Dracula

About the story

Young lawyer Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to help Count Dracula buy a house in England — and discovers he is a prisoner of something far from human. When the Count reaches England, Jonathan's fiancée Mina, her friend Lucy, and Professor Van Helsing must work together to stop him. Recommended for ages 14+; contains frightening scenes.

Before reading

• Why do you think vampire stories have stayed popular for so long?
• The original novel is told in letters and diaries. How might that make a story feel more real?

Discussion questions

1. When does Jonathan first realize something is wrong at the castle?
2. How does the group work together to fight Dracula?
3. What makes Mina such an important character?
4. How does Professor Van Helsing convince the others to believe him?
5. How do the pictures use shadow and color to build suspense?
6. Which is scarier: what you see, or what you only imagine? How does the book use both?

Words to know

• Transylvania — a region of present-day Romania.
• Count — a noble title.
• Diary / journal — a daily record of events; the novel is built from them.
• Superstition — a belief not based on science.
• Suspense — the feeling of waiting anxiously to find out what happens.

Activities

• Tell it in letters. Rewrite one scene as a diary entry from a character who isn't the narrator in that part of the book.
• Build suspense. Draw a three-panel sequence that makes the reader nervous without showing the danger directly.