9 Days of Dracula (Dracula Readalong) INCOMPLETE--DNF

I'm co-hosting 2 readalongs on Instagram this month! We will be reading Dracula by Bram Stoker October 1-9 and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova October 11-31. While I love Instagram, I also want a place where we can discuss the topics of each chapter in further detail and not give away any spoilers to readers who may be a bit behind. I will be giving my daily updates here and I am looking forward to hearing everyone else's comments, so check in often and let me know your thoughts (here and on my Instagram stories).

Day 1: Chapters 1-3

• Ch 1: Jonathan is traveling from London to meet Count Dracula. Starting out by train, Jonathan stays at nice hotels, eats exotic dishes (paprika!), and sees new styles of dress...but as he travels on, his journey begins to get strange. From Bistritz Jonathan sets out with his fellow Bukovina-bound passengers to meet Dracula's carriage at the Borgo Pass (all these "b" places!). The passengers are totally freaked out (they keep blessing Jonathan with evil eye protection gestures and one of them gives Jonathan a rosary). The coachman arrives early at the Borgo Pass and hopes to convince Jonathan to just come along to Bukovina since Dracula's carriage isn't there, but then the carriage appears out of nowhere! Jonathan has a crazy ride in a calèche (which is a "light low-wheeled carriage with a removable folding hood, I had to look that one up). When he isn't surrounded by total darkness he sees blue flames and moonlit glances of the landscape...and a giant ring of wolves surrounding the carriage and horses that are somehow dispersed by a wave of the hand by the driver. They travel up, up , up to "a vast ruined castle".  

• Ch 2:  Dracula welcomes Jonathan "Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!" Nope, doesn't sound sketchy at all! While Dracula has very luxurious furnishings (and an awesome library), doesn't smoke, and likes his guests to sleep in (so far, so good) he also has a unibrow, pointy ears and fingernails, hairy palms, and nasty breath (ew!) We learn that Jonathan is a solicitor acting on behalf of his superior, Peter Hawkins (who is Dracula's friend somehow?) to show Dracula all the information about a new house he has purchased in London. It's so lovely: medieval stone with iron barred windows and an oh so quaint private lunatic asylum right next door! Not seeing Dracula sneak up behind him (no reflection!) Jonathan cuts himself shaving. The Count grabs Jonathan's throat but pulls away from the crucifix. When Jonathan considers an escape he realizes he is a prisoner...all the doors are locked and bolted!

• Ch 3: The Count supplies Jonathan with transparent paper and envelopes to write letters (since he will be staying in the castle for a month) and warns him to not sleep anywhere else in the castle (how will that happen if he is locked in?). Then he gives a long speech about his personal history/the military history of the country to imply that he was there to witness it all. When the Count leaves the castle (like a lizard down the outside walls) Jonathan finds a door to an area of the castle that is not locked and decides to defy orders of sleeping elsewhere. In his "dream" 3 women come to him and one almost kisses/bites him but the Count arrives and tells them that they can't have Jonathan but he's brought them a present...a child in a sack!

My Thoughts: Stoker's writing has me on the edge of my seat. My senses are heightened as I read each page. I love the details about the castle and am wondering how Jonathan plans to spend his month as the Count's "guest"? Will he be let go? I'm also wondering about all the solicitor talk in Ch 3. Is he feigning ignorance to pry into Jonathan's knowledge of the subject or is he truly wanting to know about modern legal matters and actions? 


Day 2: Chapters 4-6

• Ch 4: Jonathan tried to send some letters to Mina and his boss by throwing them out the window to a "gypsy" in the Count's courtyard, but the Count returns with them and burns them. The following day Jonathan finds all of his paper, notes, his letter of credit, and his clothes are gone and later sees the Count set off for the village in his clothes--meaning any evilness he does will be attributed to Jonathan (talk about adding insult to injury!) Jonathan almost summons the women again by nodding off while watching dust in the moonbeams (C'mon now, Jonathan!), the Count brings another kid in a sack and after begging for the child's release the child's mother is eaten by wolves. Jonathan decides to scale the castle's exterior wall to the Count's chamber which is full of gold and has a lower level where he is "sleeping" in his "new" coffin (there are 50?) The next night Jonathan returns to the chamber and hits him over the head with a shovel. 
• Ch 5: We finally meet Mina and Lucy. Mina wants to be a journalist and seems to be calm and collected, whereas Lucy gets 3 proposals for marriage on her 19th birthday, is fascinated with slang, and cries a lot. We also meet Lucy's 3 suitors (who are all friends?!): Dr John Seward (lunatic asylum owner who is performing an interesting experiment), Mr Quincey P. Morris (Texan), and Arthur Holmwood. 
• Ch 6: Mina likes hanging out in a cemetery overlooking the town of Whitby and it's nearby docks while talking to the old men about tombstones. Dr Seward continues his experiment, a mysterious boat has arrived in the harbor, and Lucy is sleepwalking. 

Holy chapters of slang! Between Morris and Mr Swales I admit I skimmed some of their chatterings. Is the Count going to wake up with Jonathan in his room? Is Seward going to give Renfield a cat?! even after he ate the birds!?)

Day 3: Chapters 7-9

• Chapter 7: A terrible storm off the coast of Whitby brings in a Russian ship with no other passengers besides a corpse lashed to the helm and a dog that jumps off the boat when it makes landfall. According to the ship's log men began going missing from the ship during their journey. Lucy continues to attempt sleepwalking but it caught by Mina each time and Mr Swales is found dead on their special seat. When a sea captain friend comes near Lucy and Mina on the seat, his otherwise obedient dog will not come close 
• Chapter 8: Mina doesn't catch Lucy sleepwalking in time and Lucy makes it all the way out to their special seat overlooking the water. When Mina finds Lucy in the moonlight she also sees a dark figure standing over her. Mina fastens a shawl around Lucy and believes she pierced her neck with it. The following night Lucy impatiently returns to bed when she finds the bedroom door locked. Then one night she sits up in bed and points to a bat out the window and on another night Mina looks up to her window from outside to see Lucy "sleeping" on the windowsill with what looks to be a large bird next to her. Lucy begins to look pale and the wounds at her throat are not healing. There are letters between solicitors in regards to the movement of 50 boxes to a house in Carfax. Lucy tells Mina what she felt the night she was found on the seat by the water. Mina receives a letter from a convent where they are taking care of Jonathan and sets out to meet him. Renfield tells Dr Seward that "the Master is at hand" and he escapes to go to the house next door (where all the boxes have been delivered)
• Chapter 9: When Mina arrives to Jonathan he says he wants to marry her right away and he gives her his book with his notes. They are married (between his naps) Dr Seward continues to watch Renfield (flies/no flies). Lucy writes to Mina about becoming more weak and pale and Mina writes to Dr Seward to look in on her. Dr Seward writes to Arthur to tell him of Lucy's health and that he has written to Professor Van Helsing to request him to come examine at Lucy. 

I like Mina's writing style. She makes statements to how she is trying to stick to writing habits and give detailed accounts, but she is also funny in her personal statements (women's appetites, relationships, etc.) Every time I read Carfax, my mind goes "show me the Carfax!" When Sister Agatha writes to Mina she tells of Jonathan running into the train station violently shouting for a ticket for home...and they just gave it to him? He has no money and is shouting and they said "let's stick him on this train"?

Day 4: Chapters 10-12

• Chapter 10: Dr (John) Seward and Van Helsing are attending to Lucy when VH decides she needs a blood transfusion. Just as they are about to perform the transfusion from John to Lucy, Arthur arrives and gives his blood. Arthur goes home to rest, VH heads back to Amsterdam to gather some belongings, and John stays to sit up with Lucy. Except he falls asleep and Lucy loses all her blood again. Now VH takes a transfusion from John and John is upset that VH took more blood from Arthur than from him 🙄. VH gives Lucy a bunch of garlic to wear around her neck and place on her windowsill and her maids ask to stay up with her the next night. 
• Chapter 11: VH and Dr S arrive to Lucy's the next morning to find that Lucy's mother came in and opened the windows and threw out the garlic in Lucy's room the night before, so now Lucy needs another transfusion, this time from VH. There is also section included here about a wolf escaping from the zoo. Renfield wounds Dr S and laps up his spilled blood from the floor. VH sends a telegram to Dr S to be with Lucy for the next evening but the telegram is delayed. Lucy's mother comes into her room in the evening, a wolf breaks in the window, and Lucy's mother rips the garlic from Lucy's neck and then dies. The maids come in to find Lucy's mother dead in Lucy's bed and become hysterical. Lucy dismisses them to go have some wine in the dining room but the wine was laced with laudanum and they all 4 passed out. 
• Chapter 12: VH and Dr S arrive again at Lucy's to find her near death...again. VH gives Lucy a bath with her clothes on and finds a letter she stashed "by her breast" and he reads it. It tells her account of what happened the night her mother died. Lucy's in need of another transfusion when Quincey Morris arrives (all these suitors are working out well for Lucy) out of the blue. Later, she feels better and starts to sleep, then pulls the letter out and rips it up. Arthur arrives. Meanwhile, Mina and Jonathan move in with Mr Hawkins and then inherit everything that is his when he dies. Renfield goes crazy about some boxes traveling to the neighboring house.  Lucy awakens and beckons to Arthur but VH will not let him near. The next morning the holes in Lucy's neck are healed and she is "dead".

The zookeepers dialect was definitely not easy to read. I guess we are supposed to believe Dracula is controlling the wolf or he becomes the wolf? Who's putting laudanum in the wine? Dracula obviously but I'm missing the angle there. Is Dracula's body in the boxes that are moving to the house. Is Renfield upset because someone else is getting to serve his master? Why won't VH fill everyone else in on his theory? Also, Lucy's breasts were very prominent in these chapters. 

Day 5: Chapters 13-15

• Chapter 13: Van Helsing places garlic in and a gold crucifix in Lucy's coffin and tells Seward he wants to cut off her head. VH gets Arthur's permission to read Lucy's letters and journals. Jonathan sees a man he believes to be a young Count Dracula when he is in Exeter with Mina and he has a breakdown. Arthur and Quincey go back to Ring. The Westminster Gazette runs two stories about the "Bloofer Lady" luring children away from their homes. 
• Chapter 14: Mina invites Van Helsing (to her home?) to discuss Jonathan's "brain fever" and then later Jonathan meets with him and they agree to discuss Jonathan's Transylvania trip later. VH shows Dr Seward the articles about the "bloofer lady" in the paper and frustratingly tries to make Seward figure out what he is thinking about Lucy (rather than just telling him)
• Chapter 15: VH and Seward break into Lucy's coffin and find her body not there. They see a white streak in the graveyard and then find a child. They decide to leave the child somewhere it will be found by a policeman so they don't have to answer any questions. They return to Lucy's coffin the next night and her body is inside. VH then leads Arthur, Seward, and Quincey in a strange roundabout conversation to get the point of telling them what he wants to do...cut off Lucy's head. 

Stoker sure laid it on thick with the Van Helsing broken dialogue and the whole "King Laugh" section just went in circles. When Mina finds out Lucy is dead she doesn't seem very distraught. She only writes 2 sentences in her journal! When Van Helsing visits Mina, why is she being silly/coy/flirting? Especially after he gives her the weird compliment: "Ah, then you have a good memory for facts, for details? It is not always so with young ladies." Screw you, Professor! And then she gives him Jonathan's transcribed journal after first presenting him with the original shorthand version? That whole scene was strange. 

and this is where I gave up. Maybe I'll pick this back up and finish next year? 

Day 6: Chapters 16-18 

Day 7: Chapters 19-21

Day 8: Chapters 22-24

Day 9: Chapters 25-28