Other editions of book Dracula's Guest

"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 return late, 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". This inscription is now recognised as being a tribute to Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, one of Stoker's fellow predecessor in terms of vampire writing. Le Fanu's Carmilla (1872) deals with a protagonist showing resemblances with Countess Dolingen. Carmilla's main protagonist is ultimately revealed to Countess Millarca Karnestein, a vampire.[11] 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 the Englishman 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.

When we started for our drive the sun was shining brightly on Munich, and the air was full of the joyousness of early summer. Just as we were about to depart, Herr Delbruck (the maitre d'hotel of the Quatre Saisons, where I was staying) came down bareheaded to the carriage and, after wishing me a pleasant drive, said to the coachman, still holding his hand on the handle of the carriage door, "Remember you are back by nightfall. The sky looks bright but there is a shiver in the north wind that says there may be a sudden storm. But I am sure you will not be late." Here he smiled and added,"for you know what night it is."Johann answered with an emphatic, "Ja, mein Herr," and, touching his hat, drove off quickly. When we had cleared the town, I said, after signalling to him to stop:"Tell me, Johann, what is tonight?"He crossed himself, as he answered laconically: "Walpurgis nacht." Then he took out his watch, a great, old-fashioned German silver thing as big as a turnip and looked at it, with his eyebrows gathered together and a little impatient shrug of his shoulders. I realized that this was his way of respectfully protesting against the unnecessary delay and sank back in the carriage, merely motioning him to proceed. He started off rapidly, as if to make up for lost time. Every now and then the horses seemed to throw up their heads and sniff the air suspiciously. On such occasions I often looked round in alarm. The road was pretty bleak, for we were traversing a sort of high windswept plateau. As we drove,I saw a road that looked but little used and which seemed to dip through a little winding valley. It looked so inviting that, even at the risk of offending him, I called Johann to stop—and when he had pulled up, I told him I would like to drive down that road. He made all sorts of excuses and frequently crossed himself as he spoke. This somewhat piqued my curiosity, so I asked him various questions. He answered fencingly and repeatedly looked at his watch in protest.Finally I said, "Well, Johann, I want to go down this road. I shall not ask you to come unless you like; but tell me why you do not like to go, that is all I ask." For answer he seemed to throw himself off the box, so quickly did he reach the ground. Then he stretched out his hands appealingly to me and implored me not to go. There was just enough of English mixed with the German for me to understand the drift of his talk. He seemed always just about to tell me something—the very idea of which evidently frightened him; but each time he pulled himself up saying, "Walpurgis nacht!"I tried to argue with him, but it was difficult to argue with a man when I did not know his language. The advantage certainly rested with him, for although he began to speak in English, of a very crude and broken kind, he always got excited and broke into his native tongue—and every time he did so, he looked at his watch. Then the horses became restless and sniffed the air. At this he grew very pale, and, looking around in a frightened way, he suddenly jumped forward, took them by the bridles,and led them on some twenty feet. I followed and asked why he had done this. For an answer he crossed himself, pointed to the spot we had left, and drew his carriage in the direction of the other road, indicating a cross, and said, first in German, then in English, "Buried him—him what killed themselves."

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.

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.

The story opens showing a young man finding a young woman he knows behind bars, having been imprisoned and raped. He swears to get her out and the scene cuts to six months earlier. The young man is Bram Stoker and he has a relationship with Admiral Murray's daughter, Elizabeth in Victorian England. He works in a real estate company and has just given his career a boost by finding a home for the firm's new client, Count Dracula. The Admiral is not impressed with Bram and insists he and Elizabeth observe a year's separation to test their love before he'll give his blessing to their marriage. Bram accepts and leaves to begin his year but Elizabeth is rebellious and runs off, presumably to find Bram in Scotland. She gets waylaid by the Count at the train station where he abducts her to his home in Transylvania. Bram's friend Malcolm rushes to find Bram and tell him about the abduction but is caught and killed by Dracula at Stoker's apartment. He had told his business to Mrs. Withen the landlady, before he died so Bram was able to get the information he needed and rushed off to her rescue. He is accosted twice on the road to the Slovak region, once in France and the second time in Germany on Walpurgisnacht. Meanwhile, the Admiral is also on his way to rescue his daughter. We come again to the scene where Bram finds Elizabeth imprisoned in her underground chamber and he then begins a death-defying climb up the side of the mountain to where he can enter the castle. He challenges the Count to a fight in which he is clearly outmatched and when the Count abandons him the Admiral catches up to Bram in the mausoleum. He sends the young man on to find his daughter, while he searches for Dracula. The two older men meet up in front of the dungeon grating shortly after Bram finds Elizabeth and fight. The Admiral wins in spite of taunting by the Count and the scene fades out.

When we started for our drive the sun was shining brightly on Munich, and the air was full of the joyousness of early summer. Just as we were about to depart, Herr Delbrück (the maître d'hôtel of the Quatre Saisons, where I was staying) came down, bareheaded, to the carriage and, after wishing me a pleasant drive, said to the coachman, still holding his hand on the handle of the carriage door:'Remember you are back by nightfall. The sky looks bright but there is a shiver in the north wind that says there may be a sudden storm. But I am sure you will not be late.' Here he smiled, and added, 'for you know what night it is.'Johann answered with an emphatic, 'Ja, mein Herr,' and, touching his hat, drove off quickly. When we had cleared the town, I said, after signalling to him to stop:'Tell me, Johann, what is tonight?'He crossed himself, as he answered laconically: 'Walpurgis nacht.' Then he took out his watch, a great, old-fashioned German silver thing as big as a turnip, and looked at it, with his eyebrows gathered together and a little impatient shrug of his shoulders. I realised that this was his way of respectfully protesting against the unnecessary delay, and sank back in the carriage, merely motioning him to proceed. He started off rapidly, as if to make up for lost time. Every now and then the horses seemed to throw up their heads and sniffed the air suspiciously. On such occasions I often looked round in alarm. The road was pretty bleak, for we were traversing a sort of high, wind-swept plateau. As we drove, I saw a road that looked but little used, and which seemed to dip through a little, winding valley. It looked so inviting that, even at the risk of offending him, I called Johann to stop—and when he had pulled up, I told him I would like to drive down that road. He made all sorts of excuses, and frequently crossed himself as he spoke. This somewhat piqued my curiosity, so I asked him various questions. He answered fencingly, and repeatedly looked at his watch in protest. Finally I said:'Well, Johann, I want to go down this road. I shall not ask you to come unless you like; but tell me why you do not like to go, that is all I ask.' For answer he seemed to throw himself off the box, so quickly did he reach the ground. Then he stretched out his hands appealingly to me, and implored me not to go. There was just enough of English mixed with the German for me to understand the drift of his talk. He seemed always just about to tell me something—the very idea of which evidently frightened him; but each time he pulled himself up, saying, as he crossed himself: 'Walpurgis-Nacht!'

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A few months before the lamented death of my husband--I might say even as the shadow of death was over him--he planned three series of short stories for publication, and the present volume is one of them. 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. The other stories have already been published in English and American periodicals. Had my husband lived longer, he might have seen fit to revise this work, which is mainly from the earlier years of his strenuous life. But, as fate has entrusted to me the issuing of it, I consider it fitting and proper to let it go forth practically as it was left by him. Dracula's guest is a short story from the collection Dracula's guest and other horror stories first published in 1914, two years after the death of its author, Bram Stoker. Dracula's guest is on his trip to an English gentleman (whose name is never mentioned in the story but is supposed to be Jonathan Harker, one of the protagonists of Dracula) while wandering around the city of Munich before heading to Transylvania. It is the Night of Walpurgis, and despite the warnings of the coachman (Johan), the young Englishman recklessly leaves his hotel and strolls through the woods alone. On the way he feels himself observed by a tall and thin stranger. The story concludes in an ancient and dark cemetery where there is a marble tomb (with a large iron stake through it) in which the words Denn die Toten reiten schnell ("Because the dead travel quickly", fragment of the poem are recorded " Lenore ", by Gottfried August Bürger), and where he meets the specter of a vampire called Countess Dolingen de Graz. The spirit of this evil and beautiful vampire wakes up from his marble enclosure to conjure a blizzard before being hit by Lightning and return to your stone prison. However, the problems of the English gentleman are not over, as a wolf emerges from the blizzard and attacks him. However, the wolf simply keeps it warm and alive in the snow until help arrives. When the protagonist is finally returned to his hotel, a telegram from Dracula awaits him, with which he will meet in Transylvania, and in which he warns of the dangers of snow and wolves in the night.

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.