DRACULA

by

Bram Stoker

1897 edition

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER
1 Jonathan Harker's Journal
2 Jonathan Harker's Journal
3 Jonathan Harker's Journal
4 Jonathan Harker's Journal
5 Letter From Miss Mina Murray To Miss Lucy Westenra
6 Mina Murray's Journal
7 Cutting From "The Dailygraph", 8 August
8 Mina Murray's Journal
9 Letter, Mina Harker To Lucy Westenra
10 Letter, Dr. Seward To Hon. Arthur Holmwood
11 Lucy Westenra's Diary
12 Dr. Seward's Diary
13 Dr. Seward's Diary
14 Mina Harker's Journal
15 Dr. Seward's Diary
16 Dr. Seward's Diary
17 Dr. Seward's Diary
18 Dr. Seward's Diary
19 Jonathan Harker's Journal
20 Jonathan Harker's Journal
21 Dr. Seward's Diary
22 Jonathan Harker's Journal
23 Dr. Seward's Diary
24 Dr. Seward's Phonograph Diary
25 Dr. Seward's Diary
26 Dr. Seward's Diary
 27 Mina Harker's Journal

CHAPTER 1

Jonathan Harker's Journal

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 Ordance 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.

I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it
were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting. (Mem., I must ask
the Count all about them.)

I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams. There was
a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do with it; or it may have been the
paprika, for I had to drink up all the water in my carafe, and was still thirsty. Towards morning I slept and was
wakened by the continuous knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then.

I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was "mamaliga", and
egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call "impletata". (Mem., get recipe for this
also.)
 I had to hurry breakfast, for the train started a little before eight, or rather it ought to have done so, for after
rushing to the station at 7:30 I had to sit in the carriage for more than an hour before we began to move.

It seems to me that the further east you go the more unpunctual are the trains. What ought they to be in
China?

All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country which was full of beauty of every kind. Sometimes we
saw little towns or castles on the top of steep hills such as we see in old missals; sometimes we ran by rivers and
streams which seemed from the wide stony margin on each side of them to be subject to great floods. It takes a
lot of water, and running strong, to sweep the outside edge of a river clear.

At every station there were groups of people, sometimes crowds, and in all sorts of attire. Some of them
were just like the peasants at home or those I saw coming through France and Germany, with short jackets, and
round hats, and home-made trousers; but others were very picturesque.

The women looked pretty, except when you got near them, but they were very clumsy about the waist. They
had all full white sleeves of some kind or other, and most of them had big belts with a lot of strips of something
fluttering from them like the dresses in a ballet, but of course there were petticoats under them.

The strangest figures we saw were the Slovaks, who were more barbarian than the rest, with their big cow-
boy hats, great baggy dirty-white trousers, white linen shirts, and enormous heavy leather belts, nearly a foot
wide, all studded over with brass nails. They wore high boots, with their trousers tucked into them, and had long
black hair and heavy black moustaches. They are very picturesque, but do not look prepossessing. On the stage
they would be set down at once as some old Oriental band of brigands. They are, however, I am told, very
harmless and rather wanting in natural self-assertion.

It was on the dark side of twilight when we got to Bistritz, which is a very interesting old place. Being
practically on the frontier--for the Borgo Pass leads from it into Bukovina--it has had a very stormy existence,
and it certainly shows marks of it. Fifty years ago a series of great fires took place, which made terrible havoc on
five separate occasions. At the very beginning of the seventeenth century it underwent a siege of three weeks and
lost 13,000 people, the casualties of war proper being assisted by famine and disease.

Count Dracula had directed me to go to the Golden Krone Hotel, which I found, to my great delight, to be
thoroughly old-fashioned, for of course I wanted to see all I could of the ways of the country.

I was evidently expected, for when I got near the door I faced a cheery-looking elderly woman in the usual
peasant dress--white undergarment with a long double apron, front, and back, of coloured stuff fitting almost too
tight for modesty. When I came close she bowed and said, "The Herr Englishman?"

"Yes," I said, "Jonathan Harker."

She smiled, and gave some message to an elderly man in white shirtsleeves, who had followed her to the
door.

He went, but immediately returned with a letter:

"My friend.--Welcome to the Carpathians. I am anxiously expecting you. Sleep well tonight. At three
tomorrow the diligence will start for Bukovina; a place on it is kept for you. At the Borgo Pass my carriage will
await you and will bring you to me. I trust that your journey from London has been a happy one, and that you will
enjoy your stay in my beautiful land.--Your friend, Dracula."

4 May--I found that my landlord had got a letter from the Count, directing him to secure the best place on
the coach for me; but on making inquiries as to details he seemed somewhat reticent, and pretended that he could