Sorry about the short post–I think Catholic Answers Forums has done something to stop people from posting multiple paragraphs. So until I figure it out, I’m writing this in Notebook and will cut-and-paste, per my husband’s suggestion.
I believe there are multiple layers to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and one of those layers is that it is a tale of Good vs. Evil, and the Church and the power of the Sacred Host (Jesus) are definitely held up as the best way to keep Dracula (evil) at bay.
After my husband and I converted to Catholicism, I found much more in Dracula to encourage my new-found Catholic faith than I had ever found as a Protestant!
I would LOVE to see a Christian producer and director get hold of Dracula and produce a film that makes it clear that GOD’s power can, does, and will defeat evil.
I hope you will enjoy the story as a “heroic quest” in which good, decent men and women fight against Dracula and his vampire wives.
HOWEVER…there are, IMO, other “layers” in the novel. Bram Stoker wrote this novel in a private hide-away in Soho, the tough part of London where drugs, prostitution, alcoholism, and other sinful practices held sway. He was not a particularly religious man, and I have often sensed that as he was writing Dracula, he was actually making fun of religion and holiness, and ridiculing God and the Church. In describing Dracula’s atrocities, Stoker is quite graphic (at least for that time in history–nowadays, little children would yawn). By today’s standards, the book is totally decent and suitable even for a young teenager (I actually read a child’s version of the novel, given to me by my mother, when I was in 3rd Grade). But the feeling of a “horrid novel” (Google it if you haven’t heard this term before) is still there, at least, IMO.
Please note that this is just my opinion, and I have not seen scholarly articles that support it. But if you get that feeling of Stoker laughing at all of us who believe in God–well, that’s what I sometimes feel when I read the novel.
But that being said, I think that most people would see Dracula as a Heroic Quest–several brave, religious men and women seeking to destroy an evil monster and relying on the power of God and the abilities that He has gifted them with to accomplish their noble goal.
I hope you like it.
BTW, Frankenstein starts off pretty slow–the first eleven chapters are kind of boring. So be prepared, and once you get to the 12th chapter, it gets really good. My husband read it last year when our local library did a celebration of women authors, and he really loved the novel.
