Sunday, January 22, 2012

Opening Sentence: Dracula


How these papers have been placed in sequence will be made manifest in the reading of them.
-- Dracula by Bram Stoker.

The opening make sense when you realize that the novel is told through a series of documents -- journals, letters, telegrams, newspaper stories, etc.

This is excellent! I do not read any vampire books, as a rule, so maybe I am enjoying this one so much because it isn't a worn-out story for me. I am continually surprised by how fresh and modern the book feels, even though this one -- the original -- was published in 1897.

This counts as the "horror" choice for the Back to the Classic Challenge hosted by Sarah at Sarah Reads Too Much

4 comments:

  1. I haven't read many vampire books myself. I really didn't read this one either, I listened to the audiobook version. I was surprised about how nicely it flowed together. It was really interesting and not at all what I had expected (in a good way).

    I hope you enjoy it.

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  2. Monique: I read this one with my ears too and thought the audio version was particularly well done.

    I definitely count listening to an audiobook as "reading" the book. All the words of the book are going into my brain, they are just going in via my ears instead of my eyes.

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  3. I absolutely loved Dracula, which surprised me because I'm not a fan of horror and vampires are passé. But, it is a classic and an original. I really enjoyed the documentation approach to story-telling rather than straight narration.

    Enjoy!

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  4. Jane: I loved it too! Which completely surprised me.

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