Dracula Quotes

Unfortunately, I can't really think of anything witty or cute to write about finishing Dracula. Therefore, I will just post some quotes that stuck with me throughout the novel.

" 'I seek not gaiety nor mirth, not the bright voluptuousness of much sunshine and sparkling waters which please the young and gay. I am no longer young. And my heart, through weary years of mourning over the dead, is not attuned to mirth. Moreover, the walls of my castle are broken; the shadows are many, and the wind breathes cold through the broken battlements and casements. I love the shade and the shadow, and would be alone with my thoughts when I may.' " [Note on Dracula speaking in Johnathan Harker's Journal, p. 24]

"The fair girl, with laugh of ribald coquetry, turned to answer him:-

" 'You yourself never loved; you never love!' On this the other women joined, and such a mirthless, hard, soulless laughter rang through the room that it almost made me faint to hear; it seemed like the pleasure of fiends." [Johnathan Harker's Journal, p. 39]

'We thought her dying whilst she slept

And sleeping when she died.' [Dr. Seward's Diary, p. 162]

And my personal favorite:

"The tomb in the daytime, and when wreathed with fresh flowers, had looked grim and gruesome enough; but now some days afterwards, when the flowers hung lank and dead, their whites turning to rust and their greens to browns; when the spider and the beetle had resumed their accustomed dominance; when time-discoloured stone, and dust-encrusted mortar, and rusty, dank iron, and tarnished brass and clouded silver-plating gave back the feeble glimmer of a candle, the effect was more miserable and sordid than could have been imagined. It conveyed irresistibly the idea that life - animal life - was not the only thing which could pass away." [Dr. Seward's Diary, p. 196-7]

I also noticed that the death toll was exceedingly high when pertaining to the main characters;

Johnathan Harker's benefactor: old age

Lucy Westenra: vampyrism

Lucy Westenra's mother: old age

Quincey Morris: fighting a vampyre

Arthur Holmwood/Lord Godalming's father: old age

Not to mention Mina being an orphan and all the other minor character's deaths. Still surprised Dracula was defeated so easily in the end by such incompetent nincompoops as those mere mortals.

And, as a side note, Dracula was first published on 26 May 1897. Suck on that bloody froth, ya filthy Undead!