Part four of our visit with Bram Stoker's novel Dracula (1897) Still stands the unaddressed question: what brings these people together, and what is the nature of their bond? They are done, in my opinion, so well as to make the otherwise exciting invasion of surreal details at first a bit unwelcome to the reader enjoying their relationships, so free of petty bickering and neurosis as to play perhaps a bit too lofty and ideal to be recognizable. While I occasionally had some fun with the formality that might seem stuffy to modern (especially American) eyes, and sent a few silly texts with overlong parody sign-offs one day while reading, I identify with what emerges from Stoker’s text as a sort of devotion fantasy. In this aspect, I find perhaps more interest in them than those whose fascination rests chiefly with Dracula’s baffling abilities, actions, and company. Their ennobling language charms me. Power of the written word to convey depth I believe strongly in the power of lov...

To enter the world of Dracula as born in the pages of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel is sleep walk into a night world of mysteries. Every good vampire story, and no less, its Undead Lord, unveils itself in a unhurried tease of facts. I attempted to take myself back to the readership which did not know what was coming next, nor the nature of the menace itself. Only Van Helsing suspects and researches the truth of what they face, and in an age of Victorian reliance on science and common sense, he holds this close to the vest as long as possible, lest none believe him. I realize most of us followed the introduction of the character through his famous movie incarnations, not to mention the proliferation of his and other vampire imagery throughout popular culture. Vampires were long part of folklore, in Japan, India, and the Balkan states from which Stoker drew his gypsies, his Transylvania. Thanks to Stoker, and most of all Legosi, Hammer Films and all that followed, they are part of our...