Read: Dracula, by Bram Stoker

The vampire genre was never one I was much attracted to. I have seen no vampire movie (save Roman Polanski's great 'The Fearless Vampire Killers'), the popular TV series I love to hate and I have never read a vampire story (save their appearance in Larry Niven's 'Ringworld'). But it had to end, when I saw the paperback edition with a scene from the German movie 'Nosferatu' on the cover (yes yes, I've seen some scenes from it) in a shop.

Once again I have been positively surprised by a classic story. Even not knowing much about the original book, I thought it being a quite linear horror story taking place in a mouldy castle in Transylvania. But no, I could not err more. Transylvania is only the beginning of what develops into an adventurous chase through Europe. The story is told by entries travel journals and diaries of the different protagonists, playing cleverly with the different level of knowledge of the various members of the acting band.

It also gives interesting insights of England's upper middle class life in the Victorian years. Obviously an epoch where men where gentlemen and women ladies, all noble and precious. Others, others than the English or maybe Dutchmen like the famous Van Helsing, might be not that classy; Romanians, Slovaks or Jews suffer from a much inferior stand. But well, that is one expects from a writer of the Victorian age.
By the way, as an addendum, the short story 'Dracula's Guest' (a kind of prequel to the novel itself) is also printed. Its explanatory notes state that Stoker thought about having Dracua's castle in Styria. How would Austria with Styria have been evolving if it would be famous for vampires instead of Romania with Transylvania? Still an empire for sure!