Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' is probably one of the most influential (and therefore possibly one of the most important) books ever. Apart from the numerous direct imitators (from Anne Rice to 'Count Duckula') the seeds of 100 years of the horror genre are sown in this book.
The story is familiar to everyone, although perhaps not in all its details, but this doesn't in any way detract from reading the book. It is incredibly atmospheric (especially the first half, when Dracula is still a somewhat mysterious and seemingly invincible foe). The scenes in Transylvania and Whitby are genuinely spooky and although we know that the vampire Dracula is behind it all, the ignorance of the characters leads to a feeling akin to the helplessness you feel in the cinema when you just want to warn them what is coming next, but can't. This cinematic feeling runs through the book, perhaps because it has been so imitated, but also because of the slightly hammy feel of the whole thing. This is not a book with a deep underlying philosophy (such as 'Frankenstein') but a very simple David versus Goliath, good versus evil theme. The only message is that dead people who walk around killing live people are bad. It is truly the progenitor of all schlock horror.
No-one would accuse Stoker of being a great writer. The book does lose some atmosphere when Van Helsing starts to plot Dracula's downfall (i.e. as soon as the vampire becomes less than invincible) and tries clumsily to maintain it by Mina Harker's slide towards undead status and the resultant race against time. Stoker's characters are also heavily romanticised, with the men repeatedly declaring their platonic love for the 'wonderful' women (who don't do feminism a power of good) and breaking down in tears at the beauty and horror of it all. His attempts to report local dialect are awful, saved only by the fact that because the story is told in diary form, we can blame the diarists rather than Stoker himself. The diary entries also stretch credulity but sumltaneously lend a little gravitas as Stoker pretends that they are real records of the events. Finally the ending is huge anticlimax, with a protracted chase lasting nearly 100 pages finsihing up in a confrontation between Dracula and his pursuers which lasts barely 2 pages.
This is a real B-movie of a book but, like a good B-movie, it sucks you in to its style and ends up being more satisfying than a badly done A-movie. It should be read for the first 100 pages alone, and so that you discover where all those myths come from. It is deservedly imitated, and a classic because of its style, rather than content. Read this, then go and watch 'Evil Dead', or anything starring Vincent Price and you can see instantly where it all came from.