Re: Bram Stoker - Dracula
Posted: 15 Aug 2016, 17:21
I can't believe in something just because it says so somewhere on the internet. Anybody these days can get a webpage and just put any sort of "information" on it without anybody verifying the accuracy of the information.
Dracula's Guest is something of a mystery. "It was cut by the publisher because the book was too long" is one solution, but I don't think it is a very good solution.
I think it belongs to a much earlier draft of Dracula, before Stoker had completely worked out where he was going with the book.
In Dracula's guest we have repeats of things that happen in the book as published. Compare it to chapter 1 of Dracula as published. In both we have an innkeeper worried about the English narrator's safety going off in a coach. There is a whole "what day is it" exchange, in Dracula's Guest it is Walpurgisnacht, in Dracula it is the eve of St. George's day. Dracula's Guest says that on Walpurgisnacht "all evil things of air and earth and water hold revel", while chapter 1 of Dracula says that on St. George's day "all the evil things of the world will have full sway". Both have the coachman looking at his watch. In both the horses of the coach panic when they encounter a stranger. People cross themselves in both. In both the coachman implores the English traveler not to continue his journey. In both the English traveler has a conversation with man who is hard to understand because he keeps mixing up two languages. In both the coachman tells the traveler not to walk because of the danger of wolves. In both, snow falls. Both contain the sentence "The Dead Travel Fast". In both the innkeeper has received a letter from Dracula.
Also note that the traveler in Dracula's Guest says he does not speak the coachman's language--German, while Jonathan Harker in chapter one of Dracula says "I found my smattering of German very useful here, indeed, I don't know how I should be able to get on without it." In Dracula's Guest the narrator cannot communicate with German speakers, but in Chapter 1 of Dracula Harker can speak with German speakers, and only has problems when talking to people who do not speak German.
I don't have the time right now to compare "Dracula's Guest" with the rest of Dracula in any detail, but I notice that in Dracula's Guest the narrator is saved from being the victim of a female vampire, similar to how Harker is saved from three female vampires. And the snowstorm in Dracula's Guest makes me think of the snowstorm towards the end of Dracula, faced by Van Helsing and Mina.
In Dracula as published, Harker doesn't encounter anything supernatural before he gets to Bistritz. If he had encountered the supernatural in Munich, this would have put him on his guard, and he wouldn't have been so naïve when he encountered Dracula. Also, "Dracula's Guest" begs the question of how Dracula gets to Munich, and so on. Much of the plot of Dracula is about him trying to get to London, if he can easily get to Munich, as in Dracula's Guest, would London be so difficult?
I did read somewhere (don't have time right now to track it down) that earlier drafts of Dracula involved Munich more, and used Styria instead of Transylvania as the vampire's home. I really think then that "Dracula's Guest" was part of an earlier draft, that Stoker later took out for some of the reasons I put in the preceding paragraph, but then shifted some of the individual details into chapter 1 as we have it, or other places of the novel.
Dracula's Guest is something of a mystery. "It was cut by the publisher because the book was too long" is one solution, but I don't think it is a very good solution.
I think it belongs to a much earlier draft of Dracula, before Stoker had completely worked out where he was going with the book.
In Dracula's guest we have repeats of things that happen in the book as published. Compare it to chapter 1 of Dracula as published. In both we have an innkeeper worried about the English narrator's safety going off in a coach. There is a whole "what day is it" exchange, in Dracula's Guest it is Walpurgisnacht, in Dracula it is the eve of St. George's day. Dracula's Guest says that on Walpurgisnacht "all evil things of air and earth and water hold revel", while chapter 1 of Dracula says that on St. George's day "all the evil things of the world will have full sway". Both have the coachman looking at his watch. In both the horses of the coach panic when they encounter a stranger. People cross themselves in both. In both the coachman implores the English traveler not to continue his journey. In both the English traveler has a conversation with man who is hard to understand because he keeps mixing up two languages. In both the coachman tells the traveler not to walk because of the danger of wolves. In both, snow falls. Both contain the sentence "The Dead Travel Fast". In both the innkeeper has received a letter from Dracula.
Also note that the traveler in Dracula's Guest says he does not speak the coachman's language--German, while Jonathan Harker in chapter one of Dracula says "I found my smattering of German very useful here, indeed, I don't know how I should be able to get on without it." In Dracula's Guest the narrator cannot communicate with German speakers, but in Chapter 1 of Dracula Harker can speak with German speakers, and only has problems when talking to people who do not speak German.
I don't have the time right now to compare "Dracula's Guest" with the rest of Dracula in any detail, but I notice that in Dracula's Guest the narrator is saved from being the victim of a female vampire, similar to how Harker is saved from three female vampires. And the snowstorm in Dracula's Guest makes me think of the snowstorm towards the end of Dracula, faced by Van Helsing and Mina.
In Dracula as published, Harker doesn't encounter anything supernatural before he gets to Bistritz. If he had encountered the supernatural in Munich, this would have put him on his guard, and he wouldn't have been so naïve when he encountered Dracula. Also, "Dracula's Guest" begs the question of how Dracula gets to Munich, and so on. Much of the plot of Dracula is about him trying to get to London, if he can easily get to Munich, as in Dracula's Guest, would London be so difficult?
I did read somewhere (don't have time right now to track it down) that earlier drafts of Dracula involved Munich more, and used Styria instead of Transylvania as the vampire's home. I really think then that "Dracula's Guest" was part of an earlier draft, that Stoker later took out for some of the reasons I put in the preceding paragraph, but then shifted some of the individual details into chapter 1 as we have it, or other places of the novel.