Dracula Book summary

 Dracula was the only truly successful work of Bram Stoker, and it was published on the 26th of May 1897. Vampires were an obscure subject for the people of the time, and consequently, the public was horrified and intrigued by the notion of a creature that fed off the blood of man. Literary critics have dissected the story in great detail, and have remarked on the sexual overtones involved in the interactions between vampires and people. The use of cutting-edge modern technology of the time made Dracula a work of Techno-Fiction for the readers of Victorian England.

The book makes use of an Epistolary narrative structure, which aids in building a lot of the suspense of the novel. Additionally, it also reflects the fragmentary nature of its composition, as Bram Stoker famously took seven years to complete the novel. The core inspiration for the novel was a dream he had about promiscuous women with large teeth who wanted to kiss him. This scene can be found in the first section of the novel, and it continues to communicate, even today, the dread that Bram Stoker experienced in that nightmare.

Johnathan Harker, a clerk to a solicitor, is sent off to Transylvania to deal with a nobleman called Count Dracula about the purchase of an estate in London. The people of the region warn him about his final destination, but Johnathan goes on. He meets with the courteous man and stays in his old and dilapidated castle while consulting with him about the nobleman’s impending plans of relocating to London. Johnathan slowly begins to realize that not all is right at Castle Dracula, and his stay has turned into imprisonment. He observes strange things such as the Count’s attitude towards mirrors and blood. He falls asleep in a different part of the castle and is nearly attacked by three beautiful women with sharp teeth. Johnathan is saved by Count Dracula, and he begins to realize that Count Dracula does not intend for him to return home alive. He discovers that Dracula is some sort of creature that lies dead during the morning in a tomb and attempts to escape just as Dracula prepares to leave for England.

Mina Murray grows worried for her fiancé, Johnathan Harker, since she hasn’t heard from him in a while, and decides to visit her friend Lucy in Whitby. Lucy sleepwalks in the night and has recently agreed to marry an English aristocrat, Arthur Holmwood, even though she had been proposed to by two other men as well. During Mina’s time, the ship that had been transporting Count Dracula and his boxes of earth crashes on Whitby Island, and he begins to prey on an unsuspecting Lucy. Mina receives word from Budapest, where Johnathan is recovering from a brain fever. She rushes to him, and they are married in the hospital. Johnathan confesses not to have any memories of the past month, and hands over his journal for the time to Mina. He does not wish to know what it was that lead him to feel so sick.

Lucy gets married to Arthur, but her health continues to decline because Dracula is feeding on her. Arthur requests aid from his friend, Seward, who had also proposed to marry Lucy. Seward, the head of a mental asylum is unable to understand her illness, and calls on his old professor, Van Helsing. The old man suspects the true reason and attempts to prevent Dracula from feeding on her but he ultimately fails, and Lucy dies. Van Helsing proves to the others that the cause of her death had been a vampire, by showing them the transformed Lucy that hunts children in death. Together, they kill her by putting a stake in her heart and free her soul.

Johnathan and Mina return to England, where Johnathan has another episode of brain fever as he claims to catch sight of Count Dracula in London. This forces Mina to examine Johnathan’s diary, and she transcribes it for Van Helsing when she hears of Lucy’s death. Van Helsing understands that Count Dracula had been responsible for Lucy’s death, and he begins to plan a strategy to bring him to his end. However, Count Dracula after killing Lucy now turns his attention towards Mina. He feeds on her and causes her to drink his blood, forming a special connection between the two of them. Van Helsing and the others use this connection to find him and kill him as he is escaping back to his castle in the last wooden box of earth that Van Helsing had not sealed with the use of communion wafers. Van Helsing also kills the three vampires that had lived in Castle Dracula.