Dracula- Bram Stoker

Dracula- Bram Stoker

In my opinion, this is one of the greatest horror books that have ever

been written. It is excellent.

The book begins with Jonathon Harker- one of the main characters,

writing in his journal. From this we see that he is on his way to

Transylvania, 'one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe'

where he is visiting one of the clients of the accountants firm that

he works for in his castle, Castle Dracula. From Budapest, he travels

to Bistritz where he stays in the Golden Krone Hotel. The next day he

is to travel to the Borgo pass by coach where Draculas carriage will

meet him.

There are early signs that all is not right: He has queer dreams

whilst staying in Budapest, people are very wary of telling him

anything of the count or his castle, when he asked the hotel owners

what they knew of the Count 'both he and his wife crossed themselves

and, saying that they knew nothing at all, refused to speak any

further', people try to warn him off going to the castle, the landlady

wouldn't let him leave the hotel until she had placed a cross around

his neck, even the people on the coach he is taking to meet the counts

carriage begin talking of evil things; Satan, vampires, hell.

But this is soon forgotten as he journeys, he is absorbed in the

beautiful landscape, oblivious to everything else. As they near the

Borgo pass he finds that the other people on the coach's behaviour

becomes more and more erratic as if they are nervous and frightened,

for him as well as themselves.

When they arrive to the pass, there is no-one there and they try to

persuade him to leave with them but the Counts horseman arrives with

the carriage . His appearance is very disturbing. He has eyes 'which

seemed red in the lamplight' and red lips with 'sharp looking teeth.

He interrogates the coach driver who seems to be very scared of him.

There is also something very strange in his behaviour but we cant put

our finger on it. Jonathan boards the carriage and begins the final

lap of his journey towards the castle. The way in which the journey is

described builds up a sense of apprehension, as if this is the

beginning of an undescribable horror. The closer to the castle

Jonathan gets, the worse it is. He sees a blue flame which the driver

runs off into the darkness to inspect. While he is away the wolves of

the forest form a ring around him but when the driver comes back, he