Dracula- Bram Stoker.

But this is soon forgotten as he journeys, he is absorbed in the beautiful landscape, oblivious to everything else. As they near the Borgo pass he finds that the other people on the coach's behaviour becomes more and more erratic as if they are nervous and frightened, for him as well as themselves.

When they arrive to the pass, there is no-one there and they try to persuade him to leave with them but the Counts horseman arrives with the carriage . His appearance is very disturbing. He has eyes 'which seemed red in the lamplight' and red lips with 'sharp looking teeth. He interrogates the coach driver who seems to be very scared of him. There is also something very strange in his behaviour but we cant put our finger on it. Jonathan boards the carriage and begins the final lap of his journey towards the castle. The way in which the journey is described builds up a sense of apprehension, as if this is the beginning of an undescribable horror. The closer to the castle Jonathan gets, the worse it is. He sees a blue flame which the driver runs off into the darkness to inspect. While he is away the wolves of the forest form a ring around him but when the driver comes back, he merely sweeps them away with a gesture of his arm. As they travel on, he falls asleep.

This first chapter is the setting of the whole book. Bram Stoker creates a sense of fear, chilling and cold. The reader knows that all is not right but doesn't know what is wrong. Many bizarre things are happening but we don't know what they all add up to.

He finally arrives at the castle. The driver drives away and leaves him at the door. While waiting for someone to come to the door, we see Jonathan's doubts. He asks himself many questions to which he doesn't have the answers. Eventually he gives up and decides that there is nothing else to do except wait until the morning and try to get back to Bistritz. But there is no need, as he decides this the door opens and there stands the Count.

Our first impressions of the Count which Jonathan gathers over the evening are very unsettling. Little things which on their own say nothing but when put together make up a very strange man: he has hairs on the palms of his hands, he has red lips, red eyes and those protrubent teeth in fact, he reminds Jonathan so much of the driver that he wonder if they are not the same person. The evening passes smoothly yet Jonathan is not at ease. And at the end of the day he writes 'I doubt; I fear. I think strange things which I dare not confess to my own soul. God keep me, if only for the sake of those dear to me....'

As the days pass, Jonathan notices little peculiarities; the count has no mirrors at all in the castle, he is never seen by daylight, only at night. One event in particular makes Jonathan very suspicious. He was shaving in front of his shaving mirror, the only mirror in the house when he felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned around, surprised because the mirror showed the whole room , and the count was standing there, he checked again yet there was no reflection of the count in the mirror. When the Count saw the blood from the cut which Jonathan procured when he turned so quickly 'his eyes blazed with some sort of demonic fury and he suddenly made a grab at my throat'. The count withdrew, flinging the mirror out of the window. Jonathan also makes another discovery, all the doors are locked nad boltted. There is no way to escape the castle save for the windows. He is a prisoner. There is not another living soul in the castle, no servants- the count does it all in secret, it was him who drove the carriage from the Borgo pass to Castle Dracula.

Suddenly everything starts to fall into place. The people at

Julianna Barnaby

English non fiction coursework

Book review

Pupil number 0507

Centre number: 14386

Virgo Fidelis convent school