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Here is the discussion thread for the "Dracula Daily" event starting May 3, 2023.

Dracula is an epistolary novel by Bram Stoker, told in the form of journal entries, letters, et al. Dracula Daily is a substack event where the documents are e-mailed to subscribers on the dates they were composed by the characters, rather than the order they are presented in the novel--for example, any journal entries, etc. that were written on June 7, will be sent in an e-mail on that date in 2023.

Especially for people who have never read the novel (like myself), I think it would be fun to discuss the e-mails as they come in, and talk about what we think of the various events and points of view.

Those who have read Dracula before should avoid talking about future events in the book (a.k.a. "spoilers"), so the experience isn't compromised for new readers.

This is a longish event, going from May through November. We'll be taking this book at a very leisurely (or mostly leisurely) pace!

You can sign up for the event at

I stopped reading the e-mails on the day of their arrival last year due to time, but I'll try again this year! (Let's see how far I make it...)

This will be my third time reading it this way. I love getting the installments in easily digestible bits.

I've recently found a Kindle in Motion Dracula in my Kindle Unlimited subscription, so I'm definitely in )))
Hope I won't forget to check my inbox regularly.

I think I'll join this time, too. I read Dracula... a really long time ago and remember enjoying it a lot, so let's see if it holds up.

I love Dracula. It's one of my favorites.

Same as Ines, here! I managed through the 25th of May, last year apparently and then stopped reading for whatever reason.

Looks like we've got a nice-sized group for this read. Great! :)

I was thinking of posting some sort of recap for each DD e-mail: a very brief summary of each document's contents, and who wrote it (or who was writing to whom), something like that. If you have this thread on notification, that'll be a cue to check your inbox.

(I'll copy & paste & maybe edit my old comments and hopefully will be able to produce more this time around.)

May 3:
Read entry 1 of this guy Jonathan's travel blog. He sure seems like a judgy fellow. Maybe he didn't get out much before. Hope his travels teach him a little about the world. I'm sure this Mina girl would appreciate it when he returns a little more mature, he seems into her.
Also: Dude, learn how to cook your own chicken! (It's also extremely cliché British of him to find a simple paprica chicken so spicy.)

I guess I’ll read it again in this form, too.

May 3:
Jonathan sure seems interested in the local foods and clothing, but it's obvious he needs to have his horizons broadened a bit, and he should definitely lose some of that English superiority. And criticizing the local women's appearence? Rude much?! He'd better keep those opinions to himself or he might find more spice in his next meal than he can handle.

May 3: I like the idea of putting the date at the beginning of our posts. Not required, of course!

Ines wrote: "Also: Dude, learn how to cook your own chicken! (It's also extremely cliché British of him to find a simple paprica chicken so spicy.)"

I'm torn between thinking Jonathan is the kind of guy who would think mayonnaise is too spicy, and wondering if some varieties of paprika are actually spicier than others.

I looked up mamaliga and impletata online, and they look hearty and delicious.

I liked Harker's descriptions of the countryside that gave it a picturesque, isolated feeling. His descriptions of the local people seem stereotypical, like they're from a tableau at a world's fair or museum.

We don't know who Mina is at this very early stage. All we know is she can cook. (and, as Ines says, our spoiled journal writer can't, or doesn't.) Sibling? Cousin? Spouse or sweetheart? All we know of Count Dracula is that Harker will be traveling to an unnamed district at or near the Carpathian mountains at his request.

Stephen wrote: "I guess I’ll read it again in this form, too."

Welcome, Stephen. The more, the merrier!

I'm not sure if they will do it this time around, but the people who send the daily emails have a twitter account for Jonathan Harker that is absolutely hilarious!

I don't see anything on that account for today. The tweet at the very top of the account tells us what relationship Mina has to Jonathan, and presumably you'd have to scroll through months of spoiler-laden tweets to get to May 3's. For those who don't mind that, the account is @RealJHarker.

Just starting this. I have never read Dracula and did not know that it was an epistolary novel. I am getting the emails, but I feel like I am going to have to pick up a copy so I can mark my progress at various points (this will just bug me).

Everyone's commentary on Harker's journal entry was hilarious and I appreciated it all.

Beth wrote: "I looked up mamaliga and impletata online, and they look hearty and delicious."

I used to live in Moldova, mamalyga is one of the national dishes there as well. Confirm, with suitable dressing it can be awesome )))

May 4:
The way the landlord and his wife suddenly forgot German when he tried to ask about the letter and how she gives him the crucifix, is so ominous...

[being a binge type reader, I find it rather difficult to stop myself after each letter, but it's fun so far]

Is anyone else listening to the Re: Dracula podcast? It delivers the story (read by professional actors, with an appropriate soundscape) into your ears on the correct days. An audio alternative to the Dracula Daily emails without having to skip around in the audiobook like I did last year.

Meredith wrote: "Just starting this. I have never read Dracula and did not know that it was an epistolary novel. I am getting the emails, but I feel like I am going to have to pick up a copy so I can mark my progre..."

If you pick up the novel, be advised that the entries in there are not entirely in chronological order, so a little different to the daily emails ... if I remember correctly.

Ruth wrote: "Is anyone else listening to the Re: Dracula podcast? It delivers the story (read by professional actors, with an appropriate soundscape) into your ears on the correct days. An audio alternative to ..."

I will check that out immediately, it sounds great!

Beth wrote: "I'm torn between thinking Jonathan is the kind of guy who would think mayonnaise is too spicy, and wondering if some varieties of paprika are actually spicier than others.

I looked up mamaliga and impletata online, and they look hearty and delicious."

Wasn't there a Dracula cookbook around somewhere? I'll go and look for that.

I've always been struck by the woman's "for your mother" to Harker when she implores him to take the crucifix. It seems so earnest and sincere, and as good a reason as any to care about someone you don't know, They have a mother who loves them, after all.

May 4:
I suspect he's making these superstitions and exaggerations of the locals up to make his story seem more interesting. I mean, anybody in his right mind would at least do some more research into this weird Count and his castle after hearing all those warnings. If he wants to seem especially brave or dutiful, it isn't working for me.
I think he should have started a food blog instead, or maybe wrote fiction? Not sure if travel blogging is really his thing.

The innkeeper’s wife says

"Do you know what day it is?" I answered that it was the fourth of May. She shook her head as she said again: "Oh, yes! I know that, I know that! but do you know what day it is?" On my saying that I did not understand, she went on: "It is the eve of St. George's Day. Do you not know that tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway?��

I thought St. George’s Day was April 23 so I did a little search. Wikipedia says

“In the 1897 book Dracula by Bram Stoker, evil things are said to occur on St. George's Eve, beginning at midnight. The date of St. George's Day presented in the book, 5 May (on the Western Gregorian calendar), is St. George's Day as observed by the Eastern Orthodox churches of that era.��

I.e. the Julian calendar.

May 4:
Personally, I'd have started having serious second thoughts if I'd been going to a business meeting and the locals started crossing themselves left and right and offering me religious symbols to ward off evil. They obviously have some info on the Count that Jonathan might also benefit from.

That's interesting, Stephen, thank you.

Ines, Harker writes "If this book should ever reach Mina before I do, let it bring my good-bye," so there's the idea that family, at least, will be experiencing his memories through his journal after he's gone. (He knows on some level that something's wrong here!) But I don't see these entries as being performative in the way a social media post would be.

May 4:
The headers of the e-mails encourage us to not take Harker's point of view very seriously, don't they? :)

I like how his urban hurriedness is thwarted by the more leisurely attitude toward schedules out here in the boonies.

We have our first hint that something dangerous or spooky is going on with Count Dracula. The locals seem fine with boarding him for another day or two, to protect him. What real difference would a day or two make, if he's been traveling for weeks? Business is business, got to go!

I think it's funny that he writes "Here comes the coach!" in real time. Almost like somebody texting up until the last second they have to put their phone in airplane mode.

In the first paragraph of the May 3 entry Harker wrote of his departure from Budapest, “The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East..�� He’s not just in a remote area where the peasants wear colourful costumes and the food is spiced differently; he’s outside the West, with all that might imply.

Kirsi wrote: "May 4:
Personally, I'd have started having serious second thoughts if I'd been going to a business meeting and the locals started crossing themselves left and right and offering me religious symbol..."

There are some business meetings I've been to that felt as if I needed to gird myself with some righteous symbols. . .

Beth wrote: "Ines, Harker writes "If this book should ever reach Mina before I do, let it bring my good-bye," so there's the idea that family, at least, will be experiencing his memories through his journal after he's gone. (He knows on some level that something's wrong here!) But I don't see these entries as being performative in the way a social media post would be"

Ah, I'm sorry ... I'm commenting as if I just found this random guy Jonathan's travel blog on social media. I thought that would be funny. So my comments are perfomative there. :D


Netanella wrote: "There are some business meetings I've been to that felt as if I needed to gird myself with some righteous symbols. . ."

VERY true! :D

May 5:
Glad to see Jonathan has not given up on the idea of food blogging. I'd like to read more about that instead of exaggerated descriptions of the superstitious locals. He sure is milking that trope, probably to make himself look better. I do enjoy the little occasional info about the history and current state of the region, though, wish he would write more about those, and I totally get him drinking that much wine. :D
But man, those locals did seem really suspicious when they were trying to lure him away from the pass. I get the feeling they don't like this Count person. No wonder, I'd make up all sorts of scary stories too, about a guy living out there in those woods with those scary wolves, all by himself, apparently.
He seems nice enough, though, even carrying Jonathan's luggage himself. Maybe he's nicer to his guests than to the locals.
No wonder Jonathan is over there - being a fresh solicitor. I bet the newest in the company has to take on the shitty jobs.

May 5:
I wondered about that, too, Ines. "My gout's acting up. Yes, that's totally what's happening. Harker, why don't you handle this?"

"He is a young man, full of energy and talent in his own way, and of a very faithful disposition." - in his own way? is this damning with faint praise?

"Listen to them—the children of the night. What music they make!" - this line was very familiar, even though I haven't read this novel before. Maybe it was used in one of the movies I've seen? I like it!

I suspect that the Count's servants will be conspicuously absent all the way through Harker's stay. It's pretty obvious that he was also the coachman.

It's interesting to see the character markers that have stuck with the Count through the years. The pallid cold skin, red lips, sharp white teeth, sharp fingernails, dressed all in black. Doesn't consume normal food or drink. Not the moustache though. The control over, and/or affinity with animals, is an aspect that I don't recall seeing in other versions.

I agree with you about the food being much better depicted than the locals. :)

I first read this book as a young teenager, and it was scary, gothic, all the things Dracula is supposed to be.

Reading it this way (this is my third time) I find it humorous! I don't know if that's only because I am older, or because the entire Dracula theme is part of the very fabric of so much today. It's not shocking anymore, and it certainly isn't scary! It feels almost ridiculous that Harker doesn't know, or at least get a clue, of what awaits him.

Anyone on this strange business trip today would have bugged out after that first entry. Maybe the second.

After everyone in the countryside warns him away, and the coach gets surrounded by wolves who are easily sent away, and he instinctively feels nauseated when the Count comes close, you'd think 1 + 1 would equal two for Harker. His being "too stupid to live" does make it hard for me to take things seriously in this part of the book, at least. :)

I'm trying to set the cultural baggage that comes with the title character aside, just like I did when I read Frankenstein...

I think it's important to remember that Jonathan doesn't have the same cultural baggage that we do. On the contrary--he has a whole different load of "I'm a modern, rational 19th-century Englishman, not some ignorant Eastern European peasant!" baggage to carry!

Ines wrote: "May 5:
Glad to see Jonathan has not given up on the idea of food blogging. I'd like to read more about that instead of exaggerated descriptions of the superstitious locals. He sure is milking that ..."

In his defense ... it wasn't a trope yet. HE made the trope!

Ines wrote: "Meredith wrote: "Just starting this. I have never read Dracula and did not know that it was an epistolary novel. I am getting the emails, but I feel like I am going to have to pick up a copy so I c..."

Thanks, that's good to know.

Margaret wrote: "I think it's important to remember that Jonathan doesn't have the same cultural baggage that we do. On the contrary--he has a whole different load of "I'm a modern, rational 19th-century Englishman..."

Exactly! And that's why it's so much fun to revisit the "classics." They become so for a reason, after all.

The "long, white mustache" instantly brought to mind the Gary Oldham movie version!

Except . . . I don't think his 'stache was white. But, still!

Something I have never understood is why the Count doesn't have servants, and does everything himself. He clearly has... subjects, victims, I'm not sure what to call them. Why can't they perform duties?

I had forgotten about that thing with the blue flames and treasure entirely.

This finally got me started on the novel, which I for some inexplicable reason never have read, I’m listening to Audible’s wonderful new version and so far (75 %) it’s brilliant

I have that version, too, Lars (Tim Curry is one of the narrators, right?). Scanning forward through the Project Gutenberg version, it seemed like it would be too difficult to listen to the audio date-by-date like the e-mails, so I'm just sticking with the e-mails for this read. I'll want to go back and listen to it sometime, though.

Kirsi wrote: "I had forgotten about that thing with the blue flames and treasure entirely."

This is a part of the story that doesn't make it into the movie adaptations. A fun detail, that there are treasure beacons on the night that everyone's afraid to go outside. :)

The Count's enthusiastic interest in England and its language is rather charming to me. Of course, he himself says that his research is in the interest of being dominant in his interactions once he gets to England...

Margaret wrote: "I think it's important to remember that Jonathan doesn't have the same cultural baggage that we do. On the contrary--he has a whole different load of "I'm a modern, rational 19th-century Englishman..."

That's why I'm having fun pretending to have found his "blog" somewhere on the interhet without knowing the story/book of Dracula. :D

May 7:

Admirable how intensely the Count is preparing himself for his move to London. Probably wise, too - if Jonathan talks about the locals in that way, it's probably going to be hard for a Transsylvanian in London, even if he is a Count.
Still, his behaviour seems a little suspicious -avoiding topics, not eating with his guest and all.

I'm enjoying your take on Jonathan's journal, Ines. :)

May 8: our Count is quite the domestic powerhouse. Tidying up Harker's room, doing all the cooking (and presumably the washing up afterwards)!

Harker is torn between being scared and unnerved, and thinking he's imagining things. The incident with the mirror points toward something spooky going on, but we humans do have a tendency to attribute uncanny things to an overactive imagination. We have a couple of new traits for the Count - that he has no reflection, and that he is pacified by the rosary Harker is carrying. (I don't see him as being repulsed or frightened by it, here.)

"And this is the wretched thing that has done the mischief. It is a foul bauble of man's vanity. Away with it!" - his lines are so dramatic sometimes. :D

"I fear I am myself the only living soul within the place." - this line is a little unclear to me. Does Harker mean that he's the only one besides the Count, or that he's the only one, full stop?

Harker writes,

“�� I have only the Count to speak with, and he!—I fear I am myself the only living soul within the place. Let me be prosaic so far as facts can be; it will help me to bear up, and imagination must not run riot with me. If it does I am lost. ��

The “and he!�� suggests to me that Harker is expressing a doubt that the Count is a living soul. But then in the next couple of sentences he says he’s going to rein in his imagination, and perhaps suppress this thought. At least that’s how I read it.

May 8:
Oh, so now the local woman who gave him the crucifix was not so stupid after all. It's almost as if the locals know more about the region than a random traveler does.
Okay, but I do feel for Jonathan. Being alone in a castle with a weird Count who acts weirdly ... I think that incident with the mirror was probably a bit overdramatic on Jonathan's part, but why does the Count hate mirrors so much that he has to throw it out? More suspicious, though, was the Count setting the table himself. It can't be custom, since he's even more arrogant than Jonathan, and thinks his title very much important. So there must be something else going on there. Or maybe nobody wants to work for him anymore because he's arrogant and weird and that's why he wants to move to England in the first place.

Alright, I'm gonna give this a try. I've read Dracula once (I believe I checked it out from the library years ago). Need to play catch up, since I just signed up...

Welcome, Billy! Better now than in the middle of September...

May 9 - we can make a good guess as to Mina's relationship with Jonathan now, considering the "helpmeet-in-training" vibe she's giving off. Stenography and good memory of conversations are also very useful skills for a character in an epistolary novel to have...

Is anyone else reading Harker's entries in Keanu Reeves' voice? I can't seem to get it out of my head because of the movie. Same with Gary Oldman and Dracula. I haven't yet read today's entry, but imagine I will "hear" Winona Ryder as Mina.

I've seen most of the movie adaptations, so find it funny that this is the one that "sticks."

A good question, Kandice. I don't tend to have specific character voices in my head when eye-reading, and it's been long enough since I watched the Reeves/Oldman/Ryder film that the images of the actors aren't superimposing themselves on the text, either, though that does happen when I deal with a film and the book it's based in a much closer time frame.

I usually do not see, or hear, the actors when I read, even when I've watched the film recently, which is why this is odd! I wonder if it's because it's epistolary and so much of that movie has voiceover to convey that.

In this instance, I don't mind!

I'm listening to the Re: Dracula podcast while I read, so there's no room for any other voices in my head. :D

May 9:
So Jonathan's girlfriend seems to have a blog, too. So far she seems a little more practical than him. I bet she would have listened to the locals. Good thing she has her own ambitions. Let him be useful to himself before you try to be so hard!