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One thing these retellings somehow always get wrong: van Helsing doesn't decorate the room with garlic _bulbs_ but garlic _flowers._

"Victory delivered with the help of the train schedules" has got to be the most Victorian sentence I've ever heard.

“A wolf appears.” Is a pretty weak change from the canon scene where Dracula steals the wolf from the local zoo and straight up THROWS said wolf through the window.

I would add that one of Dracula's most important themes to me is the deep respect, friendship and dedication bounding the heroes together, each of them, including Mina, being ready to sacrifice oneself for the others.

I’m surprised you view Lucy as “modern” and “tainted”, while Mina is “pure”. Lucy never courts multiple men-she sees Quincy and Seward as friends, not love prospects, and turns them both down before accepting her beloved Arthur’s proposal. There’s no jealousy after that, they really all do remain friends, and the men’s attempt to save her are painted as chivalrous, gallant, and selfless. It’s her purity that makes her Undeath so tragic, as even the sweet and gentle Lucy can be corrupted into a child-eating monster by Dracula. Mina, meanwhile, is closer to the “new woman” she is fond of referring to in her diaries. She brings up the possibility of “doing the proposing herself”, is clever and independent, and wields out a rifle in the final battle to brutal effect. In fact, the men imposing Victorian social standards on her, by trying to keep her out of the loop, always ends badly.

It's been a few years since I read Dracula so I might be misremembering this, but I really didn't get the impression that Lucy was supposed to be a modern, liberated woman leading along three men at once. In fact, I remember the complete opposite. The impression I got was that Lucy was just so dang sweet and innocent and beautiful and kind that all three of her suitors were just naturally drawn to her. I mean, all three of them proposed to her in the same day and she was so polite and considerate about the whole thing that the two rejected suitors were cool with it and remained good friends with her and her fiancé. If anything, the message of Lucy being turned into a vampire was that Dracula seeks out that which is pure and good and will do anything to corrupt it, to drag innocence down to his level. That's why seeing how brutal vampire Lucy was was so shocking: it was a complete reversal of everything she represented when she was alive. Also, I think it's important to mention that, before Lucy's mother was killed, she threw out all of the garlic blossoms (not bulbs) in her room and opened the window because she wasn't let in on the whole plan and thought that the strong smell of garlic would be unhealthy and it would be good to let in some fresh air. Her making that mistake was the thing that doomed Lucy in the end. Given how central the group communicating with each other is to their success later, it really served to show the reader how important it is to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Dracula is definitely one of those books that feels so far ahead of its time, both in terms of how it explores some of its themes (although some of the attitudes behind those themes do feel pretty out of date today), and in terms of its structure with the different narrative sources.

There's an excellent board game called Fury of Dracula (look for the third or fourth edition) which surprisingly captures the literary work better than any other adaptation. One player plays Dracula who moves around a map of Europe secretly, leaving behind a trail of vampires and traps, while the other players play Van Hellsing, Mina Harker, John Steward, and Lord Godalming trying to find and slay him. A major part of the game is collecting train tickets and planning routes around Europe.

I don’t know if I completely agree with the interpretation that Lucy is supposed to represent a modern woman. From what I’ve been able to gather, it wasn’t incredibly unusual for women in the Victorian era to have multiple suitors at once, what’s unusual about Lucy’s situation is that they all proposed to her on the same day. The fact that these three men are so in love with her is also pretty much the only character trait that Lucy has too, it seems like all she ever talks about is getting married and living a typical Victorian life. I’ve read the novel a couple of times and it always sticks out to me how completely focused on traditional Victorian romance Lucy is. Mina on the other hand has her own job, travels across Europe on her own to go see Jonathan when he’s sick after escaping the castle, stands up for herself when the other characters say they don’t think it would be right or proper for her as a woman to come hunt down Dracula with them, and possibly the most important thing symbolically, Mina is constantly using technology like typewriters and wax cylinders, which as the video notes were incredibly new at the time. Another interesting consideration is the way both women view their fiancés, Lucy never really speaks about loving any of the men that much, and it’s seems to be of secondary importance to her when she’s trying to decide who to marry, all three of the suitors too only seem to want to marry Lucy because she’s beautiful. Mina meanwhile is constantly talking about how much she loves Jonathan, and he’s also always going on about how great she is and how he loves her so much, with neither one overly focused on the appearance of the other.

While I haven't actually read Dracula, I HAVE listened to the audiobook read by the late, great Christopher Lee. Highly recommended if you can find it.

This book is basically an at the time catalogue of cool new stuff. Ergo, all the transfusions and hypnosis and stuff.

It's the way Harker wasn't immediately sus when Dracula looked at his blood for me-

I never knew how the story was told through a series of journals, letters, and newspaper clips. That's really cool.

I’ve already scene the summary of Dracula from Overly Sarcastic Productions. From an interesting fact were Stoker never met a Texan in his life.

Harker doesn't escape by jumping in the river- that's Coppola's film. Harker, after seeing Dracula scaling the wall, realizes that he could do the same because the walls are so worn that there are essentially footholds. He scales the wall, and hobbles away. Also, it's made pretty clear in the book that the reason for giving Lucy all three men's blood is simply a matter of convenience, and practicality (at the time). Van Helsing didn't anticipate the problems that left Lucy unguarded and vulnerable to Dracula, meaning that he had to do three transfusions instead of the one. Each time he had to rely on a different person, in part because the amount of blood needed (As Quincy Morris observes) for one transfusion was so great as to be unsustainable. The transfusions are given in roughly the span of two weeks, and in two weeks no single person could give that much blood. Because the three healthy men are in proximity to Lucy during her struggle, they happily volunteer, even though Van Helsing initially discourages Seward from doing so. The use of garlic and the death of Mina's mother was described as if it happened in one night. Lucy's ordeal takes place over a good deal of time (roughly three chapters) and Dracula doesn't appear as a wolf until the event of her memorandum, when he drugs the maids and kills her mother. This sounds more, again, like the condensed version in Coppola's film. I question whether the person making this actually read the book- it sounds more like Cliff notes and Coppola to me.

Something to point out about the chase after Lucy's death, the crew points out how wonderful is the power of bribery and money as they use their pockets and some booze to get that sweet schedule as fast and orderly as possible.

My colleagues and I are breaking down Dracula as part of our master's program. It's nice to see there is still so much interest in this novel. On a side note, I still think it's funny that when we think of van Helsing, we go to the dark haired grizzled man. In the text he is described as clean shaven with a broad chin, having what amounts to shoulder length red hair, blue eyes, a barrel-like chest, and overall manly with a capital M.

I slightly disagree with the reading that Lucy's being liberated is framed as a deviation that the story punishes. In the letters it is made clear that the proposal from Holmwood is the only one Lucy wanted, and she expresses deep anxiety and anguish over having to turn down the other men. She isn't so much a player as one of those doe-eyed gals everyone falls for. That being said, as her disease progresses, she becomes more flirtatious (though only towards her fiancee, which remains true after she dies). Stoker repeatedly describes her as "voluptuous", which is framed as a bad and unsettling quality. Still, I think Lucy's reputation for getting slut-shamed has more to do with the various movie adaptations than the text itself, in which Lucy is clearly a victim, whose prolonged suffering is meant to make us anxious and scared when Mina is eventually also bitten.

Also fun to read are Dracula's predecessors, Carmilla and The Vampyre, both of which are much shorter and so easier to get through quickly. And no less atmospheric.

My favorite thing about the book Dracula is that the first 4 chapters are a perfect spooky horror story, and the entire rest of the book is an Action Movie

Van Helsing: _"She's almost dead."_ Harker after being splashed by vampire blood: _"She's dead enough!"_

Honestly, I had never heard anything of this book outside of Dracula´s depiction in popular media, and this epistolary approach makes it WAY more interesting than I though. Adding this book to my reading list. And thank you for the recommendation of my documentary at the end 😁

Having transfusions from three men was probably done to show how drained of blood Lucy was; nevermind the fact that the blood types weren't discovered yet and most likely not all the donors were Lucy compatible. If the story was true, that ad-hoc blood transfusion might have killed her there and then. You're welcome, Watson! :)) Cheers!

Not sure if I missed something, but to me Lucy didn't read as a modern woman dating three men at once. To be fair I'm not 100% sure how courting worked in Victorian England, but what I gathered from my read of the novel was that she was proposed to by three men in one day, but was only ever really interested in one of them and did her best to turn the other two down gently. In Lucy's own words: "Just fancy! Three proposals in one day! Isn't it awful! I feel sorry, really and truly sorry, for two of the poor fellows." (Lucy's letter to Mina on 24th of May, page 48 or thereabouts.)

Wow, this video takes a wildly different reading of Lucy than is typical. Often Lucy is seen as the traditional beauty who is sweet and innocent while Mina is considered modern and capable. The idea of the modern world killing off old ideas about women's roles is often read into the text.

Dr. Seward is probably even to this day...or maybe once again in these days, one of the best portrayals of a psychiatrist/psych ward doctor in media. Nowadays they are pictured as everything in every kind of media BUT realistic humans. It´s like the more we understand of the field the more writers are scared to have them be anything less than controversial. Basically there is just three modes for them: They are allowed to be pointless know nothings that are a complete waste of space. Or they are portrayed as deeply entrenched in their own problems and basically do nothing for their patients but reflect problems back to them. Or the two ways to dehumanize them: Idolize them or make them be psychopaths. But the favourite passages in Dracula for me are those of when Dr. Seward watches over his patients and reflects not just upon the nature of their behaviour but also his own thought process about them in his diary entries. The fact that it was written over a hundred years ago and that we nowadays know of practices of the 1940s-1960s that speak to how curiously unaware we still were to completely normal human behaviour (even down to simple medical facts that body and mind are able to influence one another) makes it really interesting to pinpoint some of the sympathy he has for the regards of his patients wishes and needs. And the fact that he simply has a desire to do good work as a doctor and see inside his mind through those entries makes him stand out as a character simply trying to do good, for his patients, his friends and his own wellbeing. You know...what a normal sane and sympathic person should be like...

I've read it. Surprisingly good book. Though if you know anything about transfusions - well they were damn lucky.

For those who do opt to read it: It is worth mentioning, so that people are warned ahead of time, that Van Helsing is intentionally written as an incredibly bad writer. You'll have a much better time treating his segments of the book as a mid-novel session of code-cracking, or a kind of translation game. Also, "bloofer" is supposed to be lower-class children mispronouncing the word "beautiful."

So that is the origin story for one of the "League of extraordinary Gentlemen" characters. Eager to watch your take on most of the others. :)

It really is a tragedy that most people's ideas of Dracula will always come from adaptations, rather than the great original book 😟

I’m so excited for this Halloween themed episode! October is the best month ever!!!!

This is my favorite go to classic for the spooky season, for those who haven't read it I implore you to pick it up yourself, it is an amazing read.

I am probably in the minority. I've read Dracula multiple times seen most of the movies many times and have written several fan fictions for school projects. Love IT.

So what you're saying is that Bram Stoker's Dracula is a proto-Ghostbusters.

My favorite parts of the novel is when jonathan starting to realize that he's trapped in the castle and lucy's death and resurrection as vampire. I got chills when i read it 😨

AAH! No mention of the most interesting character in the book- RENFIELD! Do we just dismiss him as an “insane minion” of a “dark lord,” or can we really examine his theory of finite “life” quanta and the ingestion thereof (fly to spider to sparrow to cat, etc)? It was likely somewhat revolutionary in its day, pertains to the overall scientific bent of the novel (think Darwin, Linnaeus, etc), and nearly perfectly foreshadowed our current discussions of energy consumption from sun to plant to animal and the nature and consequences of modern food production. That, and in 8th grade I named my pet mouse Renfield in honor of the character…. :)

Ah, yes, Quincey P. Morris, "the walking personification of the state Texas." This is also when we learn the Stoker "has never spoken to an American in his life." #OverlySarcasticProductions

I wonder how much of the epistolary narrative of Dracula inspired Resident Evil series. In all games of the franchise there is a diary or a document explaining Lore, by the eyes of an observer.

That intro's giving me Extra Mythology vibes. And I am here for it!

This video screams that Extra Credits might not have actually read Dracula

you guys should do one on The Incredible Journey, its a great yet a bit underrated book it has a lot of very unique words

Enter freely and of your own will, the scariest invitation I can imagine.

For April Fools' Day, I hope you do an episode on The Very Hungry Caterpillar or a similar book.

This telling is great but osp’s video will always be my favorite.

Dracula Daily's got me coming back to watch this.

"I see Van Helsing, you are the kind of man who likes to have the last word. I will not be drawn into such a childish exercise." - Dracula, probably.

Dracula is really interesting for how modern the format feels. It's only the way Stoker talks about women that really feels dated, IMO. A lot of older novels can be paced very differently than modern ones, but Dracula's pacing doesn't seem to have that problem.

_Bloody Tears is heard in the distance._ "What is a man? A pile of secrets!"

Dracula is so good, if for no other reason than Mina. Yes, I have her name and so I'm biased, but seriously, the novel is so interesting! Even this rereading doesn't give Mina the credit she deserves! Mina might SAY she is traditional, but she is a New Woman. The evidence is all gathered by Mina and even Helsing says he cannot imagine solving the mystery without her! It really does feel like you're not giving Mina the credit she deserves.

It's always interesting to compare and contrast between extra credit and OSP. Red reads the women completely differently.

It's honestly really cool how the book is still influencing books, movies, and shows to this day. After watching this I think I might give the book a shot this Halloween!

you are back with another banger keep it up! I've been watching this channel for 5 years!

I like the movie. The Texan might have died but his knife sticks in Vlad's heart then Mina uses it to cut his head off. I was 19 and dating this girl when the movie came out. Her family wanted to go see the film so we all went. So we get to the theatre and sit. I have my girlfriend on one side and her mother on the other side. Needless to say the scene with Vlad as a wolfish getting it on in the garden with Lucy came on and I turned and smiled at my GF and then out of the corner of my eye I could feel her mom looking at me. I turned and smiled and her mother smiled back. That wasn't awkward at all. Sheesh 🙄😬 Good times...

It ran aground in Whitby, which is 100% a popular holiday destination both then and now.

I not only read Dracula when I was in Elementary School, but I acted ( the part of Count Dracula ) in Middle School and High School! To this day I read the story every Halloween, and love it like a part of my own life-story Master Bram Stoker should be shown more respect in our modern world! On an unrelated note, please keep all caraway seeds, poppy seeds, mirrors, running water and silver religious symbols at least three leagues from my home... All garlic, onions and musical instruments should not be allowed near me unless I am entering or leaving a graveyard.. It's an allergy, don't ask.. 🦇

just finished the rereading of this wonderful book and then you drop this. I love October!

I'm loving this series so far.

loving this new series! can't wait for more!

EC: "A man from from the exotic, far-away land known as Texas!" OSP: A walking Personification of the State of Texas which is when we also discover Mr Bram Stoker has never spoken to an American in his life."

Yes finally you have no idea how much I waited for this my favourite series on this channel is extra Sci Fi

Love that you said you would do a video on Dracula the book in the Vlad the Impaler series and then came out with this gorgeous video. Thanks! ☺️

DID ZOE PUT THE HAMMER DOWN?!!?

Really do love your content and your narration also the background music at the end of the video. Please keep up the good work as this is my favorite youtube channel.

This series is one of the best. Love this series much ❤️

man, you're really _hammering the point home_ with those puns.

I love this series already, keep it up!

I'm really enjoying these "So you haven't read" videos.

I live this this channel, it always reminds me that everything is open to interpretation ❤

classics never die they only rise from obscurity to become relevant once again

"Mina, walk to the door... Mina, you are in the closet. Open the door and come out."

Fantastic video. I'd like to get more videos on literature like this or your sci fi retrospectives from back in the day.

I read this a while ago and it is honestly 11/10 stars, 100% worth reading.

I read it after seeing Overly Sarcastic Productions summary of the book (highly recommended, BTW), and hooo wow, it was a heck of a good book. "Yeah, a LOT of this book is about sex, in case you missed the subtext" Me, an Asexual: "Oh, so THAT'S what that whooshing sound over my head was!"

I am listening to Dracula now via Audible. Yes, it is a great read and perfect to read during October and Halloween . 😁🎃

Tried reading it, its drags on and on. Tried listening to the audiobook and found literally everything else in my day-to-day more interesting.

This is interesting with the extra history on the real life vlad

I read this before Halloween a couple of years ago. Still haven't chosen my horror reading for this year.

Ah one of my favourite horror book.Its one of the best by the great Bram Stoker.

I'd love to see the modern Prometheus next if you haven't done it already. Also, a separate "So you haven't read" playlist would be very useful.

As far as I remember, Harker's journal is introduced as being kept in shorthand, he does not switch over after the shaving incident. I think he does resolve to send his letters home in shorthand at that point.

At 7:33 was a total missed opportunity for the slogan to be “Eat Flesh”

Not intrested in this particular story, but I love the concept of this series, so please do more!

Thank you so much- extremely useful as last minute English Revision

Well made and all explained... hilarious stuff!

The story of the ship dracula arrived is easily my favourite chapter. So chilling

Transilvania Peasant: Wait... we gave a crucifix to a cat?

Is there any chance of a Sleepy Hollow episode for Halloween? Please

I love it when people remember his actual appearance and don’t just go with Bella Lugosi. He looks good but just not like an undead count.

I love this series! As well as the History ones, the Emu War?! yowza who woulda thought a wingless bird could be such a terror?! maybe not totally wingless, but they're the T-Rexes of the birds I digress, could you do an episode on Wuthering Heights? I know some ppl had to read it in school but I never did, and THB it's not the kind of book I'll pick up to read anytime soon. Maybe someday, I'll put it on my reading list

*UUUGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH* It KILLS me how many things you piece back together from the first reading whenever they’re mentioned by someone else. As in, “What the hell even WERE those blue ghost fires that Dracula went to interact with at the beginning of the book?!” *THOSE WERE HIS BRIDES.* They were his brides in spectral form. *face palm

I have indeed read Dracula. I loved it, but I'm fond of Gothic horror in general. There are a lot of layers to it, it's interesting to dig in.

While i haven't read the book, I have seen a stage performance put on by my college's drama department.

I love how everyone’s British, and like European, then over here, there’s just like, Quincy, a cowboy.

Dracula was MUCH better than another classic novel, Frankenstein. THAT book consisted of PAGES of descriptions of walking through the beautiful Alps...and the whole 'I built a monster.'

It would've been historically accurate for the Dracula novel to mention Coca Cola, Nintendo, Altoids, AT&T, and A1 steak sauce.

It made me so happy to see you chose to draw the "reader" character as a wheelchair user. It actually looks a lot like my red Aero Z. Im an ambulatory user, and it makes me so happy to see small inclusions like this.b

I personally prefer how Overly sarcastic Productions handled van helsing. He's shown as more of a CMHB character there.

Clearly one of my favorite reads

Yessss this book is such a great slow burn!