Dracula. Bram Stoker

      CONTENTS

       Cover Image

       Title Page

       CHAPTER 1. Jonathan Harker's Journal

       CHAPTER 2. Jonathan Harker's Journal

       CHAPTER 3. Jonathan Harker's Journal

       CHAPTER 4. Jonathan Harker's Journal

       CHAPTER 5. Letter From Miss Mina Murray To Miss Lucy Westenra

       CHAPTER 6. Mina Murray's Journal

       CHAPTER 7. Cutting From "The Dailygraph", 8 August

       CHAPTER 8. Mina Murray's Journal

       CHAPTER 9. Letter, Mina Harker To Lucy Westenra

       CHAPTER 10. Letter, Dr. Seward To Hon. Arthur Holmwood

       CHAPTER 11. Lucy Westenra's Diary

       CHAPTER 12. Dr. Seward's Diary

       CHAPTER 13. Dr. Seward's Diary

       CHAPTER 14. Mina Harker's Journal

       CHAPTER 15. Dr. Seward's Diary

       CHAPTER 16. Dr. Seward's Diary

       CHAPTER 17. Dr. Seward's Diary

       CHAPTER 18. Dr. Seward's Diary

       CHAPTER 19. Jonathan Harker's Journal

       CHAPTER 20. Jonathan Harker's Journal

       CHAPTER 21. Dr. Seward's Diary

       CHAPTER 22. Jonathan Harker's Journal

       CHAPTER 23. Dr. Seward's Diary

       CHAPTER 24. Dr. Seward's Phonograph Diary

       CHAPTER 25. Dr. Seward's Diary

       CHAPTER 26. Dr. Seward's Diary

       CHAPTER 27. Mina Harker's Journal

      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.

      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?