Jonathan Harker, a lawyer representing a London real estate agency, arrives at the Transylvanian castle of Count Dracula to sign a deal by which the count will purchase a London house. The details of his arrival by coach at the castle - which has only one door – his reception by the count, and his instructions regarding where Harker may go or not go within the castle establish a sense of dread regarding the outcome for Harker. By the time Harker recovers from a long and mysterious illness and returns home, the Count, already in London, has turned Lucy, a lovely ingenue, into a vampire. Dr Van Helsing, a German expert on vampires, has been hired by her family and saved her several times, ringing her room with garlic and crucifixes. When Dracula turns his blood-thirsty attention to Mina, Harker’s fiancée and friend of the unfortunate Lucy, the scene is set for a showdown between Dracula and the powers of goodness and traditional religion. Stoker’s classic story, first published in 1897, goes beyond sheer melodrama, eliciting sympathy for Dracula and his victims whilst recreating the religious atmosphere of the period. One of the great masterpieces of the horror genre, Dracula brilliantly conjures up a nightmare world of vampires in the context of Victorian sexuality and desire.

An interview with Bram Stoker about Dracula, This interview, conducted by Jane Stoddard, in the British Weekly, 1 July 1897.

Bram Stoker - Abraham (‘Bram’) Stoker was born in 1847 of Irish descent. Of his many published novels, Dracula has always been the most admired - and widely read – to this day. He died in 1912.

Anthony Lejeune - Award winning broadcaster, journalist and author, read classics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was an exhibitioner in Greek.

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By the same author or foreword writer:
The Napoleon of Notting Hill By G K Chesterton;  Anthony Lejeune (Foreword)
Messer Marco Polo By Donn Byrne;  Anthony Lejeune (Foreword)
The Hound of the Baskervilles By A Conan Doyle;  Anthony Lejeune (Introduction)
Cashel Byron's Profession By Bernard Shaw;  Anthony Lejeune (Foreword)
The Dupin Mysteries By Edgar Allan Poe;  Anthony Lejeune (Foreword)
Allan Quatermain By H Rider Haggard;  Anthony Lejeune (Foreword)
Gryll Grange By Thomas Love Peacock;  Anthony Lejeune (Foreword)