# What was Dracula's end game in moving to London? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 17, 2019, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400 "2019-09-17T20:37:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/21 "2019-09-18T01:27:41Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > _Frankenstein_, on the other hand… Yeah, as a thriller or horror novel, **Frankenstein** sucks ass. That’s the difference between 1818 and 1897, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![kirkrapine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@kirkrapine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kirkrapine)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/22 "2019-09-18T01:49:38Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Yeah, as a thriller or horror novel, **Frankenstein** sucks ass. That’s the difference between 1818 and 1897, I guess. _Frankenstein_ is widely considered the **first** horror novel. You would expect writers would get better at it over time, having previous writers to learn from. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/23 "2019-09-18T01:54:01Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Also also, you’re “slogging?” **Dracula** is one of the greatest thrillers ever written! I’ve bounded through it at least a half-dozen times. Yeah, “Dracula” stands up as a hell of good thriller. ---
**Author:** ![kirkrapine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@kirkrapine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kirkrapine)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/24 "2019-09-18T01:56:44Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Yeah, “Dracula” stands up as a hell of good thriller. Partly because Stoker wasn’t afraid to sex it up. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/25 "2019-09-18T02:00:11Z")
Speaking of sexing it up, here’s the great Kate Beaton’s comix take on Dracula. Best line: “I would like to go to university.” [http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=285](http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=285) ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/26 "2019-09-18T02:21:52Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Also also, you’re “slogging?” **Dracula** is one of the greatest thrillers ever written! I’ve bounded through it at least a half-dozen times. I am not a fan of the writing style. If your story is letters back and forth detailing full conversations and actions, just write the damn conversations and actions. I keep thinking, “man, this is a really wordy letter.” I’m pushing myself through it. Still, it is better than _Frankenstein_. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/27 "2019-09-18T02:43:25Z")
Yeah, I understand. My son couldn’t make it halfway through **The War of the Worlds** because he couldn’t take Wells’s 1897 prose. I majored in European late Romantic Decadant literature, so this sort of shit is just my cup of tea. For me, epistolary novels rock. But it’s not for everyone. ---
**Author:** ![kirkrapine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@kirkrapine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kirkrapine)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/28 "2019-09-18T02:44:15Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > I am not a fan of the writing style. If your story is letters back and forth detailing full conversations and actions, just write the damn conversations and actions. I keep thinking, “man, this is a really wordy letter.” I’m pushing myself through it. The [epistolary novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistolary_novel) was by that time a long-established tradition, going back to the 18th Century. Or earlier. Oh, Paul the Apostle Possessed an Epistle So truly colossal It made the girls whistle! – Handelsman ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/29 "2019-09-18T03:25:11Z")
> [@kirkrapine](#): > > The [epistolary novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistolary_novel) was by that time a long-established tradition, going back to the 18th Century. I was wondering if it was connected to the writing style of the period. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/30 "2019-09-18T03:36:25Z")
I found Dracula far more tedious to read than Frankenstein. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/31 "2019-09-18T03:37:16Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > so this sort of shit is just my cup of tea. . Mixed metaphors and all 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/32 "2019-09-18T03:38:41Z")
Love… Everlasting. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/33 "2019-09-18T03:43:58Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Yeah, I understand. My son couldn’t make it halfway through **The War of the Worlds** because he couldn’t take Wells’s 1897 prose. I got bored as hell with the ever-long break in the action in the dude’s basement and his obsession with digging a tunnel to London. I did like the river battle with the gunboat and the tripod. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/34 "2019-09-18T03:53:02Z")
> [@kirkrapine](#): > > And werewolves are werewolves by choice, casting a spell to turn their shape, rather than being cursed with the condition. Marie de France’s Bisclavret (12th century) was cursed, not by choice. > [@mbh](#): > > I don’t know if Bram Stoker was an Irish patriot, or an Empire loyalist, but he was making a comfortable living in London, and writing for a London-centric audience. “[Stoker was raised a Protestant in the Church of Ireland. He was a strong supporter of the Liberal Party and took a keen interest in Irish affairs. As a “philosophical home ruler,” he supported Home Rule for Ireland brought about by peaceful means. He remained an ardent monarchist who believed that Ireland should remain within the British Empire, an entity that he saw as a force for good. He was an admirer of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, whom he knew personally, and supported his plans for Ireland.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Stoker#Beliefs_and_philosophy)” So hardly radical but not a “sellout.” Religion wasn’t even as highly predictive of polarization then, many Protestants were supportive of rebellions, though it was a relatively quiet time during his lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/35 "2019-09-18T08:45:00Z")
> [@kirkrapine](#): > > _Frankenstein_ is widely considered the **first** horror novel. You would expect writers would get better at it over time, having previous writers to learn from. Actually, _The Castle of Otranto_ and _The Monk_ came before Mrs. Shelley’s piece of dreck. And some of Ann Radcliffe’s novels may qualify. Personally, I read part of one her novels for a college course, and I’ll never touch her work again. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/36 "2019-09-18T11:26:33Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Love… Everlasting. Actually, as David J. Skal has argued in his many books on The Count, there ain’t no love in Dracula – he’s a predator who cares nothing for others. The whole “romantic” vibe that saturates adaptations of his work comes from the adapters and the actors (although the situation undoubtedly inspires it.) But you won’t find any love (or a re-incarnated wife) in stoker’s original novel. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/37 "2019-09-18T13:25:54Z")
I’m probably conflating later works with the original novel, but I remember Dracula having some dialogue along the lines of wanting to move to London because it was the heart of the greatest empire in the world and the heart of global commerce (pun very much intended). The implication at least, if it wasn’t outright stated, was that Dracula was tired of preying on cringing peasants in a remote backwater. London offered him a veritable buffet of prey from around the world. And, he was an ambitious medieval warlord. Again, there was an implication, if it was not stated outright, that he had designs on the British throne. Am I remembering any of that correctly as being in the original novel, or was all of that from later adaptations? ---
**Author:** ![GMANCANADA](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gmancanada/32/2837_2.png) [@GMANCANADA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GMANCANADA)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/38 "2019-09-18T13:34:48Z")
I read it about 3 years ago and _my impression_ was that he was looking for a new hunting ground and London was growing with a large transient population of anonymous lower class workers. They’d be easy prey and no one would miss them. This was an alternative to his minions to going further afield for human food among a fearful Transylvanian population. I’m trying to recall if there was anything explicit in the text or I just made that up though. Of course, aside from that author being a Brit, that doesn’t answer the question of why London? Especially given that crossing the ocean would have been fraught with danger for him. That’s the main thing the struck me as silly about the whole plan, even if you’re a vampire, when your ship sinks in 200ft of water and you’re nailed in a coffin in the cargo hold you’re screwed. Big cities like Paris or Berlin would make way more sense. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/39 "2019-09-18T13:44:28Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Yeah, I understand. My son couldn’t make it halfway through **The War of the Worlds** because he couldn’t take Wells’s 1897 prose. > > I majored in European late Romantic Decadant literature, so this sort of shit is just my cup of tea. For me, epistolary novels rock. But it’s not for everyone. Have you read Patrick O’Brian? ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400/40 "2019-09-18T13:51:59Z")
Refreshing my memory thanks to Project Gutenberg, the most Dracula has to say about his reasons for moving is in conversation with Jonathan Harker, in Chapter Two: > [@Count Dracula](#): > > Through them [English books] I have come to know your great England; and to know her is to love her. I long to go through the crowded streets of your mighty London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what it is. A few sentences later, he also talks about wanting to learn to speak English perfectly, so that he can blend in once he gets to London, and no one will recognize him as a stranger. The mention of London’s “crowded streets” and “sharing its life” does suggest that he is largely interested in a new hunting ground, and he wants to be as inconspicuous there as he possibly can. There’s also some talk about how as a _boyar_ (a nobleman), he is accustomed to being master of others. I don’t know if that translates to actual designs on the monarchy or not, but he certainly sees himself as superior to the people he will be preying on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-draculas-end-game-in-moving-to-london/840400.md?page=3)