Chapter 1

The story opens as Jonathan Harker, a young English lawyer, has just arrived in
Budapest, Hungary. Harker is on his way to visit a client, Count Dracula, in the
mountains of Transylvania. When Harker asks the innkeepers in Budapest about
Dracula, they seem frightened and cross themselves. The innkeeper's wife urges
Harker not to leave that night because it is St. George's Eve and evil spirits will
walk after midnight, but Count Dracula has left detailed instructions for Harker's
journey and Harker says he must go. Although he thinks the innkeepers are just
superstitious, Harker feels a little uneasy and accepts a silver cross, which the
woman urges him to take.

As he boards the coach that is to take him to Borgo Pass, near Castle Dracula,
Harker hears the driver and some of the passengers talking about witches and
devils. Once the coach starts its journey, Harker relaxes and begins to enjoy the
beautiful countryside, which is mountainous and covered with dark forest. The
driver races along the rough, steep road in a great hurry, refusing to stop for any
reason. As the coach approaches Borgo Pass, where Harker is to meet Dracula's
coach, the other passengers become excited, as if they are anticipating something.
When they see no coach waiting there, they seem relieved and the driver tells
Harker he should continue on to Bukovina with them and come back the next day.

Suddenly a coach pulled by four black horses appears, terrifying the passengers.
The driver of the Count's coach chides the other driver for arriving early, then
helps Harker into his coach. The new driver's face is shaded by a large hat, but
Harker glimpses red eyes and unusually sharp teeth, and notes that the driver is
extremely strong. The coach races along the road and Harker notices that they
seem to be passing over the same ground again and again. As midnight approaches,
Harker hears the howling of wolves, and the horses begin trembling and snorting.
Harker sees a blue flame off in the woods and the driver stops and walks toward it,
returning a few minutes later. This is repeated several times: each time, the driver
disappears for a longer time. As Harker waits at the last stop, the moon suddenly
reveals a circle of wolves surrounding the carriage. The driver returns, waves his
hand at the wolves, and they back away to let him pass. At the top of a steep peak,
the carriage halts and a dark castle looms overhead.
Chapter 2

Harker leaves the carriage and waits at the castle's huge door. After a long pause,
the door opens and a tall old man welcomes him to the castle in strangely accented
English. The man, who says he is Count Dracula, shows Harker to his rooms,
where a fire and a large supper are waiting for him. Dracula doesn't join Harker's
meal, and while Harker eats, he notices some strange features of his host: Dracula
has very sharp teeth, extremely pale skin, and hair growing on his palms. As dawn
nears, Harker heads off to bed.

The next morning, he finds a note from the Count, saying that he will be occupied
until later that afternoon. Harker explores his rooms, which are richly furnished
and include a library full of books about England. Count Dracula arrives that
evening and says he'd like to talk with Harker and practice his English. The two
men talk for a long while, Dracula telling Harker he has the run of the castle,
except for those rooms which are locked. They discuss the history and customs of
Transylvania, and Dracula recounts a local superstition about buried treasure to
explain the driver's behavior with the blue flames of the night before. Dracula asks
Harker about the estate Harker's law firm has purchased for the Count in London.
Harker describes the estate, which is called Carfax, as a huge, but ancient and run-
down abbey, located in a secluded area with only a few houses (including a lunatic
asylum) nearby. The Count seems pleased with this, and leaves Harker to sort
through his papers.

While working, Harker comes across an atlas of England, with small circles drawn
at the site of Carfax Abbey, and also at Exeter, where Harker's law firm is located,
and at Whitby, a coastal town. After dinner, Dracula chats with Harker, keeping
him up all night again; they retire to bed at dawn. Harker is shaving the next
morning, when he is startled by Dracula's hand on his shoulder-the Count was not
reflected in the mirror-and cuts himself. When Dracula sees the blood, his eyes
burn with fury and he grabs at Harker's throat; when his hand brushes the crucifix,
he becomes calm again. Dracula warns Harker that cutting himself is dangerous in
this region, then angrily throws the mirror out the window. Harker does more
exploring that day, and discovers that the castle sits at the edge of a thousand-foot
cliff and that all the exterior doors are locked: he is a prisoner in the castle.

Chapter 3

Harker, panicked at first by his imprisonment, calms himself and decides to watch
the Count closely to learn his motives. He discovers that the Count has no servants
and concludes that the coach driver must have been Dracula himself. That night,
Dracula regales Harker with stories of his warlike ancestors' exploits, and claims
Attila the Hun as one of his ancestors. The next evening, Dracula asks Harker
some pointed questions about legal procedure in England, then insists that Harker
write a letter to his employer stating that he will be staying in Transylvania for a
month. Harker is alarmed by this request, but sees no choice but to obey. Dracula
warns him not to fall asleep anywhere in the castle except his room. Later, as
Harker is looking out his window, he is shocked to see the Count climb out of a
window in the castle wall, then, incredibly, climb face down across the wall.

The next night Harker ignores the Count's warning and falls asleep in a distant
room of the castle. When he wakes he sees three women standing over him and is
filled with strange desire for them. The women discuss him for a moment, then one
of them bends over and Harker feels her teeth at his throat. Suddenly the Count is
there, furiously grabbing the woman and pulling her away. He yells at them that
Harker is his, and that they will be able to "kiss" him after the Count is done with
him. As he leaves, Dracula throws a sack to the women; from inside comes a
muffled child's voice. The women disappear with the sack, fading into the walls as
Harker loses consciousness.

Chapter 4

Harker awakes, unsure if he's dreamed the previous night's events. Later, as he's
exploring the castle, he finds the door to the distant room wedged tightly closed.
Dracula asks Harker to write three letters, indicating his return to England, dated
June 12, June 19, and June 29 (it is now May 19). Harker cannot refuse. A week
later, Harker has a chance to escape, as a band of gypsies, or Szgany, camp near
the castle. He passes some letters and a coin to one of the Szgany, who seems to
understand. The Szgany give the letters to Dracula, who angrily burns one written
in shorthand, to his fiance Mina. Weeks pass, and Harker begins to despair. On
the 24th of June, Harker sees Dracula leaving the castle dressed in Harker's clothes.
He concludes that Dracula wants people in the nearby village to think that Harker
is mailing his own letters. That night, Harker sees a woman from his window
crying desperately that he should give back her child. At a command from Dracula,
dozens of wolves appear and tear the woman to pieces. Knowing that his time is
short, Harker decides he must act; he decides to follow the Count's example and try
to scale the castle wall. He succeeds in making his way to Dracula's window and
climbs inside. The room is empty and Harker discovers a staircase leading down
into a dark basement. In the basement are close to fifty large wooden boxes, filled
with newly-dug earth. In one of the boxes, Harker finds Dracula resting in a
strange state of suspended animation: the Count's eyes are open but there is no sign
of life. Harker uneasily returns to his room.

June 29th, the date of Harker's last letter, arrives. Dracula awakens Harker and tells
him he is leaving for England and that a carriage will come for Harker the next day
to take him to Borgo Pass. Harker decides to call Dracula's bluff and insists on
leaving that night. Reluctantly, the Count agrees to let Harker walk to the village.
As he's opening the great door of the castle, the howling of ravenous wolves grows
steadily louder, and Harker agrees to stay the night. The next morning, Harker
again scales the wall and descends into the basement. He searches the Count's body
for the key to the castle door. Unable to find the key, Harker notices that the Count
appears much younger: his hair is no longer white, and his face looks bloated with
blood. Harker tries to behead the sleeping Dracula with a shovel, but Dracula's
head turns suddenly, startling Harker and making the blow miss. The Count's
Szgany servants arrive to take the boxes away and Harker flees. He decides to
make a desperate attempt to climb all the way down the castle wall and get to the
village.

Chapter 5

The action now moves to England, where Mina Murray, Harker's young fiance,
and her friend, Lucy Westenra, exchange a series of letters. In her first letter,
Mina mentions that she's learning shorthand to help with Jonathan's work, and
gently chides Lucy for not writing her. Lucy responds, describing a young doctor
she has just met, Dr. John Seward, who is in charge of a lunatic asylum. Lucy also
mentions that she has fallen in love with a man named Arthur. The next letter is
also from Lucy, as she describes the three wedding proposals she just received.
The first was from Dr. Seward, and she gently refused him. The second was from
an American from Texas named Quincey Morris, whom she also refused.
Saddened by having to deny these men, both of whom she likes very much, she at
last is proposed to by Arthur Holmwood, the man she loves.

After this letter, the narrative is briefly taken up by Dr. Seward's diary. Seward is
chagrined by Lucy's rejection, but most of the diary entry is taken up with work
notes. He describes an unusual patient, Mr. Renfield, who seems obsessed with
some unknown idea. Morris invites Holmwood and Seward, who are all war
buddies, out to drink and celebrate Holmwood's engagement.

Chapter 6

At the end of July, Lucy and Mina travel to the coastal town of Whitby for a
holiday. Mina is thrilled with the quaint old town, which features a ruined abbey
and a graveyard with a view of the ocean which Mina and Lucy adopt as their
favorite spot. They meet Mr. Swales, a talkative old man with a supply of opinions
and tales about the area. He amuses the women with a long speech on the lies
told by tombstones.
Back in London, Dr. Seward continues to observe his patient, Renfield. Seward
watches the madman carefully snare dozens of flies; when the doctor complains,
Renfield uses the flies to catch spiders; next the spiders are used to catch
swallows. Finally Renfield asks Dr. Seward for a kitten, but the doctor refuses,
enraging Renfield. The next day Seward finds the swallows gone, except for a few
feathers. When Renfield vomits up a bunch of feathers, Seward concludes that
the madman has eaten the birds, and that his madness is a compulsion to
consume as many animal lives as possible.

By now Mina has received the first of the letters Harker wrote under Dracula's
orders, and she is worried by the uncharacteristic shortness of the note. Lucy has
developed a habit of sleepwalking, which also worries Mina, but she assumed it's
just Lucy's anxiousness to get married. On August 6th, a storm is seen
approaching the coast and Mina goes out for a walk. She meets old Mr. Swales,
who seems frightened and warns her that something strange and deadly is
coming in the approaching storm. A coast guard passes by, and points out to her a
strange ship, which he says is Russian, drifting without direction and ignoring the
incoming storm.