Book Bearings
Dracula
- 384 pages · about 6 hours
- First published 1897
- 1,917 editions
- 2,804 readers on Open Library
- Free to read
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1 About this book
Dracula is an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, told through letters, diary entries and newspaper articles. It has no single main character. English solicitor Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania on business and stays at the castle of Count Dracula, who turns out to be a vampire. The Count moves to England and plagues the seaside town of Whitby, and Harker joins a group led by Abraham Van Helsing that hunts him.
Stoker wrote most of the book in the 1890s and filled over a hundred pages of notes from folklore and history. He took the name “Dracula” from a history of Wallachia and Moldavia, choosing it because he thought it meant “devil” in Romanian. Reviewers at the time were split between praise for its terrifying atmosphere and complaints that it held too much horror. In the 20th century critics came to see it as a seminal work of Gothic fiction. Today it is one of the most famous novels in English, and Count Dracula has shaped how people imagine vampires ever since.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Horror
- Thrillers
- Psychological fiction
- Monsters
- Vampires
- Gothic
- Ghosts
- Drama
2 What to expect
An atmospheric Gothic horror novel told through diaries, letters, newspaper reports, and other documents. It builds gradually around supernatural mystery, Victorian settings, and psychological unease.
Good for readers who want: classic horror, vampires, gothic atmosphere, and a longer immersive read.
3 Read it free, right here
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Read it on the Internet Archive4 About Bram Stoker
Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
5 More by Bram Stoker
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