Other editions of book Dracula's Guest & Other Tales of Horror

This story coincides with April 30, or May Day's Eve, when it was held that witches met on the Brocken mountain and kept communion with the devil. It is named after St. Walburga, an English nun who helped convert Germans to Christianity in the eighth century. Her feast day coincides with an ancient pagan festival whose rites were intended to give protection against witchcraft. Stoker originally wrote this story to be included in his novel Dracula, but the editor struck it from the original work. "Dracula's Guest" was published posthumously and was the title of a collection of short stories of similar Gothic horror.

Some literary historians believe that Dracula's Guest is an excerpt excised from the original manuscript of Bram Stoker's masterpiece Dracula by an overzealous editor. This short novel recounts the travels of an unnamed Englishman who crosses paths with a foreboding wolf-like creature on his way to Count Dracula's castle. The story is currently being developed into a television series that is slated to air on the CW network in 2010. A must-read for lovers of vampire lit. This edition also includes these short stories: The Judge's House, The Squaw, The Secret of the Growing Gold, The Gipsy Prophecy, The Coming of Abel Behenna, The Burial of the Rats, A Dream of Red Hands and Crooken Sands.

"Dracula's Guest" is a short horror story by the Irish author Bram Stoker. It was first published in 1914, some two years after Stoker's death, as part of the book Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories, an anthology of Bram Stoker's short stories selected by his widow Florence.It is widely believed that "Dracula's Guest" was originally intended to be the first chapter of Dracula and was removed from the novel because either Stoker or his publisher believed it to be superfluous to the novel. Analysis of the manuscript of Dracula indicates that a first chapter was removed from it. It is likely, however, that Stoker rewrote that excised first chapter before it was published as "Dracula's Guest".The story's narrator and protagonist is an unnamed Englishman who is spending some time in Munich, Germany before travelling on to Transylvania as the guest of Count Dracula. Ignoring the warnings of a German coachman, the Englishman decides to go off on his own in the direction of a long-deserted village. The coachman says that the place is "unholy" and that it was abandoned because the dead did not stay truly dead there.

How is this book unique?Font adjustments & biography includedUnabridged (100% Original content)Formatted for e-readerIllustratedAbout Dracula's Guest by Bram StokerDracula's Guest is a collection of short stories by Bram Stoker, first published in 1914, two years after Stoker's death. In the preface to the original edition of Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories, Stoker's widow Florence wrote, "To his original list of stories in this book, I have added an hitherto unpublished episode from Dracula. It was originally excised owing to the length of the book, and may prove of interest to the many readers of what is considered my husband's most remarkable work."

Best known for his masterpiece of horror, Dracula, Bram Stoker wrote a number of other novels and many short stories, all with supernatural themes or filled with a physical terror reminiscent of Poe. Dracula's Guest was originally part of the great novel but was excised and published separately. Some of these stories, such as "The Squaw," "The Judge's House," and "The Burial of the Rats," rank very high among classic tales of the macabre. These stories deserve to be better known for the light they shed on the enigmatic author of one of the world's supreme literary adventures into the realm of nightmare.

"Dracula's Guest" follows an Englishman (whose name is never mentioned, but is presumed to be Jonathan Harker) on a visit to Munich before leaving for Transylvania. It is Walpurgis Night, and in spite of the hotelier's warning to not be late back, the young man later leaves his carriage and wanders toward the direction of an abandoned "unholy" village. As the carriage departs with the frightened and superstitious driver, a tall and thin stranger scares the horses at the crest of a hill. After a few hours, as he reaches a desolate valley, it begins to snow; as a dark storm gathers intensity, the Englishman takes shelter in a grove of cypress and yew trees. The Englishman's location is soon illuminated by moonlight to be a cemetery, and he finds himself before a marble tomb with a large iron stake driven through the roof, the inscription reads: Countess Dolingen of Gratz / in Styria / sought and found death / 1801. Inscribed on the back of the tomb "graven in great Russian letters" is: 'The dead travel fast.' which was an ode to the fable Lenore. The Englishman is disturbed to be in such a place on such a night and as the storm breaks anew, he is forced by pelting hail to shelter in the doorway of the tomb. As he does so, the bronze door of the tomb opens under his weight and a flash of forked lightning shows the interior - and a "beautiful woman with rounded cheeks and red lips, seemingly sleeping on a bier". The force of the following thunder peal throws the Englishman from the doorway (experienced as "being grasped as by the hand of a giant") as another lightning bolt strikes the iron spike, destroying the tomb and the now screaming woman inside. The Englishman's troubles are not quite over, as he painfully regains his senses from the ordeal, he is repulsed by a feeling of loathing which he connects to a warm feeling in his chest and a licking at this throat. The Englishman summons courage to peek through his eyelashes and discovers a gigantic wolf with flaming eyes is attending him. Military horsemen are the next to wake the semi-conscious man, chasing the wolf away with torches and guns. Some horsemen return to the main party and Harker after the chase, reporting that they had not found 'him' and that the Englishman's animal is "a wolf - and yet not a wolf". They also note that blood is on the ruined tomb, yet the Englishman's neck is unbloodied. "See comrades, the wolf has been lying on him and keeping his blood warm". Later, the Englishman finds his neck pained when a horseman comments on it. When the Englishman is taken back to his hotel by the men, he is informed that it is none other than his expectant host Dracula that has alerted his employees, the horsemen, of "dangers from snow and wolves and night" in a telegram received by the hotel during the time the Englishman was away.

MP3 CD Format Best known for his masterpiece of horror, Dracula, Bram Stoker wrote a number of other novels and many short stories, all with supernatural themes or filled with a physical terror reminiscent of Poe. Dracula's Guest was originally part of the great novel but was excised and published separately. Some of these stories, such as ""The Squaw,"" ""The Judge's House,"" and ""The Burial of the Rats,"" rank very high among classic tales of the macabre. These stories deserve to be better known for the light they shed on the enigmatic author of one of the world's supreme literary adventures into the realm of nightmare.