As fledgling English lawyer Jonathan Harker treks into the Carpathian Mountains to complete a real estate transaction, frightened peasants warn him of horrible dangers that await him. Harker, terrified by eerie events along the way, finally meets his client, Count Dracula, a tall, gaunt old man with a surprisingly powerful handshake. Harker soon realizes that he is a prisoner in Dracula’s sumptuously furnished castle—a castle strangely devoid of mirrors. Later, as fifty coffin-size boxes are brought into the castle in preparation for Dracula’s departure, Harker knows that the count plans to do more in London than see the sights—and fears that the rational modern world is ill-equipped to recognize, let alone defeat, the count.
Bram Stoker (1847–1912) was born in Dublin, Ireland, and worked as a theater critic before becoming manager of London’s Lyceum Theatre. His novel Dracula, first published in 1897, codified the lore and legend of the vampire and is considered one of the most influential horror novels ever written.