Back
to the Victorian Era! At last!
And
with Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula to boot!
…sort
of.
§
Horror fiction takes many forms – from the long,
slow build-up to the short, sharp shock. Much of what I have commented on
previously has been of the longer, more detailed variety. And, while I will
continue to examine such works, I turn now to the pages of Weird Tales magazine for a dose or two (or more!) of the short,
sharp shock.
Continuing my studies into vampire horror fiction
and furthering my exploration of select stories in Weird Tales magazine, surprisingly, I find myself returning to Bram
Stoker!
§
Then
while the flood of moonlight still fell on the marble tomb, the storm gave
further evidence of renewing, as though it was returning on its track. Impelled
by some sort of fascination, I approached the sepulchre to see what it was, and
why such a thing stood alone in such a place. I walked around it, and read,
over the Doric door, in German:
COUNTESS
DOLINGEN OF GRATZ
IN
STYRIA
SOUGHT
AND FOUND DEATH
1801
On
the top of the tomb, seemingly driven through the solid marble—for the
structure was composed of a few vast blocks of stone—was a great iron spike or
stake. On going to the back I saw, graven in great Russian letters:
“The
dead travel fast.”
There
was something so weird and uncanny about the whole thing that it gave me a turn
and made me feel quite faint. I began to wish, for the first time, that I had
taken Johann's advice. Here a thought struck me, which came under almost
mysterious circumstances and with a terrible shock. This was Walpurgis Night!
[page
852-853]
§
This post considers “Dracula’s Guest” as it
appeared in Weird Tales magazine.
“Dracula’s Guest,” penned by Bram Stoker, appeared in the December 1927 issue
of Weird Tales and was included in Weird Tales as part of the magazine’s
“Weird Story Reprint” series. Usually the last piece in the issue, it
commemorated a horror tale previously published either in Weird Tales or some other work.
Weird Tales is an American pulp
magazine specializing in horror and fantasy. It was founded in late 1922 with
its first issue dated March 1923. Weird
Tales was known for printing works of H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard,
Seabury Quinn, Robert Bloch and many, many other notable genre authors. Plagued
throughout its existence with financial woes, Weird Tales ended its initial publication run in 1954. Subsequently
there were several attempts to restart the magazine. With the cessation of the
latest attempt to resurrect Weird Tales
with the Spring 2014 issue (No. 362), Weird
Tales went dormant until Fall 2019. Weird
Tales resumed publication in August 2019 with its most recent issue, No.
363.
§
Weird Tales was not this story’s
first appearance in print. In 1914, George Routledge and Sons, book publishers
in the U.K., released Dracula’s Guest and
Other Weird Stories.
This collection of nine short stories
comprises four tales published for the first time as well as five previously
published. Opening the collection, and following a very interesting and short
Preface, was “Dracula’s Guest,” being one of the four published here for the
first time. That almost wasn’t the case...
In Dracula’s
Guest and Other Weird Stories, Florence Stoker pulled these tales together
in honor of her late husband’s wishes.
In authoring the “Preface” to this collection,
she has this to say about the story making up this post’s focus:
To his original list
of stories in this book, I have added an hitherto unpublished episode from
“Dracula.” It was originally excised owing to the length of the book, and may
prove of interest to the many readers of what is considered my husband’s most
remarkable work.
So, according to Mrs. Stoker, “Dracula’s Guest”
was edited out of the original text of Dracula
only due to concerns regarding the length of the work. “Dracula’s Guest” was
intended to be part of 1897’s Dracula!
And, it is only due to Florence’s good intentions that it was included in the
1914 collection. Even though some modern scholars dispute Mrs. Stoker’s account
that “Dracula’s Guest” was excised from an early draft of Dracula, I tend to believe Mrs. Stoker. Considering that she was
actually present when Bram wrote the words.
If not for her actions, “Dracula’s Guest” might
never have seen the light of day!
Thank you, Mrs. Stoker.
§
In this brief tale (told as a straight
first-person narrative—unlike 1897’s Dracula
which was written in an epistolary style.), an Englishman is leaving Munich to
travel to some unknown location. The narrator, this Englishman, did not heed
the warnings of the local people concerning their folk beliefs—especially on
this Walpurgis Nacht.
Along the journey, the Englishman learns of a
long-deserted village. Against the fervent wishes of his coachman, he decides
to explore the village and sends the coach back to Munich. By nightfall, having
walked for some time and enduring a storm, the moonlight revealed to the
Englishman that he had wandered into a graveyard! Standing before him was a
great marble tomb to some forgotten Styrian Countess.
At last, he began to appreciate his plight. He
was in a depopulated town and all alone on Walpurgis
Nacht—the night when the dead walk! With this realization came hailstones
out of the storm. The Englishman ran to the tomb seeking shelter.
Surprisingly, he found he could open the tomb
door and happily entered the tomb’s sanctuary from the weather. A lightning
flash showed him a beautiful woman asleep on the bier. All at once, he was
ejected from the tomb into the storm by some unknown force. The figure of the
“sleeping” woman screamed in agony. The unknown power, then, dragged the
Englishman into unconsciousness.
Returning to consciousness, the Englishman
realized that a large wolf lay upon him. Suddenly, with the arrival of a troop
of cavalry, the wolf fled into the cemetery. The troopers were excited to find
the Englishman alive and unharmed.
On their return to Munich, it was revealed that
the Englishman owed his salvation to his aristocratic host—Dracula!
On a side-note, it is commonly thought that this
Englishman was Jonathan Harker on his way to meet Count Dracula.
§
The unusual publishing history of “Dracula’s
Guest,” coupled with select comments by Mrs. Stoker (in my opinion), added layers
of complexity and interest to this short story. And, by appearing in Weird Tales, “Dracula’s Guest” provided
a new glimpse into the 1897 classic, Dracula.
More importantly, it’s actual publication in Weird Tales exposed new audiences to this lesser known Stoker work.
I certainly speak for myself, but knowing all the
background to this story’s publishing history, I think I appreciate “Dracula’s
Guest” more as a stand-alone short as opposed to a chapter in a larger novel.
While not a significant work in the evolution and expansion of vampire
literature, it is nevertheless a fun read.
Good evening.
References
Print Resources
Digital Resources
Stoker,
Bram. “Dracula’s Guest.” Weird Tales.
Popular Fiction Publishing Company. December 1927. Volume 10 Number 06. [PDF
file]. <https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV10N06192712>
Online Resources
The
Fine Art Diner. “For the Dead Travel Fast: Dracula.” The Fine Art Diner. Blogger.com. 14 October 2011. Web. 12 November
2019. <http://thefineartdiner.blogspot.com/2011/10/for-dead-travel-fast-dracula.html>
Von
Ruff, Al. “Publication: Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories.” The Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
ISFDB. Web. 06 November 2019. <http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?296657>
Von
Ruff, Al. “Title: Dracula's Guest.” The
Internet Speculative Fiction Database. ISFDB. Web. 06 November 2019. <http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?83927>
Wikipedia
contributors. "Dracula’s Guest." Wikipedia,
The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 21 September 2019.
Web. 26 October 2019. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula%27s_Guest>
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