of the book was reading and deciphering Van Helsing's accent.
The book is written in a series of letters and diary entries, and it's important to note who is speaking when, and to whom. It's a great selection for a Halloween Book Club, and as classics go, it's a fairly easy read.
One of the things that did annoy -all- of the book club ladies, was the continual reference to how Mina had "The mind of a man in a women's body" That may be just a sign of when the book was written, but they couldn't seem to decide if they were going to include her and use her knowledge, or exclude her and try and protect the "frail womanly virtues" If they would have just made up their mind one way or the other..well I suppose that would have made it a shorter book.
