# Dracula (1897)

> Dracula by Bram Stoker, first published 26 May 1897: publication record, synopsis, a verified quotation and sources.

Canonical page: https://lineageofshadows.com/works/dracula/

Title: Dracula
Author: Bram Stoker
Form: Novel
First appearance: 26 May 1897 (timeline year 1897)
Themes: The undead, Confession and documents, Invasion, Sexuality and desire

## Publication record

- Volume, 26 May 1897: Archibald Constable & Co., Westminster. Published Wednesday 26 May 1897 (National Archives). Preceded on 18 May 1897 by a copyright performance of Stoker's own stage adaptation, 'Dracula; or the Un-Dead', at the Lyceum Theatre, London (registered 19 May, COPY 1/1108). [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

## Synopsis

The English solicitor Jonathan Harker travels to the Carpathians to close a property sale with Count Dracula and discovers that his host is never seen by day and does not let him leave the castle. The Count crosses to England by ship and comes ashore at Whitby, and soon Lucy Westenra begins to waste away while her suitors and her doctors fail to explain why. The Dutch scholar Van Helsing arrives with a theory nobody wants to believe. The story is told through diaries, letters, newspaper cuttings and a phonograph, gathered into a single file by Mina Harker against an enemy centuries older than any of them.

## Setting

Contemporary 1890s; the journal begins 3 May with no year given. Places: Transylvania; Whitby; London [6]

## From the text

> “Listen to them--the children of the night. What music they make!”

Chapter 2 (Jonathan Harker's Journal). Project Gutenberg ebook #345: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/345 (Gutenberg ebook 345 does not state its source edition; the file carries a 1897 copyright notice)

## Facts

- The Lyceum Theatre, where Stoker was manager, staged his adaptation before the public could buy the book. On Tuesday 18 May 1897 a copyright performance of his adaptation, 'Dracula; or the Un-Dead', was given there; the registration form is dated 19 May, and the novel was published a week later, on Wednesday 26 May. [1, 2]
- Stoker's working notes of 1890 first place the story in Styria, the setting of Le Fanu's Carmilla, with the solicitor who cannot speak German as the Harker figure. 'Dracula's Guest', published in 1914 by Florence Stoker, shares that Styrian vampiress; whether it was a deleted opening chapter is disputed. [7]
- The novel's table of contents names its narrators and their records, among them 'Mina Harker's Journal' and 'Dr. Seward's Phonograph Diary, spoken by Van Helsing': the book presents itself as a file of typed and recorded evidence. [6]

## Threads in

- Descends from: [Carmilla](https://lineageofshadows.com/works/carmilla/): The Victorian Web calls Carmilla 'one of the sources of Bram Stoker's Dracula', and Franck and Beresford report that Stoker's 1890 notes set the story in Styria, the setting of Carmilla (and that the Styrian vampiress of 'Dracula's Guest' owes much to it, per Auerbach). [8, 7, 9]
- A critic's reading links it to: [The Woman in White](https://lineageofshadows.com/works/the-woman-in-white/): The Wilkie Collins Society article calls The Woman in White, narrated by several people through letters, diaries and records, 'the main influence behind the style of Dracula', and pairs characters across the two books (Marian Halcombe and Mina Harker, Count Fosco and Count Dracula). [10]

## Notes on dates and attribution

- Publication date: Wikipedia says 'probably 26 May 1897' and the Vuohelainen introduction to The Beetle says 'June 1897'; The National Archives states Wednesday 26 May. The Archives' date is followed.
- Whether 'Dracula's Guest' is the deleted first chapter: Florence Stoker's 1914 preface said so; Franck and Beresford argue the notes show a Munich episode planned for the novel but that the story does not simply fit as a cut chapter.

## Sources

1. Copyright registration form for Bram Stoker's Dracula (COPY 1/1108). The National Archives (UK). https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-collection/stories/copyright-registration-form-for-bram-stokers-dracula/ (accessed 2026-10-09)
2. Dracula, or The Un-Dead: Bram and the Guvnor. Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. https://shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/blogs/dracula-or-un-dead-bram-and-guvnor-sbt (accessed 2026-10-09)
3. Bram Stoker (1847-1912), by Jarlath Killeen. Trinity Writers, Trinity College Dublin. https://www.tcd.ie/trinitywriters/writers/bram-stoker/ (accessed 2026-10-09)
4. Dracula (catalogue record noting original imprint: Westminster: Archibald Constable, 1897). National Library of Ireland. https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000508908 (accessed 2026-10-09)
5. Dracula first edition in the Rare Books Collection (published 1897 by Archibald Constable and Company). University at Buffalo Libraries. https://library.buffalo.edu/news/stories/2016/10/dracula.html (accessed 2026-10-09)
6. Dracula (ebook 345). Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/345/pg345.txt (accessed 2026-10-09)
7. Banishing the Beast: The Role of the Wolf in 'Dracula's Guest' and Its Omission from Dracula (Franck and Beresford), Supernatural Studies vol. 2 no. 2. Supernatural Studies. https://www.supernaturalstudies.com/previous-journal-issues/vol-2-issue-2/franck-and-beresford (accessed 2026-10-09)
8. Simon Cooke, 'An Introduction to the Life and Work of J. S. Le Fanu' (bibliography lists In a Glass Darkly, 3 vols, London: Bentley 1872). The Victorian Web. https://victorianweb.org/authors/lefanu/intro.html (accessed 2026-10-09)
9. Sheridan Le Fanu's haunting legacy (2014; born in Lower Dominick Street, Dublin, on August 28th; Carmilla greatly influenced Bram Stoker). The Irish Times. https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/sheridan-le-fanu-s-haunting-legacy-1.1907652 (accessed 2026-10-09)
10. The Possible Influence of Wilkie Collins on Bram Stoker, by Katherine Haynes (1997). The Wilkie Collins Society. https://wilkiecollinssociety.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/1997-04-Influence-of-WC-on-Bram-Stoker.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09)