Since Bram Stoker first published Dracula in 1897, his work has been adapted numerous times across multiple genres and helped shape modern horror. Most adaptations of Dracula and other vampire stories create their own spin on vampiric lore. However, one of the most recent adaptations is genius due in large part to its simplicity. Earlier this month, Matt Kirkland from Studio Kirkland launched the second year of Dracula Daily, a free email newsletter running from May to November that sends subscribers passages of Bram Stoker’s Dracula on a regular basis. Dracula Daily has been one of the most trending topics on multiple social media platforms, including Tumblr. Thousands have subscribed to the newsletter, eagerly waiting to learn more about how their friend Jonathan Harker and his associates interact with the mysterious Count Dracula.
In his blog post about the experience of running Dracula Daily, Kirkland reflected on his excitement that the newsletter had around "1600 subscribers" in 2021, and he also commented that he believed the project was "actually sort of built to not go viral." Earlier this year, Kirkland sent out an email through the newsletter asking subscribers if they were interested in another year of Dracula Daily because he was unsure if the project had run its course. 2022 has clearly proven Kirkland wrong. By examining exactly how Dracula Daily functions, we can see why its popularity is soaring and how the newsletter format is uniquely suited to sharing Bram Stoker's tale.
What Is Dracula Daily?
Bram Stoker's Dracula is a novel written in epistolary format, which means the story consists of letters, notes, journal entries, etc. Every piece of writing in Dracula has a specific date, and the passages show that the events of the novel occur between May 3 to November 10. Dracula Daily takes advantage of the novel’s epistolary format and these concrete dates. Readers sign up through the Dracula Daily website and begin receiving emails of the text. Each email is a different letter, journal entry, news clipping or other work from the novel, sent on the date that the material was written in the novel itself. The emails are rather simple. Kirkland only includes a sentence or two introducing the letter, and he then lets the characters speak for themselves.
While the materials are verbatim from the novel, Kirkland still remixes the text. In Dracula, the letters are not always linear. For example, the first four chapters of the novel focus on Jonathan Harker's journal from May 3rd to June 30th. The letters between other characters like Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra start in the fifth chapter, with the first letter sent on May 9th. In Dracula Daily, Kirkland strictly adheres to the dates of the materials to create a linear narrative, meaning that the rest of the cast's letters are interspersed throughout Jonathan's journal, highlighting the contrast between Jonathan's time at Dracula's castle and everyone else's experience back home.
In 2021's post-mortem blog post, Kirkland admits that he believes the experience of Dracula Daily was best for people who were signed up from the beginning. However, the Dracula Daily website includes an archive where readers can get caught up on their missed emails. Therefore, it is not too late for anyone to join in the Dracula Daily experience.
Why Does Dracula Daily's Newsletter Format Work So Well?
In a presentation for Oregon State Guide to Literary Terms, Evan Gottlieb praises the use of the format in Bram Stoker's Dracula in particular because "the result is not just polyvocal and multimedia but also effectively suspenseful, since the reader, being privy to all of the novel's materials, frequently knows more than any single character and can see what is happening or is going to happen more clearly than they. Stoker, in other words, uses the epistolary form to maximize Gothic terror and suspense." The epistolary format has been popular in horror for this reason. Because the reader has so much information, they can draw their own conclusions while reveling in the novel's dramatic irony because the characters, and Jonathan Harker particularly, have no clue that Dracula is a vampire.
Gottlieb also explained that the epistolary format for novels works so well because it gives readers a more intimate connection with the story's characters. The Dracula Daily newsletter format increases the intimacy of the epistolary format by sending the materials directly to subscribers. Thus, the experience becomes more like they themselves are actually receiving these letters and are part of the story. By remixing the novel to a linear story, Dracula Daily undercuts some of this dramatic irony, but the choice also allows the reader to experience the events of the story more closely with the characters.
The newsletter format of Dracula Daily also works so well because it slows down the reading of the novel, allowing subscribers to focus on each new piece of the story more closely. In doing so, many side characters receive more spotlight in this format than in other Dracula adaptations. When studying classic literature, particularly in classrooms, this focus is not always possible. In the process, some of the novel's best features are lost. While Gottlieb argues that the epistolary format heightens the horror of the novel, slowing the reader down also shows how the format helps spotlight the wonderful ridiculousness inherent in the contrast between the different characters' perspectives.
With the rise of Dracula Daily, the fun of Dracula is finally receiving the spotlight, and the memes are out in full force. On Tumblr and Twitter, subscribers eagerly write about updates from their good friend Jonathan Harker. Amidst all the memes, though, is a growing sense of community as subscribers engage in one of the largest book clubs of all time. Despite the jokes, the newsletter format has everyone invested in Jonathan Harker's fate as he slowly begins to realize that the townspeople might have been right about his new friend Dracula after all.
Dracula Daily's success has revived interest in Bram Stoker's novel and brought the story to a new generation of readers. While Matt Kirkland might not have predicted the newsletter's 2022 success, his adaptation is opening doors for new ways for readers to engage with classic literature. Hopefully, Dracula Daily's success will inspire more creators and adaptors to revisit older texts in new ways, creating new avenues of understanding literature and allowing readers to see just how fun old stories can be.