Astoundingly, I'd never read Dracula before now. I don't think I've even experienced any adaptations all the way through. I knew some things, but didn't even realize that the majority of the novel takes place in England-- I always figured it was all Transylvanian castles.

Anyway, it's great. Dracula is a great villain, especially in the beginning when he's all suave. The characters claim that Dracula acts like an irrational animal, but his plan is actually founded on very rational principles. Even though Dracula isn't really science fiction, it is good speculative fiction in the sense that it starts from the premise of What if vampires were real and had x properties? and then follows through on that with complete rigor. Of course they were undertake this exact plan.

The book is also scarier than any story that depends on you not knowing what a vampire is has any right to be. For every scene where you can't help being amused that a character is astounded Dracula doesn't have a reflection, there's a whole sequence like the crew of the cargo ship being slowly picked off by a hungry Dracula. The The Woman in White-esque epistolary format really helps in this regard, even if it seems a little contrived that Jonathan Harker has so many opportunities to record his thoughts while fleeing for his life. Also great: the whole Transylvanian segment, the use of the phonograph and typewriter, the fact that Mina Harker is the smartest character in the book, and creepy old Renfield. Given how good this reads now, it must have been fantastic to an audience unfamiliar with vampires.