by Bram Stoker
1. the Yang-tze-kiang: At 6300 kilometres long, the Yangtze Kiang is the longest river in Asia, flowing eastward from Tibet into the East China Sea near Shanghai.
2. which who might read: Cf. Habakkuk 2:2: ‘Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it.’ The inference is that the depression is so obvious that anyone on two legs would notice it.
3. the universal darkness… with pain: Cf. Revelations 16:10: ‘And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain.’
CHAPTER XIII
MESMER’S CHEST
1. decadence: Decadence was a highly emotive term in the later nineteenth century, referring to the supposed decline of society due to moral weakness.
2. ancient Egyptian relics… mummies: Stoker’s interest in Egyptian history manifested itself in his 1903 novel, The Jewel of Seven Stars. His enthusiasm for Egyptology may have been fired during his Dublin years by his frequent visits to 1 Merrion Square, the home of Sir William and Lady Jane Wilde, the parents of Oscar Wilde. Sir William Wilde had been a keen archaeologist and explorer in Egypt, and was a tireless campaigner for the transportation of Cleopatra’s Needle to England (finally accomplished in 1878, two years after his death).
CHAPTER XIV
THE CHEST OPENED
1. Bes… destructive power of nature: Bes was a dwarf god protecting against evil with his tambourine or harp, swords, maces and knives. He is usually depicted with somewhat leonine facial features, tongue sticking out, standing on bow legs, his genitals prominent, and often with a lion’s tail. He was also thought to be able to strangle bears, lions, antelopes and snakes with his bare hands and as such was held to be able to protect people from dangerous creatures of all types. In this role, despite being thought of as a demon, he was seen as a supporter of the god Ra, helping to defeat his serpent enemies.
2. Sir Thomas Brown’s Popular Errors: Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or Enquiries into Very Many Received Tenents, and Commonly Presumed Truths (1646). The quotation Stoker gives here is actually taken from Book 2, Chapter 3: ‘A Rejection of sundry opinions and Relations thereof, Naturall, Medicall, Historicall, Magicall’.
3. Mr Graves: John Greaves, Pyramidographia: or a Description of the Pyramids in Ægypt (1646).
CHAPTER XV
OOLANGA’S HALLUCINATIONS
1. the Gold Coast: The Gold Coast was a British colony, formed in 1821, on the west coast of Africa. It became the independent nation of Ghana in 1957.
CHAPTER XVI
BATTLE RENEWED
1. an æolian harp: A stringed instrument adapted to produce musical sounds on exposure to a current of air. So named from Aeolus, the Greek god of the winds.
2. Siam: Siam first changed its name to Thailand in 1939, and definitively in 1949 after reverting to the old name post Second World War.
CHAPTER XVII
THE SHUTTING OF THE DOOR
1. the sextant: An astronomical instrument resembling a quadrant used for measuring angular distances between objects, and specially for observing altitudes of celestial bodies, thus calculating latitude at sea.
CHAPTER XX
THE MYSTERY OF ‘THE GROVE’
1. Benin or Ashantee: Benin and Ashanti (now an administrative region in central Ghana) lie on the west coast of Africa. Both states participated in the African slave trade with Europe until its abolition in the nineteenth century. Ashanti’s wealth was based primarily on the region’s substantial deposits of gold, whilst Benin is notable for being the country from which Voodoo worship originates.
CHAPTER XXI
EXIT OOLANGA
1. amour propre: Self-esteem (French).
2. Smith and Wesson: Founded in 1856, the gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson (first established by Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson) is now America’s largest producer of handguns.
3. the Cimmerian darkness: The Cimmerii were a nomadic people, the earliest known inhabitants of the Crimea, who overran Asia Minor in the 7th century bc. As described in Homer’s Odyssey (Book XI, 12–19) they were fabled to live in a state of perpetual darkness.
4. veined bloodstone: A precious stone spotted or streaked with red, bloodstone was supposed to have the power of staunching bleeding when worn as an amulet.
CHAPTER XXIII
AN ENEMY IN THE DARK
1. en rapport: In sympathy (French).
2. nem. con.: OED: ‘Especially with reference to a motion carried: (with) no one speaking (or voting) against.’ From nemine contradicente (Latin).
3. tiled: OED: ‘Tile: Freemasonry. (Usually ‘tyle’). To protect (a lodge or meeting) from interruption and intrusion, so as to keep its proceedings secret, by placing a ‘tiler’ before the door. Also transf. to bind (a person) to secrecy; to keep (any meeting or proceeding) strictly secret.’
CHAPTER XXIV
METABOLISM
1. dragons… in their slime: Cf. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809– 92), In Memoriam (1854):
No more? A monster then, a dream,
A discord. Dragons of the prime,
That tare each other in their slime,
Were mellow music matched with him. (56: 21–4)
2. In fine: To conclude or sum up, finally (Latin).
3. Derbyshire… Kentucky: Some of the deepest caves in Britain are found in Derbyshire, including the Blue John Cavern (worked by the Romans for its deposits of the mineral Blue John); Treak Cliff Cavern (containing some of Britain’s finest stalactite and stalagmite formations); and Speedwell Cavern (mined for its rich lead deposits). The Mammoth caves in Kentucky remain the longest recorded cave system in the world with more than 360 miles explored and mapped. It is the second-oldest tourist attraction in America after Niagara Falls, with guided tours offered since 1816.
4. Philosopher’s Stone… transmutation of metal: The Philosopher’s Stone was reputed by alchemists to possess the property of changing other metals into gold or silver. Commonly identified with the elixir vitae (elixir of life), it was also supposed to heal wounds and prolong life indefinitely. Although scientifically discredited by the twentieth century, the metaphors and imagery of the Philosopher’s Stone persisted. In 1901, atomic scientists Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) and Frederick Soddy (1877– 1956) discovered that radioactivity was a sign of fundamental changes (transmutation) within elements. Soddy, an alchemical hobbyist, quickly made the connection between this and the ancient search for the Philosopher’s Stone, and the process was subsequently named the ‘Disintegration Theory of Atomic Transmutation’. Radium itself had been discovered in 1898 by the Polish-born French chemist Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867– 1934) and her husband, Pierre (1859–1906). Awarding their Nobel Prize in 1911, Dr E. W. Dahlgren declared: ‘The theory of transmutation, dear to the alchemists, has been unexpectedly restored to life, this time in an exact form, deprived of any mystical element; and the Philosopher’s Stone with the property of inducing such transmutations is no longer a mysterious, elusive elixir but is something which modern science calls energy.’
5. ‘the substance… things unseen’: Cf. Hebrews 11:1: ‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’
CHAPTER XXV
THE DECREE
1. genii and species: In 1735 Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus (1707–78) published the first volume of his Systema Naturae, in which he established his scheme for classifying all known and yet to be discovered organisms according to the greater or lesser extent of their structural similarity. Linnaeus used a binomial nomenclature system, according all organisms two Latin name categories, genus and species. In total, Linnaeus’ classification hierarchy consisted of five levels: kingdom, class, order, genus and species. The Linnaean system of classification was widely accepted by the early nineteenth century and remains the basic framework for all categorization in the biological sciences, although the modern taxonomical system now includes seven levels
of classification: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.
2. it is cold-blooded: Arabella herself is referred to as being cold-blooded in Chapters XV and XIX.
CHAPTER XXVI
A LIVING BARBETTE
1. Barbette: A platform or mound of earth within a fortification, on which the guns are raised so that they can be fired over the parapet.
2. a cocotte: A prostitute (French).
CHAPTER XXVII
GREEN LIGHT
1. the Isle of Man: Stoker’s links with the Isle of Man (of which Douglas is the capital) were through his friendship with Thomas Henry Hall Caine (1853–1931), to whom Dracula was dedicated. Of Manx parentage, Caine was the highly successful author of such melodramatic novels as The Deemster (1887), The Bondman (1890) and The Manxman (1894).
2. the Ribble: The River Ribble, which runs through North Yorkshire and Lancashire in the north of England, marked the ancient northern boundary of Mercia, and at the time of the Domesday Book (1086) was the northern boundary of Cheshire.
CHAPTER XXVIII
AT CLOSE QUARTERS
1. kick the beam: To die; to be of inferior consequence.
2. seen her close and lived to tell the tale: Links can be made here between Lady Arabella’s avatar as serpent and the Greek mythological character of Medusa, a monstrous female with hair of living venomous serpents whose glance would turn all living creatures to stone.
CHAPTER XXIX
IN THE ENEMY’S HOUSE
1. a snake… stealth and cunning: Compare this with Van Helsing’s assessment of Dracula: ‘he too have child-brain, and it is of the child to do what he have done’ (Dracula, p. 363). Contemporary criminal anthropologists such as Cesare Lombroso (1836–1909) and Max Nordau (1849–1923) postulated the existence of a criminal type, physically distinguishable and ‘lower’ in the evolutionary scale than the ‘normal’ human being. In her animality, Lady Arabella thus reveals her abnormality and criminality.
2. I remember… the Khan of Bokhara: Stoker may possibly be referring here to the assassination of Alexander II of Russia (1818–81) who, whilst driving through the streets of St Petersburg near the Winter Palace on 13 March 1881, was mortally wounded in a grenade ambush organized by a gang of revolutionaries.
CHAPTER XXX
A RACE FOR LIFE
1. The slop-basin: Properly equipped, a tea-tray would comprise a teapot and stand, teacups and saucers, sugar bowl, milk jug and slop basin for discarding used tea leaves.
2. Queenstown: It is possible that Stoker here is referring to the sea port in County Cork (Ireland) now called Cobh. The locality was renamed Queenstown in 1849 to commemorate a visit by Queen Victoria. One of the major transatlantic Irish ports, Cobh was the last port of call for the RMS Titanic on 11 April 1911 before she set out across the Atlantic.
CHAPTER XXXI
BACK TO DOOM
1. semaphore signals: The semaphore system is an alphabet-signalling method based on the waving of hand-held flags in a particular pattern. The flags are usually square, red and yellow, with the red portion in the upper hoist.
2. a via dolorosa: Literally ‘way of grief’ (Latin), the Via Dolorosa is the route in Jerusalem that Christ is believed to have followed from Pilate’s judgement hall to Calvary.
CHAPTER XXXII
A STARTLING PROPOSITION
1. dernier cri: Latest fashion (literally ‘last cry’) (French).
CHAPTER XXXIII
WAR À L’OUTRANCE
1. Stafford owes much… time to time: A fine white potter’s clay, also called kaolin, china clay was employed in the manufacture of china or porcelain. North Staffordshire became the centre of ceramic and porcelain production in Britain in the seventeenth century, due to the ready availability of clay, salt, lead and coal.
2. the labours of Hercules: To atone for the killing of his wife and children, executed in a fit of madness, Hercules was sentenced by the Oracle to serve King Eurystheus. As part of his sentence, Hercules had to perform twelve seemingly impossible Labours. These were: procuring the skin of the Nemean Lion; killing the Lernean Hydra; acquiring the Hind of Ceryneia and the Erymanthian Boar; cleaning the Augean Stables in a single day; driving away the Stymphalian Birds; killing the Cretan Bull; acquiring the Man-Eating Horses of Diomedes, Hippolyte’s Girdle, the Cattle of Geryon and the Apples of the Hesperides; and finally, journeying into the Underworld to kidnap the beast Cerberus.
3. there is nothing new under the sun: Cf. Ecclesiastes 1:9: ‘The thing that hath been, is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.’
4. the Chartist trouble: Chartism was a movement for social and political reform in Britain during the mid nineteenth century which took its name from the People’s Charter of 1838, a document calling for radical reform of the electoral and enfranchisement system.
5. greater explosion at Hell Gate in New York: Hell Gate is a narrow tidal channel in the East River in New York City separating Ward’s Island and Astoria, Queens. Navigation in the strait was extremely hazardous due to the submerged rocks and converging tide-currents and by the late nineteenth century hundreds of ships had sunk in the channel. In 1876 the US Army Corps of Engineers blasted the dangerous rocks – one explosion of which was the largest man-made blast in history up until the Atomic Age.
CHAPTER XXXIV
APPREHENSION
1. a Kelvin sounding apparatus: The Kelvin Sounding Machine, invented by the mathematical physicist and engineer William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (1824–1907), was a device used to calculate water depth in fathoms. A lead weight was lowered on a wire and the depth recorded by the apparatus.
2. parti: A person considered in terms of eligibility for marriage on grounds of wealth, social status, etc. (French).
CHAPTER XXXVII
ERITIS SICUT DEUS
1. Eritis Sicut Deus: ‘Ye shall be as gods’ (Latin), from Genesis 3:5: ‘For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’
CHAPTER XXXVIII
ON THE TURRET ROOF
1. That way madness lies: Cf. William Shakespeare, King Lear (III, iv, 21): ‘O, that way madness lies. Let me shun that.’
2. When the Master of Evil… kingdoms of the earth: Cf. Luke 4:5: ‘And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.’
3. a magnesium light: When burnt, magnesium produces a blinding white light, commonly used in signalling, in pyrotechnics or in photography where a strong illumination is required.
CHAPTER XXXIX
THE BREAKING OF THE STORM
1. a rope-walk or a bundle of hop-poles: A rope-walk is a stretch of ground appropriated to the making of ropes. A hop-pole is a tall pole on which hop-plants are trained.
2. spring guns: A gun rigged to fire when a string or other triggering device is tripped by contact with the string of sufficient force to ‘spring’ the trigger.
3. inter alia: ‘Amongst other things’ (Latin).
Table of Contents
Cover
About the Author
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Acknowledgements
Chronology
Introduction
NOTES
Further Reading
A Note on the Texts
DRACULA’S GUEST AND OTHER WEIRD STORIES
DRACULA’S GUEST AND OTHER WEIRD STORIES
DRACULA’S GUEST
THE JUDGE’S HOUSE
THE SQUAW
THE SECRET OF THE GROWING GOLD
A GIPSY PROPHECY
THE COMING OF ABEL BEHENNA
THE BURIAL OF THE RATS
A DREAM OF RED HANDS
CROOKEN SANDS
THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM
CHAPTER I: ADAM SALTON ARRIVES
CHAPTER II: THE
CASWALLS OF CASTRA REGIS
CHAPTER III: DIANA’S GROVE
CHAPTER IV: THE LADY ARABELLA MARCH
CHAPTER V: HOME-COMING
CHAPTER VI: THE WHITE WORM
CHAPTER VII: HAWK AND PIGEON
CHAPTER VIII: OOLANGA
CHAPTER IX: SURVIVALS
CHAPTER X: SMELLING DEATH
CHAPTER XI: THE FIRST ENCOUNTER
CHAPTER XII: THE KITE
CHAPTER XIII: MESMER’S CHEST
CHAPTER XIV: THE CHEST OPENED
CHAPTER XV: OOLANGA’S HALLUCINATIONS
CHAPTER XVI: BATTLE RENEWED
CHAPTER XVII: THE SHUTTING OF THE DOOR
CHAPTER XVIII: ON THE TRACK
CHAPTER XIX: A VISIT OF SYMPATHY
CHAPTER XX: THE MYSTERY OF ‘THE GROVE’
CHAPTER XXI: EXIT OOLANGA
CHAPTER XXII: SELF-JUSTIFICATION
CHAPTER XXIII: AN ENEMY IN THE DARK
CHAPTER XXIV: METABOLISM
CHAPTER XXV: THE DECREE