Chapters 9-12: Who you gonna call? VAN HELSING!

I think it's safe to say these are the best chapters of Dracula I have read since I started. Admittedly, that's not saying much, but believe me, it gets a lot better here.

Ok, so Lucy has been bitten by a vampire. She is terribly ill and nobody knows why. Mina decides to call on  Dr. John Seward (psychiatrist guy, got rejected by Lucy) to help diagnose her illness. At first, he was about as helpful as a colour-blind interior decorator. All he could do is call upon Abraham Van Helsing, a highly acclaimed professor who is very tolerant of supernatural ideas.

Van Helsing is a pro. He did everything possible to save an impossible situation. He sorted out several blood transfusions on Lucy (although it made me wonder how they all had the same blood type). He conjured up several bouquets of garlic flowers and decorated the whole of the bedroom with it (it obviously worked). He's the bloke for an odd and confusing situation which makes no sense. Top guy.

Abraham Van Helsing, M.D. D.Ph. D.Lit. B.O.S.S.

On with the story. Van Helsing spends most of the next two chapters trying to stop vampiritis from developing and killing her. We get this constant limbo between her getting better and then getting worse, and this spreads to Seward and Van Helsing, who almost go through the fight with her. Blood from Seward, Van Helsing, Quincey Morris (the yank who also proposed to Lucy) and Arthur satisfies her temporarily, but only for a day or so. The garlic thing works well, mainly because it's common knowledge that garlic helps ward off vampires. Despite their best efforts, she remains in this state of purgatory.

I felt really for Lucy. It must be so scary watching your body get beaten to a pulp by something seemingly invisible and having to deal with the pain. All this false hope she would get better; she 'dies' without really having a clue what's going on. There's millions of people every day that goes through this problem, but it's not the transition into a vampire. It's cancer. It's AIDS. It's starvation. We all know of this tragic truth.

Lucy does die, with her friends by her side on her bed. Van Helsing ends Chapter 12, however, with an awesome cliffhanger: 'It is only the beginning.' Brilliant.

The sub-plot of these chapters are Mina and Jonathan's love trials. Jonathan was not dead, just mentally ill. How he managed to escape Dracula's mansion I'll never know but he does and Mina travels to Transylvania to see him. (I actually wanted to him to die personally, too stupid for his own good). They get married and, when he finally recovers, returns to England which must be of great relief for Jonny, certainly not a great holiday for him.

Also, it's the same old story in the Psychiatric ward. Hannibal Renfield is up to his normal antics: escaping a very flimsy psychiatric ward and returning home. He did try and kill a few of the doctors in there. No more animal-housing though.

Well, that's just about it. I don't think I've given these pages justice; they really do make for great reading. I only hope that this really does set the trend for the rest of the book. I may actually finish it then!