Read the extract printed below. This is from the section of the novel where Harker describes his
journey into the east. Explore the significance of Eastern Europe as a setting in the novel. You
should consider:
• the presentation of this setting in the extract below and at different points in the novel
• the use of fantasy elements in constructing a fictional world.
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. I found my smattering of German very useful here; indeed, I don’t know how I
should be able to get on without it.
Having had some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the British Museum, and made
search among the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania; it had struck me that some
foreknowledge of the country could hardly fail to have some importance in dealing with a nobleman
of that country. I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the country, just on the
borders of three states, Transylvania, Moldavia and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian
mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe. I was not able to light on any
map or work giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as
yet to compare with our own Ordnance Survey maps; but I found that Bistritz, the post town named
by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known place. I shall enter here some of my notes, as they may
refresh my memory when I talk over my travels with Mina.
PLAN:
Eastern Europe:
Unknown - no maps, least known portions of Europe, isolated
1800s attitudes – museum, train punctuality, Turkish rule etc.
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