I’m warming to Dracula – the novel, that is, not the wampyr.
(I thought it would be cool and latter-day pretentious to call him a wampyr.) I
wasn’t certain at first, since the initial sequence in which Jonathan takes a
trip to Transylvania and gets incarcerated in the Count’s castle contains quite
a lot that lacks credibility. Once you get beyond that to Dracula’s voyage to Whitby, however, it
becomes surprisingly atmospheric and rather creepier than any of the film
versions I’ve seen. My favourite character so far is Renfield, who is even
madder than me and doesn’t mind admitting it.
I gather Stoker based his description of Castle Dracula on
one of the Scottish castles – Dunnotar, I think, but I’m not sure. And I’ll bet
you didn’t know that Lochmaben Castle in south west Scotland is reputed to be haunted
by a vampire – supposedly the father of Robert the Bruce. A cashier at the
petrol station there told me he wears pink and bounces up and down as though he’s
on an invisible pogo stick. I’m serious, and so was she.
No comments:
Post a Comment