Dracula

Extrait gratuit

D R A C U L A

by Bram Stoker NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP Publishers

Copyright, 1897, in the United States of America, according to Act of Congress, by Bram Stoker [All rights reserved.] PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES AT THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N.Y.

TO MY DEAR FRIEND HOMMY-BEG

Contents CHAPTER I. Jonathan Harker’s Journal CHAPTER II. Jonathan Harker’s Journal CHAPTER III. Jonathan Harker’s Journal CHAPTER IV. Jonathan Harker’s Journal CHAPTER V. Letters—Lucy and Mina CHAPTER VI. Mina Murray’s Journal CHAPTER VII. Cutting from “The Dailygraph,” 8 August CHAPTER VIII. Mina Murray’s Journal CHAPTER IX. Mina Murray’s Journal CHAPTER X. Mina Murray’s Journal CHAPTER XI. Lucy Westenra’s Diary CHAPTER XII. Dr. Seward’s Diary CHAPTER XIII. Dr. Seward’s Diary CHAPTER XIV. Mina Harker’s Journal CHAPTER XV. Dr. Seward’s Diary CHAPTER XVI. Dr. Seward’s Diary CHAPTER XVII. Dr. Seward’s Diary CHAPTER XVIII. Dr. Seward’s Diary CHAPTER XIX. Jonathan Harker’s Journal CHAPTER XX. Jonathan Harker’s Journal CHAPTER XXI. Dr. Seward’s Diary CHAPTER XXII. Jonathan Harker’s Journal CHAPTER XXIII. Dr. Seward’s Diary CHAPTER XXIV. Dr. Seward’s Phonograph Diary, spoken by Van Helsing CHAPTER XXV. Dr. Seward’s Diary CHAPTER XXVI. Dr. Seward’s Diary CHAPTER XXVII. Mina Harker’s Journal

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.

D R A C U L A

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 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?