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Jonathan Harker's Journey to Transylvania

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Brief overview

Jonathan Harker travels east to Count Dracula's castle as every local warning grows more frightening.

  1. Every local sign says turn backLandlord, wife, old lady and fellow passengers all cross themselves, give charms and beg him not to go.
  2. Harker travels on duty, not curiosityHe answers that his duty was imperative and that nothing could be allowed to interfere with business.
  3. The driver is no ordinary coachmanA grip of steel, teeth white as ivory, eyes red in the lamplight, and wolves that fall back at his command.
Executive Summary AI
  • Chapter I of Bram Stoker's Dracula opens with Jonathan Harker's journal at Bistritz, dated the third of May, after he left Munich at eight thirty five p m on first May and reached Vienna an hour late.
  • Before travelling he searched the books and maps of the British Museum library for Transylvania, and found the Count's district on the borders of Transylvania, Moldavia and Bukovina, among the Carpathians, one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe.
  • At the Golden Crone Hotel in Bistritz the landlord turns reticent about Count Dracula, he and his wife cross themselves and refuse to speak, and an old lady, begging Harker on her knees not to go on the eve of St. George's Day, hangs a crucifix round his neck.
  • On the coach to the Borgo Pass the passengers press gifts and charms against the evil eye on him, the driver says there is no carriage waiting, and a calèche with four coal-black horses and a tall driver with bright eyes that seemed red in the lamplight overtakes them and takes Harker on.
  • Through howling dogs, falling snow and a ring of wolves that the driver disperses with a sweep of his long arms, the journey ends with the horses pulled up in the courtyard of a vast ruined castle showing no ray of light.
Key Quote
“The impression I had was that we were leaving the west and entering the east”
— Jonathan Harker
Key Quote
“Memorandum. Get recipe for Mina.”
— Jonathan Harker
Key Quote
“It is the eve of St. George's Day.”
— The old lady

Transcript

0:00 CHAPTER I. dracula by bram stoker chapter i jonathan harker's journal third of may bistritz
0:32 left munich at eight thirty five p m on first may arriving at vienna early next morning should have arrived at six forty six but train was an hour late. Budapest seems a wonderful place from the glimpse
0:47 which I got of it from the train, and the little I could walk through the streets.
0:52 I feared to go very far from the station, as we had arrived late, and would start as near the
0:57 correct time as possible. The impression I had was that we were leaving the west and entering the east the most western of splendid bridges over the danube which is here of noble width and depth took us among the traditions of turkish rule Here I stopped for the night at the Hotel Royale. I had for dinner, or rather supper,
1:26 a chicken done up some way with red pepper, which was very good but thirsty.
1:33 Memorandum. Get recipe for Mina.
1:36 I asked the waiter, and he said it was called Paprika Händel, and that, as it was a national
1:43 dish, I should be able to get it anywhere along the Carpathians.
1:47 I found my smattering of German very useful here. Indeed, I don't know how I should be able to get
1:52 on without it. Having had some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the British Museum,
2:00 and made search among the books and maps in the library, regarding Transylvania.
2:05 It had struck me that some foreknowledge of the country could hardly fail to have some and made search among the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania.
2:10 It had struck me that some foreknowledge of the country could hardly fail to have some importance in dealing with a nobleman of that country.
2:14 I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the country,
2:18 just on the borders of three states, Transylvania, Moldavia, and Bukovina,
2:25 in the midst of the Carpathian Mountains,
2:27 one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe.
2:32 I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula,
2:39 as there are no maps of this country as yet to compare with our own Ordnance Survey maps,
2:43 but I found that Bistritz,
2:46 the post-town named by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known place.
2:52 I shall enter here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my travels
2:57 with Mina. In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct nationalities, Saxons in the south, and mixed
3:06 with them the Wallachs, who are the descendants of the Dacians, Magyars in the west, and Zechiles
3:14 in the east and north. I am going among the latter, who claim to be descended from Attila
3:20 and the Huns. This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered the country in the eleventh
3:26 century they found the Huns settled in it. I read that every known superstition in the world
3:33 is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative
3:39 whirlpool. If so, my stay may be very interesting. MemORANDUM I must ask the Count all about them.
3:48 I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams.
3:55 There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do
4:00 with it, or it may have been the paprika, for I had to drink up all the water in my carafe,
4:06 and was still thirsty. Towards morning I slept, and was wakened by the continuous
4:12 knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then.
4:18 I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour, which they said was
4:24 mamaliga, and eggplant stuffed with force-meat a very excellent dish which they call impletata memorandum get recipe for this also
4:36 i had to hurry breakfast for the train started a little before eight or rather it ought to have done so for after rushing to the station at seven thirty i had to sit in the carriage for more than an hour before we began to move it seems to me that the further east you go the more unpunctual are the trains what ought they to be in china seemed to dawdle through a country which was full of beauty of every kind. Sometimes we saw little
5:06 towns or castles on the top of steep hills, such as we see in old missiles. Sometimes we ran by
5:13 rivers and streams, which seemed from the wide stony margin on each side of them to be subject

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