Dracula's Guest
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Author | Bram Stoker |
|---|---|
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | George Routledge and Sons |
| Released | 1914 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| ISBN | NA |
Dracula's Guest is a collection of short stories by Bram Stoker, first published in 1914, two years after Stoker's death. The stories in the collection are:
- Dracula's Guest
- The Judges's House
- The Gipsy Prophecy
- The Coming of Abel Behenna
- The Burial of the Rats
- A Dream of Red Hands
- Crooken Sands
- The Secret of the Growing Gold
[edit] Dracula's Guest
Dracula's Guest is actually the deleted first chapter from the original Dracula manuscript, which the publisher felt was superfluous to the story.[citation needed]
[edit] Plot summary
Dracula's Guest follows the Englishman Jonathan Harker as he wanders around Munich before leaving for Transylvania. It is Walpurgis Night, and in spite of the coachman's warnings, the young Englishman foolishly leaves his hotel and wanders through a dense forest alone. Along the way he feels he is being watched by a tall and thin stranger (possibly Count Dracula himself).
The short story climaxes in an old graveyard, where in a marble tomb (with a large iron stake driven into it), he encounters the ghost of a female vampire called Countess Dolingen. The spirit of this malevolent and beautiful vampire awakens from her marble bier to conjure a snowstorm before being struck by lightning and returning to her eternal prison. Harker's troubles are not quite over, though, as a wolf then emerges through the blizzard and attacks him. However the wolf (possibly sent by Dracula) merely keeps him warm and alive until help arrives.
When Harker is finally taken back to his hotel, there is a waiting telegram from his expectant host Dracula, with a warning about "dangers from snow and wolves and night".
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
- Although Dracula's Guest is often regarded as the basis for the 1936 film Dracula's Daughter, this is somewhat inaccurate. While a screenplay was produced with a view to James Whale directing, it remained un-filmed, and a separate, un-related, shooting script was eventually used as the sequel to Universal's 1931 Dracula film.
| Bram Stoker |
|---|
| Bibliography |
| Novels: The Primrose Path (1875) • The Snake's Pass (1890) • The Watter's Mou' (1895) • The Shoulder of Shasta (1895) • Dracula (1897) • Miss Betty (1898) • The Mystery of the Sea (1902) • The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903) • The Man (AKA: The Gates of Life) (1905) • Lady Athlyne (1908) • Snowbound: The Record of a Theatrical Touring Party (1908) • The Lady of the Shroud (1909) • Lair of the White Worm (1911) |
| Collections: Under the Sunset (1881) • Dracula's Guest (1914) |
| Non-fiction: The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland (1879) • A Glimpse of America (1886) • Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (1906) • Famous Impostors (1910) |
