Dracula Book Club Questions: 20 Discussion Questions for Bram Stoker's Novel

The Short Version

Bram Stoker’s Dracula, published in 1897, works well for a book club because it is told with no narrator at all, only journals, letters, telegrams, newspaper clippings and a doctor’s phonograph recordings, so every member gets to argue about whose account to trust. Jonathan Harker, a young English solicitor, travels to a remote castle in the Carpathian mountains to help a Transylvanian nobleman buy property in London.

Below are twenty questions: ten you can use before everyone has finished the book, and ten that spoil the ending. A short section on where the book came from gives the group something to check. The book scores four out of five in our review.

Before You Start: Content Notes For Your Group

Tell your group first. There is blood, death and violence against women, described more gently than modern horror but still disturbing, and mental illness shown as spectacle. There is also nineteenth century prejudice about gender and nationality, including Jonathan calling some of the people he meets barbarian in the first chapter.

Spoiler-Free Questions

1. The book is a file of documents with no narrator: Jonathan’s shorthand journal, Mina’s diary, letters, telegrams, a ship’s log and Dr. Seward’s phonograph recordings. Does a story told as evidence feel more frightening to you?
2. Before leaving, Jonathan researches the region at the British Museum but cannot even find a map. He writes like a cheerful tourist, noting the paprika and recipes for Mina. How does his cheerfulness make the castle creepier?
3. The innkeeper’s wife pleads with him and presses a crucifix on him, and he slowly notices there are no servants. Which small detail unsettled you most?
4. Our review calls the Count scarier on the page than in most films because he is patient, polite and a very good host. Where did his politeness work for you?
5. The Count never keeps a diary and we only see him through other people. Why does Stoker keep him a mystery?
6. Lucy receives three marriage proposals in one day from Dr. Seward, Quincey Morris and Arthur Holmwood. What do her letters to Mina tell you about her?
7. Mina learns shorthand and typewriting to help Jonathan, and later she types up the whole pile of papers. Is she the real hero of the book?
8. Seward is a scientist who does not want to accept what Van Helsing tells him. Why is watching reasonable people argue themselves toward the unbelievable so engaging?
9. Shorthand, typewriters, telegrams and phonographs were cutting edge in 1897. How does the book set new technology against something ancient?
10. Our review says the middle drags with long meetings and Van Helsing lecturing. Did you skim, and did the final stretch pull you back?

Spoiler Questions (Finish The Book First)

11. The Count greets Jonathan with the words enter freely and of your own free will, and later Jonathan sees he has no reflection in the mirror. How well does Stoker hold back the truth?
12. Jonathan finds the Count lying in one of fifty boxes of earth, then goes quiet, and a nurse in Buda Pesth writes that he has brain fever. Why take away the narrator in the middle of the story?
13. Renfield collects flies, then spiders, then sparrows, and then asks for a kitten. In chapter eight he tells Seward the master is at hand. What does his arc add to the book?
14. Lucy’s decline hurts because her early letters are so light. When Arthur gives the first transfusion and Van Helsing says he does not ask so much as the last drop of blood, how did you read the scene?
15. Arthur and Quincey see Lucy as the undead, and Arthur takes the stake and hammer himself while Van Helsing reads the prayers. Was it justified, tragic or both?
16. In chapter twenty two the men decide Mina should be in full confidence. Why did it take them so long to include her?
17. Van Helsing protects Mina inside a holy circle in the mountains. Does the book treat her as a partner or as someone to be protected?
18. The Count is killed on the sixth of November when Jonathan’s knife shears his throat and Quincey’s bowie knife plunges into his heart, and Mina sees a look of peace. Did the ending feel earned?
19. Quincey dies after seeing that Mina’s forehead is clear, and Jonathan’s note says their boy was born on the day Quincey died. How did you feel about that tribute?
20. Jonathan’s closing note admits there is hardly one authentic document in the whole pile, and Van Helsing says they want no proofs. Why does Stoker end by undermining his own evidence?

Where The Book Came From

Your group may want a few facts. Bram Stoker was Irish and worked as business manager of London’s Lyceum Theatre for the actor Henry Irving. Reportedly, a holiday in the Yorkshire town of Whitby inspired part of the book. The novel runs about one hundred and sixty thousand words in twenty-seven chapters. By our count of the diary headings in one edition, Seward has thirty-seven, Mina twenty, Jonathan fifteen and Lucy only four. Nosferatu in 1922 was an unauthorized version and Stoker’s widow sued. Bela Lugosi played the Count in 1931, and Francis Ford Coppola made his film with Gary Oldman in 1992. The book is in the public domain, so complete editions are cheap or free.

What To Read Next

If your group wants to decide first, start with our spoiler-free review. After the discussion, our character guide maps who writes what and when they meet, and our review suggests Frankenstein, The Woman in White, Carmilla and Rebecca as next reads.