Complete Works of Bram Stoker (68 page)
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Authors: Bram Stoker
THE END
DRACULA
First published in 1897, this epistolary novel (a novel told as a series of letters) is now one of the most famous novels ever written. Literary critics have identified many themes in the novel, such as the role of women in Victorian society, conventional and conservative sexuality, immigration, colonialism, postcolonialism and folklore. Although Stoker did not invent the concept of the vampire, the novel has influenced the many theatrical, film and television portrayals ever since.
Dracula
tells the story of Jonathan Harker, a London bank clerk, sent to Transylvania to oversee the business of the mysterious Count.
When first published,
Dracula
was not an immediate bestseller, although reviewers were vigorous in their praise.
The Daily Mail
ranked Stoker’s powers above those of Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe, as well as Emily Brontë’s
Wuthering Heights
.
The first edition
Sir Henry Irving (1838–1905), a famous English stage actor in the Victorian era, who was the first actor to be awarded a knighthood. Stoker was Irving’s personal assistant, as well as the manager of the Lyceum theatre. Irving is thought to have been the inspiration for the character Dracula.
No 6 Royal Crescent, where Stoker first stayed in Whitby in 1890. Stoker later used the coastal town as the setting for many of the chapters in ‘Dracula’
CONTENTS
Jonathan Harker’s Journal Continued
Jonathan Harker’s Journal Continued
Jonathan Harker’s Journal Continued
LETTER FROM MISS MINA MURRAY TO MISS LUCY WESTENRA
CUTTING FROM “THE DAILYGRAPH”, 8 AUGUST
LETTER, MINA HARKER TO LUCY WESTENRA
LETTER, DR. SEWARD TO HON. ARTHUR HOLMWOOD
The first film adaptation, 1931
The 1958 film version
The 1992 film version, which particularly romanticises Dracula’s character
The 2006 British TV version of the classic tale
CHAPTER 1
Jonathan Harker’s Journal
(
Kept in shorthand
)
3 May. Bistritz. — Left Munich at 8:35 P.M., on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late. Buda-Pesth seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse which I got of it from the train and the little I could walk through the streets. I feared to go very far from the station, as we had arrived late and would start as near the correct time as possible.
The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East; the most western of splendid bridges over the Danube, which is here of noble width and depth, took us among the traditions of Turkish rule.
We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall to Klausenburgh. Here I stopped for the night at the Hotel Royale. I had for dinner, or rather supper, a chicken done up some way with red pepper, which was very good but thirsty. (Mem. get recipe for Mina.) I asked the waiter, and he said it was called “paprika hendl,” and that, as it was a national dish, I should be able to get it anywhere along the Carpathians.
I found my smattering of German very useful here, indeed, I don’t know how I should be able to get on without it.
Having had some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the British Museum, and made search among the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania; it had struck me that some foreknowledge of the country could hardly fail to have some importance in dealing with a nobleman of that country.
I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the country, just on the borders of three states, Transylvania, Moldavia, and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe.
I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to compare with our own Ordnance Survey Maps; but I found that Bistritz, the post town named by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known place. I shall enter here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my travels with Mina.
In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct nationalities: Saxons in the South, and mixed with them the Wallachs, who are the descendants of the Dacians; Magyars in the West, and Szekelys in the East and North. I am going among the latter, who claim to be descended from Attila and the Huns. This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered the country in the eleventh century they found the Huns settled in it.