Dracula seems a lot different to any other novels i have read before, it is constructed of a collage of letters which are written over a period of time, they are scattered around and as i read the novel, it feels like there are holes in the story that we have to fill with our imagination. Although i am enjoying how this book contrasts the safeness of the books i have studied so far, it is very confusing to me. After reading chapter one (for the forth time) i am starting to like the concept. One of the books main themes is 'mystery' so the use of this writing style is very effective in sustaining suspense and fits with the overall theme.

The book also has other main themes such as Gothic and the supernatural. It mentions 'the castle' alot through chapter one, as though to emphasize the use of Gothic buildings. From the cover we can see that the book is going to be about the supernatural, it shoes our typical schema for a vampire with pale white skin, sharp pointed teeth, with dull sunken eyes. From these things we can see that the book may progress from mystery into a horror.

The book begins with Jonathan Harkers first entry which starts on 3rd May in the late nineteenth century, He has been traveling across Europe and is currently in Budapest in search of Count Dracula's estate. He gives us a description of his sights, tastes and smells to make us feel like we experienced the journey along with him. He goes into alot of description with the flavours of his food and writes memos to himself to ask for the recipes, telling us that the food must be good quality, giving us an insite to the luxury in his area.

As his journey continues Jonathan receives a letter from count dracula, this is when we first get an idea of the character himself, we do not get a description of his appearance in keeping with the mystery of the book so far, but we have an idea of his personality and mystery from the text of the letter. Jonathan finishes his journey and reaches the castle on Count Dracula, giving us a cliffhanger finish to the chapter, i lok forward to reading on and uncovering the secrets hidden in this novel.