EL本棚紹介(93) Dracula: The Graphic Novel, by Bram Stoker and Jason Cobley

[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (<180 words) introductions/reviews of books in the EL library. They focus on telling you what we think will be interesting for you, a college student and English learner, so use them to help you find the right book for you. You can also use the tags to find books about topics you might be interested in.]

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Like all of the titles in the “Classical Comics” series, Dracula is based on a very famous piece of literature. There have been countless film versions of Dracula, and the title character is an important cultural figure in the English-speaking world. Dracula also made a lot of rules about vampires famous, and they can now be seen in many television shows and movies, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (also available in the English Lounge).

Dracula is the name of a vampire lord who travels to England, attacks young women, and tries to turn them into his vampire brides. Mina Harker and a group of men who promise to protect her fight back, chasing Dracula back to his home country and saving England in the process. The original novel was written in “epistolatory” style, meaning that the whole book was a collection of letters, diary entries, and notes. This comic version keeps some of the letters and diary entries, but most of the story is told directly. The end of the book contains a vocabulary list and background about the novel. It also has an interesting short explanation of how the book was written.

My two cents: I think that this is worth checking out if you are interested in vampires and horror. However, it felt like there were a lot more words per page than Frankenstein or A Christmas Carol, so it may take you longer to read the whole thing.