It’s been a week since my last post, I know. But I have been on a big reading spree after such a long time! I managed to complete three books last week – The Children of Hurin by Tolkien, The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan and Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan. I’ve not started re-reading Jane Austen’s Persuasion. I’ve quite a bit of stuff I want to say about the books I’ve just read, especially the one by Amy Tan. I hope to get them all down by the end of this week…
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| Host at http://rereadinglives.blogspot.com/ 14 March – 20 March |
In the meantime, the Irish Short Story Week, hosted by Mel U at The Reading Life, had begun in full swing. We’re reading shortstories by Irish writers this week to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. Or is it that we’re using St Patrick’s Day as an excuse to finally get down to reading the works of Irish authors? Either way, this is a lovely opportunity, plus reading a short story might take a maximum of twenty minutes! While reading Mel U’s posts on Irish writers I realised that many were familiar that I didn’t know were Irish since they’re usually labelled under the broad term ‘British’, and there are many that I’ve never come across before. It’s amazing how many writers Ireland has spawned!! …and brilliant ones at that.
So, in preparation for this week Mel had been reading up on a few writers and throwing out suggestions for those of us who might be interested. One of them was Dracula’s Guest, a short story by Bram Stoker. Having read Dracula only a few months ago, I was intrigued. From Mel’s review of the piece I realised that it started out very much like the novel.
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| Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula: Drawn by Euan Mactavish at paper-pencils-pixels.blogspot.com |
I’ve just finished reading it, and it I must say, it has all the spine-tingling horror of the first chapter in Dracula. I intended to read Dracula’s Guest during the day ’cause I figured I’d be less freaked out and wouldn’t keep looking over my shoulder to see if someone was going to get me! However, it was a good read. As I might have said had I written a commentary on the novel, Bram Stoker has a love writing style; it’s so succinct, and the imagery is powerful. He is indeed a very subtle writer. Everything is implied. Nothing is stated out in the open.
The narrator of the short story is your typical Englishman, said to be all reason and highly unlikely to believe in anything that even remotely sounds like a superstition. He is on his way someplace on the day of a night that the dead are supposed to awaken. His coachman is all jittery and the horses seem to echo the coachman’s nervousness. The Englishman, however, believe they’re all over-reacting. They pass a pathway that the coachman is determined not to go into, and naturally our narrator is curious. He lets the coachman go home – and then he has an adventure that is all superstition come to life.
As I read this story, I first though it read somewhat like a prequel to Dracula the novel. However, there are something that don’t fit into the pattern of how the novel starts. Yet, there are plenty of similarities between the two.
If you have never read Stoker’s Dracula before, and are not sure if you would like to give the novel a try, I would suggest you read Dracula’s Guest the short story. If you want to experience more of this well-written horror, then go ahead and try the novel. Personally, I’m not a horror fan, but I loved this! Here’s an online e-text for you to peruse if you’re feeling adventurous!
A reminder – if you would like to know more of Irish stories and Irish writers I would suggest you visit Mel U’s The Reading Life. There’s so much he’s covering this week!
