Dracula is a horror novel about a vampire traveling to london from transylvania in the late 1800s. Dracula sparknotes literature guide by bram stoker making the reading experience fun. The dracula literature essays are academic essays for citation. Jonathan harker, mina murray later mina harker, and dr.
These free notes consist of about 63 pages 18,811 words and contain the following sections. Dracula by bram stoker meet your next favorite book. Dracula is one of five books most recommended books, with literary scholars, science writers and novelists citing it as an influential text for topics such as sex in victorian literature, best horror books and criminology. He has lived for centuries by sucking blood from living people. Read a plot overview of the entire book or a chapter by. Study guide dracula jonathan harker, a young london solicitor a lawyer travels to transylvania modernday romania to help a rich nobleman, count dracula, purchase an estate in england. The book presents several colour illustrations, and these certainly does add to the narrative, as the art usefully depicts the most important aspects of the story. Welcome to the litcharts study guide on bram stokers dracula.
Renfield appears to recognize the form dracula can takethe bat. Dracula is an 1897 gothic horror novel by irish author bram stoker. Description horror arrives in late nineteenth century england in the form of a vampire, an undead creature who sleeps in the earth by day and drinks the blood of humans by. First published in 1897, the novel was influenced by a history of vampire myths and stories, but stoker shaped all those fragmented tales to create a literary legend that was just the start of what we know and understand about vampires in current literature. The free dracula notes include comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. Dracula study guide from litcharts the creators of. Dracula begins with the diary kept by jonathan harkeran english.
Harker is a london lawyer traveling by train across europe. Dracula cliffsnotes study guides book summaries, test. Created by harvard students for students everywhere, sparknotes is a new breed of study guide. Find a summary of this and each chapter of dracula. Written in the first person through the medium of collected journal entries and letters reflecting the perceptions of its mortal participants, it tells the tale of the transylvanian. It introduced the character of count dracula and established many conventions of subsequent vampire fantasy. Buy study guide dracula is an epistolary novel, meaning that is composed from letters, journal and diary entries, telegrams, and newspaper clippings. The little river, the esk, runs through a deep valley, which broadens out as it. We know the story and all the beats, and are concerned mostly with the style and production.
All of the serious later movie draculas draw from lugosis performance, not. Every book on your english syllabus summed up in a quote from the office mar 19, 2020 6 book scenes that were too disturbing for the movie adaptation apr 7, 2020 5. Draculas device of letters really enables you to understand and sympathise with the characters and see their true thoughts as they try to defeat. Lucy met me at the station, looking sweeter and lovlier than ever, and we drove up to the house at the crescent in which they have rooms. It follows the vampire count dracula from his castle in transylvania to england, where he is hunted while turning others into vampires. When the novel begins, he is in budapest, on his way to count draculas estate, located somewhere in the carpathian.
Supersummary, a modern alternative to sparknotes and cliffsnotes, offers highquality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. A summary of chapters iiiv in bram stokers dracula. He tells a confused seward that after the funeral, they must cut off lucys head and take out her heart. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of dracula. A summary of chapters vvii in bram stokers dracula. Dracula isnt nearly scary enough, jonathan harker is a wet mop of a protagonist, mina is annoying and the best character spoiler alert. Most readers tend to think of this break in the action as stokers way of building suspense. Some folks complain that the final chapters of dracula are boringafter all, the chase really just involves van helsing, harker, mina, arthur, dr. Seward write the largest contributions to the novel although the writings of lucy westenra and abraham van helsing constitute some key parts of the book. This onepage guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of dracula by bram stoker. Dracula chapters 9 and 10 summary dracula by bram stoker chapters 9 and 10 summary and analysis. Before we launch into a summary of the events in dracula, it is important that we consider the way the novel is written.
Googling through the internet on the book will yield an ample supply of analysis, plot summary, and commentary. A novel written in this manner is called an epistolary novel. The lead characters in the play work to piece together draculas identity. The novel tells the story of draculas attempt to move from transylvania to england so that he may find new blood and spread the undead curse, and of the battle between dracula and a small group of people led by. Seward, and quincey morris twiddling their thumbs in varna while waiting for draculas ship to come in. The novel is made up of various written records, including, but not limited to, letters and diary entries. Dracula, novel by bram stoker, derived from vampire legends and published in 1897, that became the basis for an entire genre of literature and film. The first mates death, readers may notice, is the second mention of suicide in the whitby section of the novel. A corpse during the day, he comes to life at night. Before the funeral, van helsing covers the coffin and body with garlic and places a crucifix in lucys mouth. Dracula is a novel by bram stoker that was first published in 1897. Instead, it is composed of a collage of letters, journal entries and diary jottings, in addition to a portion of a ships log, various newspaper clippings, and even a phonograph diary. Even though dracula is well received and praised today, the sales of his book did not give a major financial effect for stoker.
Sewards diary continues, as he describes lucys burial. Dracula is an epistolary novel by bram stoker that follows a group of english friends and their encounters with count dracula, a vampire jonathan harker travels to count dracula. Dracula by steven dietz closely follows the source material of the novel. Bram stoker wrote the novel dracula in 1897 although vampire legends existed before he wrote this book, stoker created what has become the most wellknown version of a vampire a version that still persists through literature and film today, based on the historical figure vlad the impaler. If you are able to read bram stokers dracula without any difficulty i thought it was a simple read or have followed the films, you can do without cliff notes on stokers dracula. The suspenseful story is based on the classic legend of the transylvanian vampire dracula. The dracula myth has been filmed so often, in so many different ways most recently by francis ford coppola in his bram stokers dracula, 1992, that its material has become like an opera libretto, or a play by shakespeare. This novel is not told in a straightforward, chronological, omniscient manner, like many nineteenthcentury novels.
The play dracula dramatized by hamilton dean and john l. A summary of chapters xvxviii in bram stokers dracula. A concise biography of bram stoker plus historical and literary context for dracula. Home english literature classic books dracula navigate here chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 3 chapter 4 chapter 5 chapter 6 chapter 7 chapter 8 chapter 9 chapter 10 chapter 11 chapter 12 chapter chapter 14 chapter 15 chapter 16 chapter 17 chapter 18 chapter 19 chapter 20 chapter 21 chapter 22 chapter 23 chapter 24 chapter 25 chapter 26. See a complete list of the characters in dracula and indepth analyses of count dracula, van helsing, mina murray, and lucy westenra. Dracula is an epistolary gothic horror novel written in 1897 by bram stoker, an irish author who became famous after writing about the vampire named count dracula, who later on had many interpretations theater, movie and television. In chapter 8 of bram stokers dracula, mina recounts lucys sleepwalking episode in which lucy leaves the house and appears to encounter a strange dark figure on the east cliff. Read a plot overview of the entire book or a chapter by chapter summary and analysis. Chapter i jonathan harkers journal kept in shorthand. The book is written in the form of diaries and letters by different characters in the story.
Heres where youll find analysis about the book as a whole. They make a valiant attempt to stop him from taking new victims. Budapesth seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse which i got of it from the train and the little i could walk through the streets. Hunting prince dracula is the second book in the audrey rose and thomas cresswell stalking jack the ripper series and its just as fantastic as the first, a little more unbelievable than the first being this has hints of the urban legend dracula about it no im not truly a. They finally discover and destroy all of the fifty boxes except one, which they learn has been sent by ship back to draculas castle. Seward, again, persists in a condition of notknowing, thus prompting a good deal of dramatic irony on the part of the reader, who has, at this point, deduced that renfield is a disciple of draculas. Stoker asked the royal literary fund for a compassionate grant.
Count dracula is not the tortured romantic hero of modernday cinema, but rather an evil monster that must be destroyed. Stoker visited the seaside town of whitby in england in 1890 and found inspiration for his excellent novel dracula. Chapter summary for bram stokers dracula, chapter 17 summary. For anyone interested in taking a first, tentative step towards understanding the plot of dracula then this is.
Created by the original team behind sparknotes, litcharts are the worlds best literature guides. In the 1897 gothic horror novel, dracula, the author, bram stoker, an irish author from the mid to late19th century, introduces the most famous vampire character of all time, count dracula. Also, parents should be aware that this novel has a strong female character turned into a sexually aggressive predator, as well as unsettling descriptions of mental illness. One horrific night, van helsing and seward break into minas room, find jonathan unconscious, and mina being forced to suck blood from a deep slash across draculas chest.