One thing that didn't surprise me was the experience of reading the book was very much colored by all the many Dracula images western culture has dished up over the decades. I had alternating visions of Christopher Lee and Gary Oldman dancing around in my head while I read this and, unfortunately, I could not get Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker out of my head either.
The most surprising thing, however, came as I read the chapters that detailed the whole vampire hunting gang as they put their many pieces of the puzzle together, with Mina typing up everyone's diaries and creating a narrative. This is an epistolary, and as such it is made up of letters and journal entries (Dr. Seward uses the "phonograph" for journaling, Mina uses shorthand), so you get a new pov on every other page. Mina, with her "brain like a man," is at one point cut out of the vampire hunting strategy sessions due to her female delicacy.
This turns out to be a very bad idea, for the Count likes the ladies, and finds his way into her boudoir while all the stodgies are puffing tobacco, swilling brandy, and theorizing in the man-chamber. After her blood is nearly drained one evening, the men finally learn their lesson and bring Mina back into the fold. This is good, because Mina's strong intellect is the only thing keeping this ragtag operation one step ahead of the Count.
Could it be that Bram was an early feminist? I can't help thinking that he had no compunction about showing what boobs the men-folk were for their exclusion of Mina. Though Van Helsing frequently shines as the man of the moment, he'd be nothing if he didn't recognize what he had in Mina and the two form a partnership of sorts. Stoker really drove it home over and over again with Mina using maps and her many notes to divine what the Count would do next, using her psychic connection with the Count to track him over land and sea, and fighting the metamorphosis from human to vampire as the Count's blood took hold...it's very clear that Mina is far more worthy, intelligent, and at least as brave as her male companions. You go, Bram!
448 pages
