April 27, 2011

Dracula by Bram Stoker(4)


take some of the gold with me, lest I want it later. I may
find a way from this dreadful place.
And then away for home! Away to the quickest and
nearest train! Away from the cursed spot, from this cursed
land, where the devil and his children still walk with
earthly feet!
At least God’s mercy is better than that of those
monsters, and the precipice is steep and high. At its foot a
man may sleep, as a man. Goodbye, all. Mina!
Dracula
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Chapter 5
LETTER FROM MISS MINA MURRAY TO MISS
LUCY WESTENRA
9 May.
My dearest Lucy,
Forgive my long delay in writing, but I have been
simply overwhelmed with work. The life of an assistant
schoolmistress is sometimes trying. I am longing to be
with you, and by the sea, where we can talk together
freely and build our castles in the air. I have been working
very hard lately, because I want to keep up with
Jonathan’s studies, and I have been practicing shorthand
very assiduously. When we are married I shall be able to
be useful to Jonathan, and if I can stenograph well enough
I can take down what he wants to say in this way and
write it out for him on the typewriter, at which also I am
practicing very hard.

Dracula by Bram Stoker(3)


somewhat amused, for it is wonderful how small a matter
will interest and amuse a man when he is a prisoner. But
my very feelings changed to repulsion and terror when I
saw the whole man slowly emerge from the window and
begin to crawl down the castle wall over the dreadful
abyss, face down with his cloak spreading out around him
like great wings. At first I could not believe my eyes. I
thought it was some trick of the moonlight, some weird
effect of shadow, but I kept looking, and it could be no
delusion. I saw the fingers and toes grasp the corners of the
stones, worn clear of the mortar by the stress of years, and
by thus using every projection and inequality move
downwards with considerable speed, just as a lizard moves
along a wall.
What manner of man is this, or what manner of
creature, is it in the semblance of man? I feel the dread of
this horrible place overpowering me. I am in fear, in awful
fear, and there is no escape for me. I am encompassed
about with terrors that I dare not think of.

Dracula by Bram Stoker(2)


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seemingly without a window of any sort. Passing through
this, he opened another door, and motioned me to enter.
It was a welcome sight. For here was a great bedroom well
lighted and warmed with another log fire, also added to
but lately, for the top logs were fresh, which sent a hollow
roar up the wide chimney. The Count himself left my
luggage inside and withdrew, saying, before he closed the
door.
‘You will need, after your journey, to refresh yourself
by making your toilet. I trust you will find all you wish.
When you are ready, come into the other room, where
you will find your supper prepared.’
The light and warmth and the Count’s courteous
welcome seemed to have dissipated all my doubts and
fears. Having then reached my normal state, I discovered
that I was half famished with hunger. So making a hasty
toilet, I went into the other room.
I found supper already laid out. My host, who stood on
one side of the great fireplace, leaning against the
stonework, made a graceful wave of his hand to the table,
and said,
‘I pray you, be seated and sup how you please. You
will I trust, excuse me that I do not join you, but I have
dined already, and I do not sup.’
Dracula
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Dracula by Bram Stoker(1)


Chapter 1
Jonathan Harker’s Journal
3 May. Bistritz.—Left Munich at 8:35 P.M., on 1st
May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have
arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late. Buda-Pesth
seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse which I got of
it from the train and the little I could walk through the
streets. I feared to go very far from the station, as we had
arrived late and would start as near the correct time as
possible.
The impression I had was that we were leaving the
West and entering the East; the most western of splendid
bridges over the Danube, which is here of noble width
and depth, took us among the traditions of Turkish rule.
We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall to
Klausenburgh. Here I stopped for the night at the Hotel
Royale. I had for dinner, or rather supper, a chicken done
up some way with red pepper, which was very good but
thirsty. (Mem. get recipe for Mina.) I asked the waiter,
and he said it was called ‘paprika hendl,’ and that, as it was
a national dish, I should be able to get it anywhere along
the Carpathians.
Dracula
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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn