Powers of Darkness: The Swedish Version Recap, Part 1

[calliopes_pen]

Okay, here we go with a two part post that is basically live blogging the entirety of the Swedish version of Powers of Darkness. This got long. I cut it in half, right as Seward is about to be introduced to the Countess. It would have been prior to that, but I wanted to get the entirety of Thomas in the castle, and the entirety of his recovery.

Whenever I discuss anything regarding this book, I try to put a page number to the corresponding moment. In some cases I haven’t, but I mostly held to doing that. This way, if something possibly deserves a trigger warning, you know what page to avoid, or thereby continue at your own pace throughout it if you’ve chosen to read it.

The Centipede Press publication of Powers of Darkness will be a different Swedish adaptation than this one. The physical version will be limited to 500 copies, and will be 824 pages.

-Page count: The ebook for the version I’m reading is 1049 pages. It took me less time than I expected to read it. Oh, and Thomas thinks the Count is more barbaric due to being half-Asian, so there’s that, along with anti-Romani stuff from him, and a hint of the latter from Wilma. There are essays about such matters in the book prior to reaching the story itself.

-Count Dracula becomes Count Draculitz, but I still refer to him as Dracula. Mina became Wilma in the Icelandic version, and is Wilma here (although it was noted she was Vilma until the translator changed it). Jonathan becomes Thomas in the Icelandic version, and alternates between that and Tom in the Swedish version.

-In the original novel: “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.”

In the Swedish text: “Left Munich at 8:30 AM on May 1, arrived in Vienna the following morning; on to Buda-pest, a marvelous city, which I only unfortunately saw in passing.”

-There is no mention of paprika hendl, or of it making him thirsty. No notes to gain recipes for Wilma. Instead, there’s more description of the surrounding countryside.

-The Golden Krone hotel is now the Goldene Krone. The letter from Dracula to Thomas:

“Welcome to the Carpathians! I await you with impatience. At three o’clock tomorrow afternoon the mail coach departs, from Bistritz to Bukovina; a seat on the same is already reserved for you. My crew will meet you at the Borgo Pass to bring you here.

In the hope that the journey has not been too strenuous, and that you should thrive in our beautiful country as long as our common business requires your stay here, I have the honor to sign.

Regards, Draculitz”

And Tom’s reaction in his journal, given that Jonathan doesn’t write down a reaction in the English version: “This is indeed very satisfying. I await our first encounter with curiosity. A Transylvanian magnate who lives in an old castle in the wildest mountain range at the end of the world, but still expresses himself in impeccable English with a cosmopolitan worldliness, at the same time as he through an English law firm and real estate agency makes an agreement regarding a major property purchase in the very heart of London, should definitely be an original.”

-In the Swedish version, it was more than just one dog keeping Thomas awake with its howling. “I am adding a few words before leaving, as I had a couple of rather strange experiences this morning. Unfortunately, I did not sleep as well last night as I would have liked after the tiring journey, for a large part of the city’s dogs seemed to have met under my window, making the most miserable howls.”

In this version, after falling asleep he is again awakened by a scratching sound at his window. It’s a bat clinging to the window frame. When it flies away, the howling gets even worse. He later gets a German schoolteacher to show him around. The man says the Count was rumored to have been married three times, but was now a widower. Jonathan notes “whether he was childless or not, he did not know. He could not provide me with any further information about the Count and his family.”

-The occupants in the carriage press upon him various things, including “two or three meager crucifixes, a flowering rosehip, a rowan branch, and a large bunch of wilted white flowers that I do not believe I have ever seen before, but which have a disgusting onion smell, along with many other small trinkets. I did not have the heart to reject the well-meaning gifts, but later took the opportunity to get rid of most things, as I cannot see what use or pleasure I could have from dragging a bunch of wilted flowers with me around the country.”

-As with the Icelandic version, the Count has servants. An old woman that is deaf and mute, and a man. The guy isn’t really seen again after his introduction; Thomas only encounters the woman. It is the old woman who carries all of Jonathan’s luggage. I think they are described in far more detail in this Swedish version. Everything is, really.

-The half naked Countess keeps popping up and tormenting Thomas with heightened feelings of passion. The Count always wanders in and interrupts (with her vanishing) whenever it’s about to get interesting on most occasions.

-Had to consult my notes on the Icelandic version, but yes, the smashing of the mirror after Jonathan cuts himself shaving (and his reaction) goes about the same as there: ‘He slammed the mirror into the edge of the hearth so that it broke into several pieces, then trampled it to shards on the hob. Finally, he threw everything into the grate, among the ashes and charred logs. Then he nodded kindly to me with the words, “I will be waiting for you out there, my dear Harker,” leaving me, as they say in the novels, “a prey for indescribable feelings.”

For if, as I have more and more reason to suspect, the old man (I call him the old man because of his white hair and because he always talks about himself as an elder, but in fact he may be my superior both in strength and agility) really has a few screws loose, then indeed my position here is quite risky.’

Also, plotting to eventually scale the castle wall if he must: “I have too calm a temperament and too little of the luxury item called fantasy, but if the Count is really liable to go off his handle—for instance have a little homicidal mania, or something similar he may have inherited from his honorable ancestors, the lovable Huns—then it is best to take suitable precautions.”

-Dracula is desperate to see the London fog, and Tom says this, which makes him laugh: “I am very much afraid you will get your fill too soon. The fog is London’s biggest woe. It sneaks in over the city like a terrible vampire, sucks power and vigor out of humans, poisons children’s blood and lungs, brings with it endless diseases—not to mention all the horrific crimes that take place under its protection which would be difficult without it!”

Thomas is secretly thinking Dracula really ought to be put under police surveillance in the aftermath of a speech on how lovely the murders of London seem when under the concealment of such things.

-Potential trigger warning: From page 207-209, something (naked, though he’s unable to tell if it’s male or female) assaults Tom when he makes the mistake of exploring the castle; he describes it in detail. If you want to skip that, it’s those pages. It doesn’t seem to bite him, though he feels the pressure of teeth. It chooses to kiss and lick him to his horror, given how this all feels. It attempts further, but is unsuccessful after it is wrestled away. “The beast suddenly let go of its grip, but at the same time gave me a violent push, whereupon I plunged head first into a bottomless abyss.”

There’s an illustration of the attack on page 209, though it’s not graphic. He lands on earth and not stone, so he’s too badly injured. He first believes what just happened was not real, but then sees the results. “But then how could I then explain that my shirt and collar were torn, my scarf gone, and that the rosary with the little iron crucifix I wore around my neck had been so deeply pressed into the skin that it left strong, blue-red marks? I also experienced a strange stinging sensation on my throat, and my skin was sensitive to every touch.” He has an emotional reaction to the very idea of what could have happened on page 210.

So if anyone wants to skip that, it’s those pages; all you miss is the first part of Tom finding another door. Later, Wilma gets assaulted after she goes to the castle herself.

-Thomas thinks he found the exit and goes straight for the door, unlike Thomas in the Icelandic version. He finds skulls. Skeletons, parts of each, etc.. “Wherever I turned they lay, in one giant, ghostly chaos of perdition.” The foaming rapids are just beyond all of that, and a black cliff, with a waterfall. "No living person could use this path--it was probably intended for the dead!" Going a different route through skulls, he finds a church with more skeletons, banners, and the like.

He eventually gets onto a ledge outside the castle, sees the peasant woman he saw dead previously with binoculars, and gets to witness a staking. From there, he wanders through corridors again, finds his way back to the dining room, and then gets locked in there for a time by the servant. Eventually, he manages to get to his bedroom, and goes straight to bed for an hour.

-May 12th. This is the start of my notes for that day, with the Icelandic version, in my recap back in 2017: “Thomas gets upset on May 12th when he awakens to the Count looming over him beside his bed. The Count tells him to take off his clothes, but we are not being taken down the slashier path.”

Unlike the Icelandic version, it seems Dracula didn’t undress him following a visitation of the Countess. We get a recounting of what happened earlier. The Countess appeared, seduced him while he lay across a divan and he had fiery passion in his veins as he embraced her. He feels like he’s falling and I really do love the footnotes there: “Called hypnagogic jerks, or hypnic jerks, this experience is common, mysterious, and benign when you are not being hunted by a vampire."

Thomas feels a cutting pain, and a bright light illuminates the room. The Count is heard swearing in another language, since he stumbled upon them. She left, and Thomas tries to get up, but he’s quite lightheaded. Dracula glares, and demands he lie down. He obeys, feeling like he has no will of his own.

Dracula then gaslights him, convincing him he was attacked by bats in his sleep and bitten, and therefore not bitten by any vampire. Thomas is terrified by the notion, since he has a dislike of them.

“I saw his waxy yellow, claw-like hands seem to float in the air over my face, and I thought I could feel him stroke me. He made strangely light movements across my forehead and eyes, and then down my neck.

From this point on, my memory is cloudy. I remember, as I said, only that I suddenly woke up, lying dressed on my bed, and that the Count was standing next to me. He smilingly said that he had found me there and taken the liberty of waking me when I seemed troubled by unpleasant dreams, and he advised me to undress and go to bed, since it was already between one and two o’clock at night. I will-lessly and sleepily obeyed him. When I woke up next, it was late in the morning.”

-Unlike the original novel, Thomas was not barred from getting back into that room. “But most importantly I found the cushions on the windowsill in disarray, just as I remembered having laid them for my own comfort. I recognized the pattern on the worn and faded yellow silk covers; I saw the ashes of my cigar on the window frame, and I saw traces of feet, and of light trailing draperies in the thick dust that covered the floor. Thus, I can hardly doubt, even if I doubted my senses and memory, that I was there that evening, though the Count denies it.”

-The Countess keeps going to Thomas, and he keeps getting seduced. She tries to bite him at some point again, and then goes wild because he has a cross on, begging him to take it off. He doesn’t, and realizes it’s harder to fight her will by the day. I feel like this section may have been expanded more than the Icelandic version. There’s still the moment where he opens his door, sees her, shuts it and ignores her call.

“Twice more I have seen her; once, at dusk, like the first time I saw her, I was standing by the window in the library, looking out into the darkening evening, and she appeared right behind me. Before I had time to reflect, she wrapped her white arms tightly around me, and the hot kiss on my neck sent fire through my veins. The second time, she was standing right under the lamp in the small octagonal hallway when I opened my door. I met her gaze, but this time had enough strength to stagger back and close the door.”

-Thomas finds and explores a secret passage in his room, but takes care to remove his regular shoes and put on “soft felt slippers.” So he’s taking his cue from the old servant woman. He follows the sounds of horns, and finds vampires in the middle of a ritual. Human sacrifice ensues.

“In the middle of this dark portal, a startling figure appeared—a tall old man, with bushy white hair and a long white mustache. He was wearing a fiery red cloak, which reached the ground, leaving only his sinewy arms and neck exposed. The cloak was held together by a sparkling green brooch, probably of emeralds, which as far as I could see, resembled an S-shaped snake. Around his head he wore a narrow gold band, adorned in the middle of his forehead with a similar piece. In one hand he held a long black staff; the other rested lightly on the head of an immense wolf, which seemed to follow him obediently like a dog.

I recognized the Count, though the impressive and terrifying majesty that surrounded him at that moment was something entirely new to me.”

-Thomas continually hears the Countess begging him to remove the cross/crucifix, even when she’s nowhere to be seen, so perhaps it’s a mental link for a vampire victim.

-I seem to recall that when Dracula says his horses are away and cannot take Thomas anywhere, in the Icelandic version Thomas didn’t request to walk. I might have to go back and check on that. Part of it’s in the Swedish version, with Dracula opening a window, warning Thomas and letting him hear wolves howling in the distance. There’s no opening of the door. Thomas simply agrees it’s a bad idea, and drops it. A few days pass and he's back to shuddering longing and desire for the Countess.

“For three days now, I have been determined to escape. There has been no lack of opportunity; I know the way, even if it is full of dangers, and time and time again I have been in the process of carrying out my plan. But then the memory of white arms, of a swelling bosom, of lips whose kisses have not ceased to burn on mine since I once tasted their sweetness, creeps over me—I write this with suffocating shame and self-contempt—and all my willpower leaves me. I have to see her again.

And inconceivably—though I do not want to believe this, I have no choice—she always comes, called by my thoughts, as surely as if I had called her by name out loud.

Before I have time to collect myself, she is there at my door. Her blue eyes burn in my soul, and imagination and reality become one, when sense and senses perish. It is in vain to seek to fight against the power with which she defeats me; my will melts like wax before her and my whole being lies in the dust at her feet.”

-Dracula gives Thomas (along with a purse filled with gold coins) a mysterious ring, just like in the Icelandic version. Nothing really came of it there. “I stared in mute horror at the heirloom he still held out to me. In the glow of the candles, it shot out long multicolored flashes, which it seemed to bore into my brain. I felt seized by vertigo and close to losing consciousness.”

-Just holding the ring makes him almost take off the rosary, since there’s something evil about it, and he sees mysterious visions. However, looking away from it for a moment makes him snap out of it’s power. He goes to bed for about a day, I’d estimate, and when he revives (and finishes “an urgent visit to the lavatory”) he discovers the Count, the servant, and all the Szgany are no longer in the castle.

“The inkwell and the writing materials had disappeared; only the ring remained on the table, dimly glowing as a fire smolders under ashes. In my agitated state, it almost assumed the shape of a living, malevolent being, whose evil red eyes watched me with malicious joy.

The clock struck six, seven, eight; dusk began to fall. Still, the same grave-like silence. I began to feel tired from hunger, but no one came to set the table, even though the usual meal hour had long since passed. Again and again, I tried to open the hidden door, but it remained closed.”

-As Thomas escapes:

“I have cut my bedsheets into strips and tied them together into a rope—strong enough, I think, to carry my weight. As soon as it gets bright enough, I will use this rope to try to make my way down from the window onto the protruding stone ledge below. It is a desperate undertaking, but it can possibly succeed. If not, the ravine is deep, but down there at least nothing worse than death awaits. And I would rather die as an honorable man than live as—I do not know what—in unspeakable humiliation.

It is getting brighter.

I have attached the rope. Everything is in order. In a few minutes I will dare to try.

Goodbye, for the last time, my Wilma. Forgive me for my sins against you, but believe that I have always loved you—only you!”

-My first reaction to a quick glance at the next bit: Yes! Everything after the castle isn't third person vague narrator summing it all up! That bit begins on page 355, with a letter from Wilma Murray to Lucy Western.

-In Stoker’s version, Lucy suggests that Mina would like Seward if she were not already engaged. In the Swedish version, she recommends both Seward and Quincey. Seward still plays with his lancet when he tries to propose to Lucy, until she wants to scream.

-We’ve got letters and telegrams between Seward, Quincey, and Arthur in the aftermath of Lucy choosing Arthur. Mr. Swales still bugs Lucy and Mina. Renfield pops into Seward’s notes around page 377. The attendants are called caregivers in this version. Lucy’s father was a sleepwalker, too, and apparently a hypnotist. The log of the Demeter is in the Swedish version, too.

-I know Mr. Swales died in the original novel, but I need to check and see if we ever got his age there. Here, it’s mentioned that “he was ninety-nine years and seven months as certain as a day, and he always said he would not give up until he had turned those hundred years.” Also, there was this on August 8th: “This event has greatly upset us. I’m afraid Lucy will be seriously hurt by it. She had a fainting spell with convulsive twitches when we got home, and I think someone should tell a doctor about her condition.”

-Wilma and Lucy meet Dracula while on a walk, on page 414. He introduces himself as a Baron Székély, and Lucy is thrilled by the conversation. Lucy compliments him on how wonderful his English is, and he’s practically giddy given how long he kept Thomas a captive to learn it. After he parts their company, Wilma and Lucy have a minor disagreement, since Lucy considers the monotony of her life “banal and boring,” and Wilma takes this to mean she considers her teaching position that.

“Oh, Wilma!” she exclaimed fiercely. “How could you take it that way? I did not mean—oh, I’m sorry, my sweet, beloved Wilma! I did not mean—I do not know at all what I meant! I’m sorry, forgive me!”

Her grief was so sincere and she herself so sweet and tender in her remorse, that I blamed myself for being so quick to take offense. We kissed each other in tears and the reconciliation was soon complete.’

-As a footnote mentions, Wilma and Lucy’s bedroom is on the third floor, which was not mentioned in Stoker’s novel. So that’s why Wilma frets about Lucy going out via the window when sleepwalking.

-Mr. Hawkins gets in touch with detectives, and confides in Wilma what’s going on, while trying to find Tom. As with the Icelandic version, Hawkins has an agent named Tellet. The man traces Tom’s whereabouts, going so far as the Borgo Pass, and then walking the rest of the way to the castle. Tellet runs into the same German schoolteacher that Tom did. Via the letter from Hawkins to Wilma:

“A strange fact is—according to Tellet—that a large sum of money was withdrawn on Harker’s credit at the bank in Buda-Pesth. The bank teller clearly remembers that the person the money was paid out to was a young, dark-haired man in a light gray travel suit, which is a description that is quite in line with Harker.”

So we’ve got the guy in disguise as Tom actually a thing that was followed up on in this version.

-On August 12th, the “Baron” pops up again, while having a talk with Lieutenant Morton (a cousin of Lucy’s). Wilma surmises he’s probably Austrian. Dracula and a group of the Szgany are setting up camp beside the graveyard. He gets a long speech, which Wilma transcribes impeccably, much as Jonathan did in the original novel. While she admits he is impressive, she considers him a tad theatrical. However, everything leaves a deep impression on Lucy.

-Dracula encourages Lucy to hone her psychic abilities during their conversation.

“Properly used, they are the same as power! But there are women among all peoples, in every country, who possess this secret power. And in many, this wonderful gift lies dormant throughout their life. They have no idea that they are meant to rule, to control the hearts of men, to lead the destinies of countries and kingdoms, to recreate the world! You, for example, my lady.” He turned to Lucy and looked intently into her widened eyes as she seemed to devour his words. “You have that power. It depends only on your own will to use it.”

If the tone had been different, his statement could have passed as a somewhat intimate but rather banal courtesy. But there was something so strangely impressive in his expression that I involuntarily shuddered, and despite the darkness, I could see how Lucy went pale and quickly brought her hand to her heart. The strangest thing was that none could see anything hurtful or inappropriate about his behavior, just like it didn’t occur to us to find it ridiculous. He himself did seem to realize that he had crossed a line.”

He begs forgiveness, bows, and they’re taken with him again. Wilma does note that Dracula is a bit smitten with Lucy. The feeling was mutual, though Wilma notes she knew that Lucy would never betray Arthur. So that’s four suitors, really. They get back home, and Wilma can really see what the men love about Lucy and cannot stop staring at her, while she studies her reflection, so that could almost be five suitors in one book. Then again, as she doesn’t seem to think too highly of her, change that to four again.

-Lucy takes too much of what Dracula said to heart, and really is getting ideas of what it would be like if Arthur became a member of Parliament, and how she’d be a very pretty politician’s wife. The Szgany show a lot of reverence for Lucy, when she shows up at their camp with Wilma (but without Dracula) later. They literally worship her, and throw themselves on the ground before her.

It gets weird. They ask what Lucy wants of them, she wants to see their special powers. They throw pillows on the ground so she can have a perfect seat. They completely ignore Wilma, and after prompting from her, Lucy finally sits. They assure Lucy that oh, she must definitely have secret powers, and her eyes belong to the seers, and Wilma’s basically quietly facepalming in her mind at Lucy being so gullible. And then there’s some implementing of crystal balls.

There’s a table, with sand sprinkled on it, and words form. They get Arthur’s name, Lucy’s engagement date, and then they’re scared when Thomas Harker is written. Wilma urges Lucy to come home with her, since the old woman must be hypnotizing her, and not trying to unlock hidden stuff. Lucy wants to stay, though. The old woman gives her what I think might be the same necklace the Countess had. I’m not certain.

Wilma notes Lucy’s eyes glowed, and it seemed like she was possessed. Lucy snaps out of it when Wilma interrupts, and Lucy wonders what just happened, while Wilma is terrified. They go home, she gets to the sofa, and Lucy falls into a very deep sleep. She wakes with premonitions in regard to Arthur’s safety. She begs Wilma to write for him, for only then would he understand it wasn’t just a whim of Lucy’s.

She finally reveals that in the crystal ball, she saw Arthur with another woman, and that he kissed her. From further reading, that was just Arthur’s sister. Lucy supposes she fainted earlier, and tells her POV of the possible possession moment:

“After that I must have fainted—I don’t remember anything—” She frowned again and seemed to strain her memory to the limit. “I think I remember—something red, like when you’ve been staring at snow—you know red and bright—Bright—something like—only roses—as if I were sinking into roses—soft—and so—” She closed her eyes and sat quiet for a few seconds. Then she shook her head and added, “No, it’s all just a mess! I don’t want to think about it!” She shuddered again. “I fainted, didn’t I? I remember feeling as if something scorched my brain.”

Lucy suddenly goes from loving the Count’s company, to absolutely hating everything about him, and will hear nothing of speaking with him from Wilma. She says she’ll go for a walk on the pier, for she requires fresh air. Arthur writes back and explains the situation with his sister and that she is in desperate need of a divorce, her husband is a scoundrel, and that Arthur’s father is still deathly ill so he can’t really be there at the moment.

Lucy only cares that it was what she saw in her vision, with Arthur standing in a hotel room with the woman and all. She bursts into hysterical crying, and Wilma can barely calm her.

-Dracula does still bite Lucy while she’s out sleepwalking, in the same general location as in Stoker’s novel, it’s just that all of this happens to her first.

-In Stoker’s novel, when Renfield escapes and heads for Carfax, he’s not wearing a thing: “Chasing an errant swarm of bees is nothing to following a naked lunatic, when the fit of escaping is upon him!”

In the Swedish version, he is specifically stated as being dressed only in a nightgown. He also ends his proclamations of devotion when recaptured with “The world belongs to the Strong!” which is a thing Dracula keeps saying in the Swedish and Icelandic versions.

-According to Tellet’s report to Hawkins, Thomas (or at least the guy pretending to be Thomas) took part in a lot of drinking parties, and got involved with women. The person then partook in a lot of gambling, and also withdrew a large sum of money from the bank.

“There, according to my friend the schoolteacher, H. wooed the host’s beautiful daughter in quite a conspicuous manner and was assumed to be her favored lover. The girl disappeared from her home one night and was found dead the following day—probably murdered—near the castle. The general opinion clearly has H. down as the perpetrator, but in these lawless, remote areas, such incidents attract less attention than elsewhere, and since no report has been filed with the proper authorities, no legal inquiry has been made, and no conclusive evidence has been presented.”

and:
“Admittedly, the bank clerk I spoke to could not say for sure whether he recognized Harker from the photograph I presented to him, but this fact is of less importance, as he probably did not pay much attention to the visitor.”

He basically ends up concluding Thomas was secretly terrible, was in league with anarchists, and ran off to be evil elsewhere, with the Count.

-After this, for his health, Mr. Hawkins is forced to head for a seaside resort in Normandy, according to a comment by Wilma in her diary. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Morton is devastated that “the Baron” had to leave Whitby. Wilma notes he was a terrible influence on Lucy. “I look forward to the day when she, with the love of a good husband, will find the protection and support that her weak, childlike nature needs!” Yikes.

-In a letter dated September 5th from Wilma to Lucy, she notes something has happened concerning Tom, and she will hear from again whenever it is possible to write: “Miss Wilson (the principal) has very kindly agreed to grant me a leave of absence for some time, and Mary Brown has agreed to cover my duties for the time being. Goodbye for now, God bless you! I will probably not be able to come to your wedding, but if it is God’s will, we will joyfully meet again soon.”

-Van Helsing is far more understandable in the Swedish version.

-At some point during things with all the transfusions for Lucy, Seward goes back to the asylum and finds that a fire had erupted in Renfield’s room. He cannot say if Renfield did it, or if the heating system was at fault.

“As far as we know, R. did not have access to matches or anything similar, but it is odd that it was in, or in the immediate vicinity of, his bed that the fire seems to have started. started. The bed is almost completely destroyed, and the wall next to it is heavily charred, but since that’s the location of a heat pipe, there is a faint possibility that a problem with this might have caused the accident.”

Renfield says “Nothing can hurt me! I’m doing the master’s bidding,” leaving them to blame him.

-The wolf doesn’t appear and scare Mrs. Westenra (or Western, here) to death. Instead, it’s the Count’s face peeking in the window. Instead of just being drugged and falling asleep, we’ve also got a dead chambermaid of Lucy’s (her name was Mary) in the garden with a cut throat.

-Looks like Lucy opted to wake up before she was put in the crypt. From Seward’s account:

“The coffin lid had been opened and the veil covering Lucy’s face was thrown aside. The flowers that adorned her were partly in disarray and some of them had fallen to the floor next to the catafalque. Just below it, Arthur lay stretched out—dead or unconscious, I could not tell straight away. He had apparently plunged backwards onto the ground and his hands were still holding a couple of the white flowers in a firm grip.”

It takes a bit of effort to revive Arthur, at which point he screams again.

“Lucy!” he cried. “For the love of God, Lucy! Help! She’s alive! Are you not listening to me? She is alive!”

He struggled like a madman to tear himself free when we tried to hold him down, but after a few minutes he had calmed enough to speak somewhat coherently. He told us in a rush of broken sentences that he could not sleep and was finally seized by such an overwhelming longing to see Lucy’s face once more that he got up and went into the room where her body lay. No one was on watch that night, but the room was illuminated as usual. The lid of the coffin was not screwed on, only placed on top of the coffin, and with some effort, he managed to remove it.

“I saw her lying there,” he said passionately, “more beautiful and lovely than ever. I fell on my knees by the coffin and leaned over her, then—it’s true, what I’m saying is true! It was not a dream!—then she opened her eyes and looked at me—Smiled at me as only she could smile—and wrapped her arms around my neck. I pulled her to me and I heard her whisper ‘Mine,’ and felt her lips here.” He touched his throat. “Then I screamed loudly, cried for help. For the love of God, Jack, save her! She’s alive, oh God, hurry!”

-After that, looks like they go through every possible method to confirm Lucy is still dead. And at Arthur’s insistence in case she’s being buried alive, when Lucy and Mrs. Western are put in the crypt: “The lid was placed loosely on the coffin, and in its vicinity we placed—after the priest and all the guests had left—a bottle of wine and a couple of jars of highly concentrated food, as well as a couple of warm blankets.”

-While wandering about as the Bloofer Lady, in the Swedish version, Lucy kills at least one child according to newspaper accounts. She also drained a 15 year old. He was utterly exhausted and noted he complied with her wishes to find them an abandoned property, so that she could bite him.

-Renfield was eventually found in October at Carfax, “asleep huddled by the gate of the chapel.” He told workers that was his home, and allowed himself to be led back to the asylum.

-Part 3 starts with Wilma’s journal. She evidently went to Hawkins, and he told her everything he uncovered. “The detective, discoveries, mistakes, my suggestion to travel here and talk to Mr. Tellet myself and, if possible, also hire investigators—all this became too long to describe in detail. In any case, I certainly do not need to write it down in order to remember it, for it is engraved in my heart with fire.” Hawkins pulls strings to get her to go abroad, “with real paternal kindness.”

-Thanks to being confronted with Wilma, Tellet vows to pick up his investigation again. She stumbles upon the double that pretended to be Thomas, and wants to question him. When she tells Tellet, he doesn’t believe her, and she cannot find him again. Eventually, Tellet finds a murdered man who he and the police believe to be Thomas, but it’s the man she saw earlier. The man also has all of Thomas’ things, including his notebook and umbrella.

-Wilma checks into the Goldene Krone Inn, and receives a telegram that Mr. Hawkins is coming to help with the search, too, along with Tellet and a Captain Barrington Jones. Hawkins entreats her to book a room for them. The German speaking schoolteacher was also helping them off and on, though I don’t recall his being given a name.

-As of page 646, Wilma has reached the castle. She and the men search the grounds. On page 652, amazingly, she has a vision of Thomas in the aftermath of his fall, from back when the attempted assault happened. “My only, semi-instinctive thought was, thank God we are here at this precise moment to help him! I did not doubt for a second that everything I saw was completely real. And when I, a moment later, was standing on the spot where I had just seen him and saw only empty air, I became dizzy and had to lean against the wall in order to not fall.”

-Potential Trigger Warning. Page 654, after Wilma finds a brooch that belonged to Thomas. There is attempted sexual assault from the same thing that wanted to get Thomas when it half drags and half carries her down the stairs. It doesn’t get far; she gets rescued, and knocked out by the end of page 655. She wakes propped up in the arms of Mr. Hawkins, who is desperate to keep her safe. She thinks she’s fine, stands, discovers a broken ankle and screams.

She’s taken to the Order of St. Joseph, since she needs a doctor and can’t really handle a carriage ride further than that. She’s out of commission while they see to her ankle, and the men take up the investigation.

-Sister Agatha appears, starting on page 662. There was this, though Wilma doesn’t make a connection yet:

“She is currently most concerned about a two-year-old girl who was badly scalded by boiling water, and a poor man who has been here for several weeks with severe brain fever, and now, as he is recovering, seems to have completely lost his memory.”

A bit later it’s mentioned he’s trying to communicate, but nobody knows what he’s saying. The nuns can’t understand him, and he can’t understand them. They think he’s Russian because of something he keeps repeating. Wilma realizes it’s English, repeated by the nuns with terrible accents, and asks to see him, but the one in charge says no. The path is considered too strenuous for her weak foot.

And then they realized being unable to communicate might be more detrimental, so they can send notes. “Are you an Englishman? If so, write yes on this paper, or give some other sign to the messenger, and you will have the opportunity to communicate with your countrymen!”

-Aw, Thomas starts crying when he sees English again. “She eagerly handed me the paper, which I just as eagerly received and reviewed. In large, uncertain letters, like a child’s handwriting, and with strange spelling mistakes, but still fully legible and understandable, it said: “Yes, yes, yes—Englishman. God bless your help.” Thus explaining why she doesn’t recognize his handwriting. He’s too sick, the brain fever wrecked him completely. She asks for his name in another note, but there’s the amnesia.

“I took the paper and read. It was written in the same trembling, unsure handwriting and strange spelling. Letters were forgotten everywhere, or completely swapped for different ones.

“Name gone—all gone—if possible help—difficult—poor—forgotten—”

The nuns told me that the lumberjacks had found him among the mountains, unconscious and half starving, judging by his emaciated condition. They had taken him to the convent, where he was nursed back to health, only to immediately fall ill with a violent encephalitis, which for many weeks had him on the brink of death.”

Later, after prolonged contact that way: “His written messages are now somewhat clearer and more coherent than before, but both the style and spelling suggest he can hardly be counted among the well-educated class.” Ouch, Wilma!

On page 678, Wilma proclaims she found him, and goes on to describe how they were reunited. It’s genuinely sweet even if he’s seriously ill, and even if it’s utterly traumatic for Thomas (who seems to also have jaundice, since he’s a yellowish pale) and makes him pass out.

Wilma explains she thought he was dead, the nuns scream, and shove her behind a screen until they’re sure how Thomas will react. He reacts by remembering who Wilma is, and is anxious at the very idea she was taken from him again. They encourage her to keep him calm and happy.

“I bent down to kiss him again, and with a childishly touching helplessness, he put his head on my shoulder and rested there for a few seconds.

“So nice,” he whispered. “So nice—my Wilma!”

-Looks like he remembers everything up to when he left England, and then nothing else. Around page 687, Mr. Hawkins reunites with Thomas off panel, and declares he is definitely himself. And then he pulls Wilma aside and Hawkins notes he’s prepared his (Hawkins’) last will, and she and Thomas are sole beneficiaries. Congratulations? It’s his wish that she and Thomas marry as soon as possible.

“You never know what might happen in this world,” he concluded half-jokingly. “I have made that little testament out to Mr. and Mrs Thomas Harker, and I would leave here much calmer if I left you as husband and wife, unless you are able to make the journey with me. Well, which will it be, little miss? Are you scared of the responsibility, or do you accept my proposal?”

She accepts it, they get married, and at the inn after their departure from the convent, he still doesn’t remember anything. Although, he experiences deja vu since they’re staying in the same room where he heard the howling dogs.

-A specialist in Vienna later tries to help them, but doubts Thomas can recover his memories. He was advised not to force it, and never ever think about it, since he had likely undergone major trauma. Nobody should ever talk to him about it. In the Icelandic version, I think they did call on Freud in a passing comment. Here, it’s Professor Rothstein. Thomas is also rather weak as they travel all over the place, and gets pressing headaches and nervous anxiety at the slightest thing.

-They return to London, and apparently a mutual childhood friend let Wilma know that Lucy was dead. She writes to Arthur, yet Van Helsing writes back. Meanwhile, at home, Thomas is being told to call Hawkins “Uncle” whenever he manages to assist him with stuff around the house. However, for Thomas at this point: “He still, however, has to refrain from any mental work, as it immediately causes pressure on the scalp and a severe headache—a clear call for caution.”

-In Stoker’s novel, I don’t recall Van Helsing’s age, but he had red hair. In the Swedish version, Wilma thinks he’s around 70 years old. Thomas was upstairs during their meeting, because strangers upset him. Mr. Hawkins was still alive, but away.

-Van Helsing brings word that Arthur’s not doing so well. At this point, Wilma is unaware of Thomas’ journal, so there’s nothing for him to read that could assist everyone aside from a copy of some of what Wilma wrote. However, Van Helsing promised to come back and examine Thomas.

-One week later, Mr. Hawkins is finally dead. There’s the funeral and they go for a walk. I had wondered if there would be a whole “it is the man himself!” moment, and looks like there is, on page 711. In this instance, while Thomas is traumatized and staring, Wilma recognizes Dracula as the Baron. The excerpt:

“Tom, of course, was my first concern. I managed to stop a passing carriage and almost forced him to climb into it. His pallor had become so terrible that I feared he would collapse, and I drew a sigh of relief when I actually had him inside the carriage. I gave the driver the address of our hotel, and we rolled away through the hustle and bustle.

Tom sat reclined, and hardly seemed aware of what was going on around him. When I addressed him, he did not answer—I do not even think he heard me. After a few anxious minutes, he raised both hands to his forehead, and I could just hear him say:

“God—God, what is this? What is this?”

Though I was almost beside myself with anxiety, I knew I could not worry him with any questions. I sat quietly, watching him intently. For several moments, his gaze kept that awful staring expression which had frightened me at first, but eventually his eyes closed. His head sank heavily against my shoulder, and he fell asleep.”

-Yep, as in the original novel, he completely forgets about Dracula being there. On the train ride back, he keeps shouting “the cross!” in his sleep, just like the Countess used to shout at him. And then at the bottom of her travel bag when she’s back home, Wilma goes through stuff Sister Agatha had packed for her, and finds the journal. So in this version, he doesn’t give it to her in the convent, given the state he was in (he didn’t even know about it) His rosary and crucifix were tied to it.

"I flipped through the book a little, and saw words that filled me with surprise and horror. I read a page here and there, and finally sank, trembling and overwhelmed, back into the chair. There I sat with my hands in front of my eyes."

-She postpones reading it all until the next evening, when she is sure Thomas is asleep. Sounds about right for how Mina handled it, too. However, in this case, Thomas had been complaining of more headaches, and was pondering something he couldn’t explain before he went to bed. She doesn’t believe everything that he thinks he experienced at first, and only knows that he believes they happened.

“I cannot believe in everything he thinks he experienced—he was apparently already battling with the disease when he wrote it down—but when I recall my own appalling experience in the old castle, and everything that is believed and spoken of in the area, I do not know what I should think! If only I had someone to consult with!”

-Wilma briefly wonders if the Baron is really the Count. She dismisses that, because the Count was much older. She then transcribes the journal so it will be legible, and writes to Van Helsing. “With the help of Tom’s typewriter, this shall be my assignment for the next few evenings, though I shudder at the thought of immersing myself in these awful feverish fantasies, as I’m forced to call them, for in their entirety they cannot be true.”

-Page 720. Wilma’s still fretting, and Thomas might secretly be, too. "His eyes have an absent, brooding expression, and as soon as he thinks I’m not paying attention to him, he moves his hand to his forehead and stares straight ahead with creased eyebrows in that way I know all too well." And from the sound of it, the assistants to the late Hawkins are doing more of the work than he is. He also talks in his sleep.

-Page 721. Looks like Thomas started sleepwalking:

“On three separate occasions, he suddenly sat up in bed and seemed to want to get up (though still asleep!). Once, when I gently stopped him, he sank back with a moan that hurt my soul to hear, as it expressed so much suffering. He mumbled, “Stop him, for God’s sake stop him! He is here! A crime, a crime to remain silent any longer!”, as well as a lot of other things I could not fully comprehend. … I watched over him all night from the next room, where I finished copying his diary.”

-Page 724, she finally tells Van Helsing all about the diary, and how Thomas is suffering. She is of the opinion all the journal after the creature tried to assault him were fantasies caused by a concussion, which developed into his illness. Her warning before handing over the journal: “Let me prepare you, it’s a rather sizable tome.” Heh. You don’t say!

-Page 728: Instead of sending a telegram that it’s all true, Van Helsing pops by at breakfast, looking pale, and agitated. Thomas is somewhere else in the house, also agitated and hollow-eyed after another bad night. Van Helsing lets her know Tom’s papers were the key to everything. “Tom’s papers, my dear Mrs. Wilma. Tom’s papers are worth their weight in gold, and that a thousand times over. Tom is a benefactor of mankind; he has saved thousands from perdition through his own suffering!”

After more talking, he confirms it was all real. He also says the case is beyond Rothstein’s experience, and it was stupid to make Thomas not think about things. It’s a good moment between the two.

-Van Helsing surmises that Thomas now remembers everything after she explains that day when they went for a walk, but given what’s happened, he doesn’t dare speak of it with anyone.

“He knows nothing about the diary; he may even doubt himself and think he is going insane—or fear that you will believe him to be so!” Cue Wilma rushing into the next room, and grabbing Thomas. They first explain that Van Helsing is here about Lucy, and because they know he was best friends with her, too. He wasn’t aware of how she died until this moment, just that she had, since anything that was shielded from him.

Wilma leaves them to it, and starts praying in another room; she can hear the constant murmur of their voices, but doesn’t want to bother them. Page 733: “Suddenly the door opened. Before I could even think, Tom dropped to his knees in front of me and pulled me into his arms. The doctor looked at us both from the doorstep with touched and benevolent eyes.”

“Wilma, my beloved,” Tom stammered, in a voice half silenced by emotion.

I leaned over him. For a moment his dear head rested against my chest and we held each other tightly, as if we would never let go of each other again. When I disentangled from his embrace and looked into his face, I saw it was upset and serious, but without any hint of the anxiety that had recently clouded it. It was the former Tom, my own Tom, my childhood sweetheart, that I saw in front of me.

“Yes, my sweet child,” I heard the dear old doctor say, “I guessed correctly. The poor lad has told me everything. You two can now speak openly to each other about everything that has weighed on your poor hearts—but we shall not talk about it with others. God has been very merciful to the love of your heart, my dear Mrs. Wilma. He has brought him out of the lion’s den alive and unharmed—but such things do not happen unintentionally. We now have a task ahead of us which must not be neglected, even if it were to cost us both our lives and safety. It’s certainly a task which many would tremble in front of—but we will not tremble or retreat, will we, my dear boy?”

-From there, they talk for hours. He still has no memory of the man he saw in Piccadilly. He notes fog was a major trigger for some memories, which yeesh. There’s always so much fog in London! “What else we talked to each other about I will not write about here; it is written in my heart, amongst its sweetest and most sacred memories.”

-Van Helsing returns that evening, to verify the revelations hadn’t hurt Thomas. He recommends that he get all the quiet he can. Relax and enjoy nature, despite the evil all around. He takes the journal notes with him, to “consult friends who strive towards the same goals as me.” With that, he leaves.

-Van Helsing wanders back in later, and Thomas is overjoyed to see him, and they wander off for another long talk. “It seemed to have been extremely beneficial to Tom, for when the two gentlemen appeared together at the dinner table, his face had an expression of determination and energy, and his eyes a radiance that I had not seen in a long time.”

-Van Helsing gets the paper while there, and sees more mentioned as being dead at Lucy’s fangs. Thomas read it aloud, and considers they are weak humans, while vampires are stronger. Van Helsing tells them all about the Bloofer Lady (or White Lady in this translation) stories. Wilma responds like this:

“Such cock-and-bull stories!” I said with a smile, even though I had been deeply upset the moment before. “No, I have not heard any of that, and—”

“You take it as a joke, but I’m being serious, Mrs. Wilma,” he said. “Later I’ll explain it all to you, at least tell you everything I know. Now, however, it is late, and tomorrow we must have renewed strength and clear heads.”

And in the middle of all this, Barrington arrives, ready to probe Thomas. Wilma leaves the room while the men talk again for an hour and a half. Before he leaves, Barrington basically lets Wilma know that he thinks Van Helsing is nuts. He also probes her for more on when Dracula was spotted in Piccadilly, wanting to know about the woman Dracula was watching. Barrington thinks he knows the woman.

“I know her,” he repeated in a peculiar tone. “The French Legation Secretary’s wife. You can see her any day you like in Hyde Park—the gray horses and the livery everybody knows. But she was talking to someone? Did you notice that person as well?”

-The footnotes even point this out; I had actually researched the name of the place when writing a fanfic this last Yuletide. When Jonathan and Mina were involved, the sighting was outside of Guiliano’s, while in the Swedish version, it’s Valentini’s Bakery. Guiliano’s was real, while Valentini’s was fictional.

-Wilma goes on to tell Barrington all about the Baron and Lieutenant Morton. Also, Van Helsing doesn’t want Wilma involved in anything else, and Thomas concurs, wanting to keep her safe. The former wants her to take care of her household in peace. And yet, he realizes she’s too smart for that after she dismisses the idea. However, for a while she still believes there is no connection between Thomas’ experiences and Lucy’s death at this point.

Cue a speech from Van Helsing, about how vampires do exist and the legends, which lasts from page 758-767 with no interruption save the occasional outburst of horror from Wilma or Thomas. Thomas almost has a fainting spell when stuff gets a bit personal from the sound of it, but holds it together as the speech goes on and on. On page 767, I realized it was still more with the speech, as he says “I still have a lot of notes here.”

-They study a book of vampire weaknesses. The Eucharist is called the Hostia in this. He continues talking, discussing how Lucy was easy prey, from page 770-771, urging them to read the newspaper articles about Lucy’s wanderings again. “Remember what our friend Tom saw and experienced at Draculitz Castle! Had he not been stronger than Lucy in the face of temptation, he would not be here at this moment!”

-Cue another speech when Wilma says Van Helsing mentioned Arthur was sick.

“Sick, Mrs. Wilma, yes. Sick like the one who bleeds out from a secret wound! His entire soul yearns only for her, and his ears are deaf to any warnings. He spends most of his time at Hillingham, the place he should shy away from most of all, and he visits the tomb where she rests every day. I would give my life to save his, but I fear everything is in vain.

A couple more pages of talking, and he says they’ll meet at Seward’s in a few days. “Goodbye, my dear friends! God be with you!” He wanders off, leaving Thomas and Wilma sitting there, a bit traumatized.

-Meanwhile, in Purfleet, Seward’s silently fretting about Arthur. Seward has a servant named Mary (there were several with that name throughout this version). The Countess gets a name! Countess Ida de Gonobitz-Vàrkony. Seward is given a card of hers, as an associate of hers is there. Despite being the wrong sort of doctor for an emergency, he is informed to go to Carfax.

-Mary wanders about, warning Seward to stay away from those “ninnyhammers.” I think they have a fun relationship, since he starts teasing her about the word. It is, unfortunately, the last we will see of her.

This is a good spot to chop this blow by blow account in half, really. The rest will be in another post!