One century after the death of Bram Stoker, the Guardian republishes a literary criticism of his novel Dracula from the year 1897. This interesting look back at the views of the time shows how the public originally may have viewed the work disappointingly.
A second review from 1897 brings a more positive review for the novel, however Dracula won’t become a popular novel until well after the death of Stoker.
I think that it is interesting that in the first excerpt their criticism was that Dracula was filled with too much horror, but a touch of the mysterious, terrible, or the supernatural is more credible and effective. This reads to me as a criticism of the genre more than it is the individual book. I appreciate that you found different reviews of the text. This is not something I have found in other common placing this week and adds another perspective to the whole of the novel.