18 h 11 minAudiobook17 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 446 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 446 pagesAbout this book
What if a courteous host opens his castle to you, but offers no way out?
Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to help Count Dracula buy a house in England. His client is learned, welcoming and eager to talk. Yet the castle becomes a prison, and Jonathan’s business journey draws him into a danger that reaches far beyond the mountains.
In England, Mina Murray hopes for Jonathan’s return while her friend Lucy Westenra grows strangely weak. Dr John Seward and Abraham Van Helsing seek answers as an ancient threat enters a world that thinks itself safe. Diaries, letters and a ship’s log let you piece together the terror before any one person understands it.
What you’ll discover
- A castle that confines Follow Jonathan as his host’s courtesy gives way to the fear of being trapped.
- Fear assembled from evidence Read private journals and letters that turn separate fears into a shared, gathering dread.
- Old lore meets reason Watch Van Helsing challenge familiar explanations as he struggles to save the sick.
- Friends who stand together Meet ordinary people whose loyalty gives them reason to face an extraordinary threat.
- Desire beneath the horror Explore the pull of temptation, power and control beneath Dracula’s charm and hunger.
Is it for you?
This is for anyone who knows the vampire from films and wants to see where he began, and for readers who enjoy suspense, old houses and storms. If you want fast modern action, the slow letters may feel less suited to you.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A solicitor travels into the mountains
- The castle is a beautiful prison
- Two friends at home, and three suitors
- An asylum beside the house at Carfax
- A storm, a ghost ship and a sleepwalker
- Lucy fades and Van Helsing is called
- Old fear against a modern world
- Friendship, faith and the duty to fight
- How the story is told and why it frightens
Who’s who
- Jonathan HarkerA young English solicitor who travels to Transylvania on business and keeps a diary of what he sees. He wants to do his job well and return to Mina.
- Count DraculaAn ancient nobleman living in a Carpathian castle who buys property in England. He wants to leave his mountain home and move among the crowds of London.
- Mina MurrayA schoolmistress engaged to Jonathan, clever with shorthand and typing. She wants to support her husband and protect her friend Lucy, and she gathers the papers that tell the story.
- Lucy WestenraMina's lively, warm-hearted friend who receives three proposals in one day. She wants to marry the man she loves without hurting the others.
- Dr John SewardA young physician who runs an asylum near London and records his cases on a phonograph. He wants to understand his patients and to help the woman he loves.
- Abraham Van HelsingA Dutch physician and scholar, Seward's old teacher, who knows the old lore. He wants to save the sick and persuade others to believe what he sees.
- Quincey MorrisA cheerful, brave American from Texas and one of Lucy's suitors. He wants to stand by his friends and help them in any danger.
- Arthur HolmwoodThe son of a lord, engaged to Lucy and loyal to her and to his friends. He wants to protect those he loves.
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 18 h 11 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 17 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in, 446 pages: USD 14.95 when you start free, USD 20.95 on its own.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in, 446 pages: USD 21.95 when you start free, USD 27.95 on its own.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Language: English
“Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!”
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
A solicitor travels into the mountains
The story opens with Jonathan Harker, a young English solicitor, on a train heading east toward Transylvania. He works for a firm in Exeter, and his employer has sent him to help a foreign client buy a house in England. The client is Count Dracula, a nobleman who lives in a remote castle high in the Carpathian Mountains. Harker keeps a diary, noting the food he eats, the odd customs he sees and the maps he studies. He is cheerful, practical and curious, and he thinks of the trip as a chance to get ahead in his career.
As he moves farther from home, the world around him grows stranger. In the town of Bistritz he stays at an inn where the landlady becomes upset when she hears where he is going. She begs him not to go, and when he insists, she gives him a crucifix to wear. Harker is a sensible Protestant and finds the gift a little embarrassing, but he takes it so as not to offend her. The local people cross themselves and mutter words he cannot understand, and he learns later that some of those words mean evil.
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The author
Bram Stoker
1847–1912 · Irish Gothic novelist
Bram Stoker was an Irish novelist and short story writer, born in Dublin in 1847. He moved to London in 1878 and worked as manager of the Lyceum Theatre. He wrote Dracula (1897), The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), and The Lair of the White Worm (1911). He died in London in 1912.
“Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!”
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What is Dracula about?
It tells how a Transylvanian count moves to England, and how a doctor, a scholar and their friends discover what he is and join forces to stop him. It is told through letters and diaries.
Who are the main characters in Dracula?
The main characters are Jonathan Harker, Mina Murray, Lucy Westenra, Dr Seward, Arthur Holmwood, Quincey Morris and Professor Van Helsing, who face Count Dracula. Renfield is an asylum patient linked to the Count.
Is Dracula a true story?
No. Dracula is a work of fiction, published in 1897. Stoker drew on folklore, travel books and history of the Carpathian region, and the name of the Count owes something to a real Romanian prince.
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