Classic English Literature

Recently, I have been reading classic English literature.

Last week I finished Dracula, by Bram Stoker. I don't normally read horror, but I reckoned that I knew pretty much all the horrific things about Dracula anyway, so there wouldn't be any nasty new concepts to keep me up at night. This turned out to be the case.

The story is rather good but I really think the book could do with being abridged (or, in fact, rewritten by someone else). The whole book is written as a series of diary entries, and the main characters do go on (and on and on) about how deep their feelings for their fellow characters are, and how much it hurts then to see them in pain, and oh I wish we hadn't had to driven a stake through her heart, that sort of thing. It gets a bit tedious.

More recently I read A Christmas Carol by (as I'm sure you know) Charles Dickens. This is almost the opposite to Dracula, in that the tale (which I'm also sure you know) is rather slight, but the prose is a joy. I'll have to get hold of one of Dicken's weightier works, I think.