Dracula
(Bram Stoker)

Dracula is written as a collection of letters, notes, telegrams, and journal/diary entries. This kind of story-telling isn’t very common today and may be a little confusing to the modern reader, especially when the notes aren’t in strictly chronological order. Their order is meant to make the story flow the best, and usually the order works well.

Dracula starts through the eyes of Jonathan Harker. He travels to Transylvania on a business trip. He is to meet Count Dracula in his castle in the Carpathian mountains. The Count wants to buy a property in England and move there.

Harker’s trip to Castle Dracula is very strange. The locals think he’s crazy for wanting to go there. One woman even gives him a cross as protection. Harker is picked up by a dark carriage. The woods are overrun with wolves, but the driver of the carriage seems to be able to drive the wolves away with a wave of his hand.

Harker gets to the Castle and is welcomed at the door by the Count himself. Dracula says that all the servants are asleep (because it’s nighttime), so he serves Harker a dinner himself, but the Count doesn’t eat anything himself.

The two men stay up until dawn talking and then sleep most of the day. This happens several times. Harker never sees the Count during the day, and he slowly comes to realize that there aren’t any servants in the house at all.

Dracula convinces Harker to stay in his castle for an extra month, supposedly to teach him about English culture and language. Jonathan is obligated to accent the invitation, although he starts to get the idea that he’s really a prisoner in the castle.

On day, Harker explores the rest of the castle. He meets three ghostly women, Dracula’s brides. They try to kill him, but the Count manages to save his life at the last minute. Dracula tells the wives that Harker belongs to him and they can’t have him… not until the month is over. Then the Count feeds his brides a small child. Harker is freaked out by now.

Gypsies load up boxes of dirt into wagons to ship to England. Dracula leaves with them. Harker, left alone with the bride, knows he hast to escape, so he climbs out of his window and braves the woods to get away.

Meanwhile, Mina, Harker’s fiancé, is visiting Lucy in the seaside town of Whitby. Lucy has been sleepwalking a lot lately and Mina is very worried about her.

Dr Seward, one of the many men that are in love with Lucy, works in an insane asylum. One patient, Renfield, has the nasty habit of eating living things, like flies, spiders, and sparrows. He also screams on and on sometimes about “his master” coming soon.

Mina and Lucy are up on a churchyard overlooking the town when they see a ship run aground, a great storm following right behind it from the ocean. The entire crew is found dead. A large dog jumps off the ship and runs away, and no one is able to find it later.

Lucy keeps sleepwalking, more and more. Now she’s pale and weak. Once, Mina catches Lucy hanging out he window, a larger bird bent over her neck.

Mina is worried, and she gets Seward to help. Seward gets more help from an Texan named Quincey and Arthur—Lucy’s fiancé. He also calls a doctor named Van Helsing, who supposedly knows a lot about mysterious diseases.

Mina is called away to Transylvania because Harker has been found and is in a hospital there. She goes to take care of him, and they are married while he is still sick.

Meanwhile, Lucy is getting worse. Van Helsing uses garlic flowers to “protect” Lucy, though no one understands why that would help.

Eventually, Lucy dies. Right away, rumors spread about this beautiful lady taking children and drinking their blood. Van Helsing convinces Seward that Lucy is that same lady, now a vampire. They even go to her tomb and find if empty during the night but occupied during the day.

They bring Arthur and Quincey in on the secret, and they are forced to kill Lucy (again), cutting off her head and staking her heart.

Mina and Harker return home, where he inherits a large business from his employer, who has died. The newlyweds find themselves rich! Mina gets into contact with Van Helsing and they compare notes. Van Helsing is convinced they must find and kill Dracula.

They discover that the boxes of dirt were taken to a house called Carfax, outside London and nextdoor to Seward’s asylum. Dracula apparently needs the dirt from home to sleep on.

They begin to hunt Dracula. Meanwhile, he begins to turn Mina, attacking her when others aren’t looking. Eventually they find the boxes of dirt in both Carfax and another house in London, ruining them for the Count by pouring holy water in them. But one box is still missing. That means Dracula can still be hiding.

They start to use hypnoses on Mina to find Dracula. Because he has a connection to her, she will never be safe. When she dies, even if many years later, she will turn to a vampire if Dracula isn’t killed. When under hypnoses, Mina can feel where Dracula is. They discover that he’s on another ship.

He must be going back home, since her only has one box of dirt left.

They track down what ship is going to the region of Transylvania. Traveling by train, they are able to beat the ship there.

They think they know where the ship will land, so they hang out on the docks for days, waiting. But the ship ends up landing in another port. By the time they get to the other town, the box of dirt has been handed over to some Slovaks, who are now taking the box up river.

The group uses a steamboat to chase the Slovaks down. Others of the group take horses along the river’s bank. Van Helsing and Mina take a carriage directly to Castle Dracula.

Mina starts to get very sick as they get closer. Van Helsing ends up having to leave her outside the castle, a ring of communion wafers protecting her from Dracula’s brides. During the day, Van Helsing goes into the castle and kills the sleeping brides.

Meanwhile, the Slovaks have already passed the box over to some gypsies, who are taking Dracula up to the castle by wagon.

The entire group converges on the wagon. The gypsies surround the wagon to protect it with their knives. But the men have guns and they manage to break through. Quincey is killed by a knife, though.

They break open the box and find the sleeping Dracula. They cut off his head and stake his heart. He turns into dust and Mina’s curse is lifted.