If I had to choose one thing I enjoyed about Dracula, it would be the format. For lack of a better term, it is a "found document" novel as I like to call them, though in this case the documents are all compiled by Mina during the events of the last third of the book, rather than after all is said and done. I've read a scant handful of books in this sort of style, and every time I have wondered why it is not a format used more often, especially for horror. Dracula is by far the oldest book I have read that has used this style, and up until it I had assumed that the style was inspired by found footage films, though it would appear it is actually the reverse. Regardless, it is an excellent technique for horror and Stoker uses it excellently here.
One of the benefits of a book of the "found document" style is how it creates tension. Unlike a third or normal first-person perspective, the reader on some level believes that the character who is writing does not die before finishing their current letter/diary entry/recording/etc. but when they don't have any writings for a significant amount of time, such as in the case of Jonathan after attempting to escape Dracula's castle, leaves the reader wondering whether or not they're even still alive as the gap gets longer and longer. That's not to say that a character couldn't die mid-writing, but were such a thing to happen, especially were it to just break off mid-sentence or even mid-word, it would be much more jarring than in a normal style where a sentence would at least end. It also limits the information the audience is privy to in a very effective way and also biases the reader more than a normal first-person style because it is written with some mild hindsight and frequently skewed by the conclusions the character writing has drawn from the events in a way that other first person novels typically do not, at least not to the same degree.
Like with Jekyll and Hyde, this is a classic that I wish I could experience without the cultural awareness of it. The first quarter especially, with Jonathan in Dracula's castle, I wish I could experience without knowing that all the oddities are because of Dracula being a vampire. Even knowing that this is the reason for all of the strange happenings, Stoker does such a good job writing about it and conveying Jonathan's own perception of events that it still left me with a feeling of unease and tension. However, I was also once again surprised by how much the novel was different from my preconceptions of the story. I knew of Lucy and Mina vaguely, and that Lucy became a victim of Dracula, but I was unaware of just how much of the novel was taken up by her story and how much build up there was. And just how much slow burn building up of tension and unease there was in the novel as a whole. At times, perhaps too much, as there were sections that were too slow for my tastes, but overall it was much more effective than I had anticipated given what I already knew of the story and how perception of vampires has shifted with culture.
Mina's character as a whole threw me for a loop, as prior to reading the novel all I knew about her was that she was Jonathan's betrothed and a close friend to Lucy. That she is so central to the story and such an active character throughout it, I had no idea, and I was pleasantly surprised. For a book published in the 1890's, she's a surprisingly (pardon the term) strong female character and better written than many female characters written more recently than a hundred years ago. Honestly, she's a better female character than many written in the less ten years ago, with depth and autonomy. Even when she is limited from being let in on the plans of the men because of her slowly turning into a vampire, she still doesn't turn into a limp rag or anything and still is treated as a fully fleshed out person by Stoker. Proto-feminist icon.
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