Though Bram Stoker’s Dracula has permeated pop culture as a staple of gothic horror, it is recognized foremost for the vampiric identity of its titular character and its influence in the vampire fiction genre. While it might be simple to presume that a majority of the novel’s narrative weight lingers behind this reveal, the writing style also carries much of its allure. Fans of Dracula have long since appreciated its epistolary nature (a.k.a. how it is written in the form of letters), through its compilation of the protagonists’ letters, transcribed diary entries, and telegrams that give the book its quasi-archival and multivocal feel.

The novel splits its sections by its character points-of-view; often with several consecutive chapters dedicated to a single narrator, before moving onto the next, following a significant event in the plotline. The newsletter, Dracula Daily, was inspired by an alternative way of reading the novel, by synchronizing the dated entries and letters with real-time dates and thereby imitating the sense of passage of time that the characters themselves experience. Given that the events of Dracula are all contained within the specific date range of May 3 to Nov. 7, the newsletter follows this same chronology by beginning with Jonathan Harker’s first diary entry on May 3, surging intermittently through the next six months with a climactic altercation on Nov. 6, properly ending with his seven-years-hence postscript on Nov. 7.

Matt Kirkland, after sharing this experience with family, set up the first run of Dracula Daily during 2021, citing the reclusive Count Dracula himself as an “unlikely patron saint” for those experiencing isolation during Covid-19 lockdowns. Readers subscribing to the newsletter found it far more accessible than tackling the book in its original form due to the digestible, if varying, sizes of each day’s set of entries. Though the newsletter gained much traction in 2021, it spiked in popularity in 2022, with over 195,000 readers beginning the journey in May (and exceeding well over 230,000 since then). New and old fans of Dracula create a fascinating amalgamation of responses, from historical analysis, to criticism of Stoker’s prejudices and biases, and a plethora of jokes and memes besides.

The newsletter’s major announcements for 2023 assure its return to subscribers’ inboxes for yet another read-through, commencing next week; as well as a release of a chronologically edited, Dracula Daily version of the novel to be published on Sept. 13, compiling (in addition to the original text) selected commentary, fan art, and memes to relive and share the experience of the previous year in a tangible manner.

The popularity of Dracula Daily has also sparked the creation of other, similar newsletters serializing classic literature, including Whale Weekly (serializing Moby Dick), Edgar Allan Poe Fortnightly, Letters From Watson, and so on. For those who would prefer to self-determine settings to their preferences, the Serial Reader app offers similar features to make reading classics less daunting and more inviting to new and prospective readers.