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Ch. 21 - 27: Dracula - by Bram Stoker
Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2021 7:07 am
by Chris OConnor
Ch. 21 - 27: Dracula - by Bram Stoker
Please use this thread to discuss Chapters 21 - 27 of Dracula by Bram Stoker.
Re: Ch. 21 - 27: Dracula - by Bram Stoker
Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 9:06 pm
by Mr. P
Oy. The prose is getting so repetitive and irksome, specifically all the 'and all of us who love her dearly, bless her heart and pure soul, her fairness and her... Blah blah blah.' So antiquated to read now and even for that time, a tad over done. At least Mina gets credit for her contributions. But sheese. These men are just hounds. First Lucy, now Mina. So creepy.
Re: Ch. 21 - 27: Dracula - by Bram Stoker
Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 9:08 pm
by Mr. P
A stray thought I had regarding the Host. So they are fighting a flesh eater/blood drinker with a practice that pretends to eat flesh and blood of Jesus.
Just amusing. No commentary.
Re: Ch. 21 - 27: Dracula - by Bram Stoker
Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 9:21 pm
by Mr. P
Have not mentioned it before, but the device of the dirt is a bit cumbersome and I wonder why stoker made it so that the Count HAD to ship his home dirt about. Why not just any dirt?
The dirt is described as consecrated and connected to his homeland. Will the dirt of England (or any land) eventually suffice to regenerate the Count and other vampires? Or does it always have to be Transylvania dirt?
Seems the device will be a means for the hunters to kill him. But it also seems to be a gaping hole In Drac's plan and makes him extremely vulnerable. Although, maybe he figures he has been immortal for so long that he can always prevail. But not against the scrappy men (and women) of jolly ol'!!!
Re: Ch. 21 - 27: Dracula - by Bram Stoker
Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2021 9:05 pm
by Mr. P
So Stoker's Drac can be active and out in the daylight. I figured the burning sun was at least a part of, if not initiated by, Stoker's tale.
Re: Ch. 21 - 27: Dracula - by Bram Stoker
Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2021 9:33 pm
by Mr. P
Our old fox is wily; oh; so wily, and we must follow with wile. I too am wily and I think his mind in a little while.
Is this alliteration simply pleasant sounding or indicative of something revelatory? Is Van Helsing a counterpart to Drac in some way? More so than a nemesis?
Re: Ch. 21 - 27: Dracula - by Bram Stoker
Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2021 10:06 pm
by Mr. P
With the child-brain that was to him he have long since conceive the idea of coming to a great city. What does he do? He find out the place of all the world most of promise for him. Then he deliberately set himself down to prepare for the task. He find in patience just how is his strength, and what are his powers. He study new tongues. He learn new social life; new environment of old ways, the politic, the law, the finance, the science, the habit of a new land and a new people who have come to be since he was. His glimpse that he have had, whet his appetite only and enkeen his desire.
Nay, it help him to grow as to his brain; for it all prove to him how right he was at the first in his surmises. He have done this alone; all alone! from a ruin tomb in a forgotten land.
What more may he not do when the greater world of thought is open to him. He that can smile at death, as we know him; who can flourish in the midst of diseases that kill off whole peoples. Oh, if such an one was to come from God, and not the Devil, what a force for good might he not be in this old world of ours.
But we are pledged to set the world free. Our toil must be in silence, and our efforts all in secret; for in this enlightened age, when men believe not even what they see, the doubting of wise men would be his greatest strength.
Just isolating this for now.
Re: Ch. 21 - 27: Dracula - by Bram Stoker
Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2021 8:34 pm
by Mr. P
A side note that made me smile, due to professional connotation: the mention of LLOYD'S. I am sure everyone knows Lloyd's of London, not the first insurance company on the technicality that it was not formed as an insurance company, but a collection of risk takers. It was formed in 1686 in a coffee house. It's primary focus: marine insurance.
It predated the first insurance company, Sun, by 24 years.
Lloyd's is mentioned in the context of the Vampire hunters need to keep track of the Czarina Catherine, where Drac is thought to be sequestered as he travels back to Transylvania.
As an insurance professional, I feel like I am now part of the hunt. Maybe not. But still like the mention.
Re: Ch. 21 - 27: Dracula - by Bram Stoker
Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2021 3:16 pm
by Mr. P
So as I near the last 10 pages... I must say that I am not impressed with this story. It's ok. The whole thing though seems very basic and the characters are sooo thin and basic. The whole of Dracs plan to come to London was...just... Eh. He comes after so much planning and we rarely see him, and then flees back home.
Let's hope the climax is killer.
Re: Ch. 21 - 27: Dracula - by Bram Stoker
Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2021 10:13 pm
by Mr. P
Ok. This is a classic, and it did set the standard for modern vampire stories. But it was just ok IMO. The ending...so bland and anti-climactic. Jeez, they never really had a confrontation with him aside from that one scene in the Harkers room. And that fizzled.
Stoker just glossed over every conflict and it came off as an afterthought that the hunters were always going to win.
It was worth the read, but... I am just not in awe.