Love Dracula and agree with you on all points.Huh? Did we read the same book? I found the old thing to be a fast paced , pot-boiling, blood-and-thunder page turner. That whole opening sequence, at the count's castle--then BLAM! Suicide seat at Whitby! BLAM! The Log of the Demeter! BLAM! The 'Bloofer' Lady! BLAM! The Staking of Lucy (whoops, no spoiler! Der...), just on and on like that, till the big chase at the end.
As for wordiness, I don't know what to tell you. I mean, compared to other 'great' works of its period, Dracula reads like a shot of Cuervo.
But to each his own, I guess.
As for it being wordy, it was written at a time when the English language was fuller; like all languages, English has evolved in the time since Dracula was written. I love reading works from that period just for the fact of them being "wordy."