Sorry if you’re tired of Dracula, but there is a passage I wanted to share that didn’t really fit into any of the other posts.

Jonathan Harker is at Castle Dracula in Transylvania, a lonely in the middle of nowhere kind of place. Dracula, it turns out, has quite a library and speaks impeccable English though slightly stilted and oddly accented at times. Harker is in the library looking at all the books when Dracula enters:

‘I am glad you found your way her [to the library], for I am sure there is much that will interest you. These friends’–and he laid his hand on some of the books–’have been good friends to me, and for some years past, ever since I had the idea of going to London, have given me many many hours of pleasure. Through them I have come to know your great England; and to know her is to love her. I long to go through the crowded streets streets of your mighty London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what it is. But alas! as yet I only know your tongue through books. To you, my friend, I look that I know it to speak.’

Ah the veiled message of Dracula’s hope for London, his desire to “share its life, its change, its death” is kind of creepy. But what I like best about this passage is that Dracula is a reader. I would love to see what books he has in his library. What does Dracula read? And does he kick back in his coffin with a fresh glass of blood to enjoy his book? Does he dare read past dawn? And I wonder how he acquired all his books? I mean, it’s not like he can pop over to Barnes and Noble or Waterstones for a coffee drink and a browse or have Amazon deliver to his door. There is a band of Gypsies that regularly visit the castle and do things for him so maybe they bring him books? Or maybe he has raided the libraries of all the bookish folk in the surrounding area? Be careful, that tapping at the window might not be a tree branch in the wind, it could be Dracula coming for a snack and your books!