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                          Transcriber's Note
                          ##################

This e-text is based on a reproduction of the original 1897 edition.
All modern material has been removed.

Italic text in the original version has been placed between underscores
(_text_); passages in small caps have been symbolised by forward
slashes (/small caps/). [oe] symbolises the corresponding ligature.
Subscript numerals have been placed between curly braces ({2}).

Inconsistencies in hyphenation and spelling (to-morrow/tomorrow;
aerial/aerial, etc.), as well as incorrectly used phrases in Van
Helsing's speech have been retained. A number of obvious errors in
punctuation and inconsistencies in single/double quotation have been
tacitly removed.

The following typographical errors, have been corrected:

    # p. vi/vii: header word "Page" has been moved from page vii to
                 page vi.
    # p. vii: "Chapter VXVII" --> "Chapter XVIII"; "Chapter XXI" -->
              "Chapter XXVII"; "320" --> "324"
    # p. 16: "a long" --> "along"
    # p. 30: "W[oe]" --> "Woe"
    # p. 44: "wondow" --> "window"
    # p. 43: "that" --> "than"
    # p. 58: "number One" --> "number one"
    # p. 63: "Hopwood" --> "Holmwood"
    # p. 82: "role of paper" --> "roll of paper"
    # p. 98: "dreadul" --> "dreadful"
    # p. 99: "pounts" --> "pounds"
    # p. 112: "Holmmood" --> "Holmwood"
    # p. 133: "pharmacop[oe][oe]ia" --> "pharmacop[oe]ia"
    # p. 147: "do do" --> "to do"
    # p. 157: "confortable" --> "comfortable"; "everthing" -->
              "everything"
    # p. 186: "greatful" --> "grateful"
    # p. 212: "Arther" --> "Arthur"
    # p. 241: "next the Professor" --> "next to the Professor"
    # p. 257: "gloated with fresh blood" --> "bloated with fresh blood"
    # p. 286: "Rat, rats, rats!" --> "Rats, rats, rats!"
    # p. 339: "preceeded" --> "preceded"
    # p. 358: "the bit box" --> "the big box"
    # p. 380: "they mean fight" --> "they mean to fight"
    # p. 384: "respulsive" --> "repulsive"




                       BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.


                          "Under the Sunset."
                          "The Snake's Pass."
                         "The Watter's Mou'."
                       "The Shoulder of Shasta."




                                DRACULA

                                  BY

                              BRAM STOKER


                          Constable. London




       First published by Archibald Constable and Company, 1897




                                  TO

                            MY DEAR FRIEND

                               HOMMY-BEG




CONTENTS.


                                                                    Page

    /Chapter I./

    Jonathan Harker's Journal                                          1


    /Chapter II./

    Jonathan Harker's Journal                                         15


    /Chapter III./

    Jonathan Harker's Journal                                         28


    /Chapter IV./

    Jonathan Harker's Journal                                         41


    /Chapter V./

    Letters--Lucy and Mina                                            55


    /Chapter VI./

    Mina Murray's Journal                                             64


    /Chapter VII./

    Cutting from "The Dailygraph," 8 August                           77


    /Chapter VIII./

    Mina Murray's Journal                                             91


    /Chapter IX./

    Mina Murray's Journal                                            106


    /Chapter X./

    Mina Murray's Journal                                            120


    /Chapter XI./

    Lucy Westenra's Diary                                            135


    /Chapter XII./

    Dr. Seward's Diary                                               148


    /Chapter XIII./

    Dr. Seward's Diary                                               166


    /Chapter XIV./

    Mina Harker's Journal                                            182


    /Chapter XV./

    Dr. Seward's Diary                                               198


    /Chapter XVI./

    Dr. Seward's Diary                                               212


    /Chapter XVII./

    Dr. Seward's Diary                                               223


    /Chapter XVIII./

    Dr. Seward's Diary                                               237


    /Chapter XIX./

    Jonathan Harker's Journal                                        254


    /Chapter XX./

    Jonathan Harker's Journal                                        267


    /Chapter XXI./

    Dr. Seward's Diary                                               282


    /Chapter XXII./

    Jonathan Harker's Journal                                        297


    /Chapter XXIII./

    Dr. Seward's Diary                                               310


    /Chapter XXIV./

    Dr. Seward's Phonograph Diary, spoken by Van Helsing             324


    /Chapter XXV./

    Dr. Seward's Diary                                               339


    /Chapter XXVI./

    Dr. Seward's Diary                                               354


    /Chapter XXVII./

    Mina Harker's Journal                                            372




How these papers have been placed in sequence will be made manifest
in the reading of them. All needless matters have been eliminated, so
that a history almost at variance with the possibilities of later-day
belief may stand forth as simple fact. There is throughout no statement
of past things wherein memory may err, for all the records chosen are
exactly contemporary, given from the standpoints and within the range
of knowledge of those who made them.




DRACULA.




CHAPTER I.

/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 some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the
British Museum, and made search among the books and maps of 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 noble 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?

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
petticoats under them. The strangest figures we saw were the Slovaks,
who are more barbarian than the rest, with their big cowboy 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 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 long double
apron, front and back, of  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 shirt-sleeves, 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 to-night. At three to-morrow 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 not understand my German. This could not be
true, because up to then he had understood it perfectly; at least, he
answered my questions exactly as if he did. He and his wife, the old
lady who had received me, looked at each other in a frightened sort
of way. He mumbled out that the money had been sent in a letter, and
that was all he knew. When I asked him if he knew Count Dracula, and
could tell me anything of his castle, both he and his wife crossed
themselves, and, saying that they knew nothing at all, simply refused
to speak further. It was so near the time of starting that I had no
time to ask any one else, for it was all very mysterious and not by any
means comforting.

Just before I was leaving, the old lady came up to my room and said in
a very hysterical way:

"Must you go? Oh! young Herr, must you go?" She was in such an excited
state that she seemed to have lost her grip of what German she knew,
and mixed it all up with some other language which I did not know at
all. I was just able to follow her by asking many questions. When I
told her that I must go at once, and that I was engaged on important
business, she asked again:

"Do you know what day it is?" I answered that it was the fourth of May.
She shook her head as she said again:

"Oh, yes! I know that, I know that! but do you know what day it is?" On
my saying that I did not understand, she went on:

"It is the eve of St. George's Day. Do you not know that to-night, when
the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have
full sway? Do you know where you are going, and what you are going
to?" She was in such evident distress that I tried to comfort her, but
without effect. Finally she went down on her knees and implored me not
to go; at least to wait a day or two before starting. It was all very
ridiculous, but I did not feel comfortable. However, there was business
to be done, and I could allow nothing to interfere with it. I therefore
tried to raise her up, and said, as gravely as I could, that I thanked
her, but my duty was imperative, and that I must go. She then rose and
dried her eyes, and taking a crucifix from her neck offered it to me.
I did not know what to do, for, as an English Churchman, I have been
taught to regard such things as in some measure idolatrous, and yet
it seemed so ungracious to refuse an old lady meaning so well and in
such a state of mind. She saw, I suppose, the doubt in my face, for she
put the rosary round my neck, and said, "For your mother's sake," and
went out of the room. I am writing up this part of the diary whilst I
am waiting for the coach, which is, of course, late; and the crucifix
is still round my neck. Whether it is the old lady's fear, or the many
ghostly traditions of this place, or the crucifix itself, I do not
know, but I am not feeling nearly as easy in my mind as usual. If this
book should ever reach Mina before I do, let it bring my good-bye. Here
comes the coach!

_5 May. The Castle._--The grey of the morning has passed, and the sun
is high over the distant horizon, which seems jagged, whether with
trees or hills I know not, for it is so far off that big things and
little are mixed. I am not sleepy, and, as I am not to be called till
I awake, naturally I write till sleep comes. There are many odd things
to put down, and, lest who reads them may fancy that I dined too well
before I left Bistritz, let me put down my dinner exactly. I dined on
what they call "robber steak"--bits of bacon, onion, and beef, seasoned
with red pepper, and strung on sticks and roasted over the fire, in the
simple style of the London cat's-meat! The wine was Golden Mediasch,
which produces a queer sting on the tongue, which is, however, not
disagreeable. I had only a