Dracula

Summary

Dracula surely needs little introduction, being the most famous tale of vampirism and the one to which all since it was published in 1897 have aspired to. However, with the numerous adaptations and cinematic rejuvenations and rejiggings of the legend (from Nosferatu to Blackula ) have come many bastardisations of the original tale and character. The novel is told via the diary entries of the young solicitor Jonathan Harker, his fiancée Mina, Lucy Westenra and Dr John Seward (who is in charge of a lunatic asylum in Essex). We travel to the Transylvanian abode of Count Dracula, a strange and disturbing castle. His purpose is to settle a land deal for Seward but he is drawn into bizarre and horrifying experiences within the castle walls. The action then passes to England as the Count travels in amongst fifty large wooden boxes and on board ship finishes off the entire crew before disappearing at Whitby in the shape of a wolf. Back on land, Lucy is vampirized by Dracula and dies despite the intervention of the wise and knowledgeable Professor Van Helsing. Mina too is in danger and has to be protected from Dracula’s advances. The adventure concludes with a thrilling and conclusive return to Transylviania. Dracula is not Stoker’s only novel, and he also wrote short-stories and dramatic criticism but this tale stands apart. It was influenced by the story ‘Carmilla’ in Le Fanu’s In A Glass Darkly (1872).

Table of contents

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15
• Chapter 16
• Chapter 17
• Chapter 18
• Chapter 19
• Chapter 20
• Chapter 21
• Chapter 22
• Chapter 23
• Chapter 24
• Chapter 25
• Chapter 26
• Chapter 27

Other Fiction classics

• Lady Chatterley's Lover — D.H. Lawrence
• Crime and Punishment — Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Billy Budd — Herman Melville
• Ulysses — James Joyce
• Dubliners — James Joyce
• Little Women — Louisa M. Alcott