When I was in grade school I read everything. Or, at least, I tried to read everything. When I got to the “Classics” like Moby Dick, Three Musketeers, Don Juan and many others, I just couldn’t get through them. The language was too dense and odd to my teenage eye.
Recently I started reading Dracula. I had nothing else to read at the time and decided to fight my way through it if for no other reason than to say I’d done it.
I can now see why some people gravitate to the “Classics”. The language is rich, the characters are proper and polite and the detail makes the prose extremely vivid. You feel like you know the characters when you are finished. I think these strengths might also be the book’s weaknesses. Even the villain is polite. Evil, but polite. The book was a bit of a slog to get through for me.
Still, I did enjoy the story and I now better understand why books of this vintage are so popular. I will even move on to other books that I couldn’t work my way through before because of it.
Would I recommend it? Certainly, with the warning that it might be a tough read for some. It is worth the effort. For those of you who revel in this kind of book, no doubt you’ve already read it.
Rating: 4/5 8/10
