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calliopes_pen) wrote2022-02-15 04:33 pm
calliopes_pen) wrote2022-02-15 04:33 pm
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Powers of Darkness: The Swedish Version Recap, Part 2
-Seward meets the Countess on page 786: “A madhouse doctor must first and foremost master self-control, and I dare say that I do not generally lose my composure easily—but I did this time. For something as extraordinarily beautiful, so at once dazzling and almost frightening as this woman I have never seen before.” He describes her beauty for three more pages.
-The Countess wants Seward to treat her, but won’t say for what, because that’s his job. She claims she wants help with sleep. She will only accept hypnosis, and not “poisons,” like medicine. Her words: “Let us see if your will is stronger than mine!” He zones out a bit. And upon his return from Carfax, Renfield is said to have begun screaming like a possessed man, and then fell into a nearly comatose state for a day or so.
-When Seward goes back the next night, she says she is dead and he must make her well again. Seward takes her pulse, and sees that, yeah, there isn’t one. So she really is sick, he thinks. “I could find no heartbeat or other sign of life and her entire body displayed the coldness and stiffness of death. She could not possibly be dead, however, since I had just heard her voice.”
-Hypnosis ensues, Seward zones out and upon snapping out of it decides she’ll be a patient every night. He is then introduced to “her brother,” who I originally presumed was Dracula (he isn’t) under another alias: Prince Elemar Koromeszo. Turns out Seward’s walked into a party, since a dozen other people are there, too. He gets out of there. Upon his return to the asylum, a Dr. Morton notes he is unusually pale. Seward assures him he just needs sleep.
-Seward’s sick the rest of the day, but at the strike of 9 PM, he feels fantastic, and up for another visit with the Countess. He sees there’s about forty or fifty other people at Carfax. Dracula arrives on page 829. He is a fan of Seward’s treatise On Hallucination And Illusion, and Seward is quite flattered.
-At the party, Seward has a long talk with a dwarf hunchback violinist, (named Leonardi) who had brilliant earrings (Seward’s words) about how the elements are just right for a séance and whatever manifestations there could be. Seward sees flowers falling from the ceiling, but he doesn’t think they’re real.
-On page 846, we get the mentioned moment of Seward hallucinating that he’s flying. “I had a wonderful feeling of floating alone somewhere in the vast infinity of space.”
-Page 847, hallucinatory flying continues as he sees twinkling lights, Venus and the Big Dipper. I think he also sees blue flames guiding his way before he’s deposited in the graveyard, before walking to Lucy’s crypt on the next page. He thinks that while Lucy is dead, she’s still beautiful, and starts kissing her. She reacts to his presence on page 849.
‘Suddenly I thought I heard a whisper—Lucy’s voice, but in a tone I had never heard from her, so mellifluous, enchantingly tender: “You came, finally! I have waited such a long time! Didn’t you feel your blood in my veins calling you? Stay—stay!” and then the beautiful lips were pressed against mine again.’
The next time he opens his eyes, he’s back at Carfax, to his disappointment. Everyone was staring at him, and he felt like an experiment. After a lot of talking, and another appointment to return to Carfax, he left. After passing out at home, he gets up and finds one of the flowers from the manifestation of earlier. He can’t tell what sort it is, and then has a long talk with Mary (Holmwood, Arthur’s sister; not Seward’s servant).
-Mary Holmwood saw Lucy, and thinks she was undead. She supposed it was a demon at first, since she saw glowing red eyes and fangs. Upon Mary seeing her, Lucy went out the window without opening it, through a crack. She notes Arthur was cold as ice, brandy was applied, and it took him a few hours to wake up. Seward thinks she’s crazy, but promises to consult with Van Helsing. Spoiler: he doesn’t.
-Seward briefly checks on Arthur, sees him worse than before. Wanders through a graveyard looking at Poe quotes on headstones, and then goes to a concert. He’s directed to a private area, and it seemed like the Countess bit him. Afterwards, he feels like he’s slowly going mad. Later on after recovering from that, he receives a letter from Van Helsing, who regrets not being able to see him, as he’s been away on important matters.
He also asks if he can host a gathering, and Seward says sure. Seward returns to the Countess, and keeps thinking she’s transforming into Lucy, and pondering how his mental state is eroding, and he’s getting ever paler.
-Another night, another party. However, at a toast all the party-goers slam their wine glasses together and shatter them. Only to injure themselves. Seward was bothered by the fact nobody seemed to care that blood was pouring off everyone. (After which the Prince asks if he plays baccarat, he says no, and life goes on with profuse bleeding).
“However, no one seemed to attach the slightest regard to it. On the contrary (this is why I think the apparent carelessness, as unreasonable as it may seem, was intentional), everyone once again raised their bleeding hands in the air and clapped them against each other on the beat, as I have seen children do in some dance games, while they repeated a few words or a chant to some kind of wild melody, which to my ears sounded something like:
“Jokala hai Perescke wo! Sintala mai! Sintala ho! Jokala hai! hai! hai!”
-Leonardi visits Seward by day when he’s on his rounds, and they discuss madness, psychic things, a new breed of life, and whether or not what he considers madness is the way for everyone, and the insane are really the sane ones. He ends up showing him an album of pictures of Renfield because that’s Seward’s favorite patient, and they debate what his face shows. Seward shows him the entirety of the asylum; Leonardi demands to be allowed to play music for the patients.
-While at an appointment with the Countess, Seward pricks his finger. She sucks blood from it for a second, and then hypnotizes him. He wakes up, and feels fantastic. “Now the full, rich reality is calling me—now, I shall start living! I have been a fool, a child, who has pushed away the frothy cup of pleasure in which the secret of life rests. Happiness and pleasure have so far only been empty words to me. Only now do I realize that it is these words that signify everything that makes life worth living.”
-I think we’ve lost him, folks! And then the others there convince him to let Leonardi play the violin. The Countess and a few others will be at the asylum, incognito, the next night. “You cannot say no.” And he can’t.
-Finally, on page 942, it’s back to Thomas as he returns to writing in his journal. Quincey Morris is now a valued and faithful friend to him, since Seward’s off losing his mind, Arthur’s withering away somewhere, and I don’t think he’s met either of them before.
-Wilma asks him again if he can remember that day in Piccadilly. He has no memory of what she might mean, so she gives him her diary to read of the account, to prove she’s not mistaken about a particular recognition. It’s still not familiar.
-Later, triggered by the whistling of the tea kettle, he gets a flashback. He apparently rises from his chair, screams, and faints. He assures her he’s not ill, he only remembered, and please cease pressing that ice cold rag against his forehead. He confirms the Baron was the Count. Van Helsing arrives, with three friends in tow: Tellet, Barrington Jones, and Quincey.
-Quincey remains delightful, even in a world that doesn’t have Lucy staked, and is missing his two friends among their group. “For my part, I’m neither a famous scholar nor a skilled policeman—but when it comes to smacking a villain around or putting a bullet through his head, I’m your man!” He then wonders why Seward isn’t involved.
-Van Helsing is concerned, and hopes nothing happened to him. “When I visited the asylum the day before yesterday, I was told, without any further explanation, that he was out of town, and that it was unclear both when he would return and where he had gone. I asked to speak to the assistant physician, but—”
“But what, Doctor? Did you actually get to speak with him?” Barrington Jones eagerly interjected when Van Helsing made a brief pause.
“Well, yes, I was able to speak with him,” Van Helsing said slowly. “But—he—I cannot explain. He made a most peculiar impression on me, as though he were not trustworthy. I was surprised my friend Seward had chosen such an assistant.”
-Quincey’s reaction? “If Seward’s in any danger, we can’t waste time talking. Something must be done without delay. Jack Seward is as close to my heart as a brother—nobody will ever say that I left him in the lurch!” And then they calm him down, unfortunately.
-While Van Helsing talks about all the folklore again, almost word for word what he told Thomas and Wilma earlier according to him, Thomas refrains from quoting him again...otherwise it would be another 10 pages onto the total, and this was page 966.
-It’s noted that Morton spent a lot of time in Carfax, having been hanging out with the Count in Whitby, and now he’s missing. “The only thing we know for certain is that we know nothing at all about the matter.” Van Helsing shrugs that it’s just another secret that might never be uncovered. When Thomas is eventually asked if he ever thought the Count sleeping in a coffin was strange, he says no, not really, given the state of things. I sort of love that.
- Barrington mentions Seward became a frequent visitor of Carfax, and it clicks with Van Helsing, as to why he was odd. They also get the names of those involved in the conspiracy stuff. He finally brings up there are rumors about the asylum. The entire staff was suddenly replaced, strange people were coming and going through Carfax Park, and strange noises have been heard. Oh, and Seward was presumed to have brought Arthur into his care on the grounds. It turns out that he hadn’t, and Arthur was worse.
-Van Helsing suggested that Wilma and Thomas try to rent a house in the neighborhood of Carfax and the asylum and move there at once, so they could all have a better meeting ground. Thomas says it’ll be fine, his assistants can take over the firm while he’s happily undercover.
-Thomas Harker, Secret Agent! Their aliases are Tom Henderson, unassuming bank accountant and his wife, Wilma Henderson. They have the best view of everything from their window. The citizens give Tom all the best gossip, and the only concern is whether Thomas can hold it together if he bumps into the Count. He actually does rather well with clandestine meetings by dark of night with Barrington, as they also try to find where the boxes of earth went. He wears clothes that are past their prime but not too bad, so nobody will suspect him of anything.
-While hunting Dracula, Thomas and Barrington vow to avoid drawing attention to themselves; he needs Thomas to identify Dracula if they think they find him. To that end, as they loiter they must walk on opposite sides of the street in different directions. The police know who Barrington is, so they won’t bother them. Thomas notes that he feels a bit like a villain from the theater, as he pops up his collar
-Page 999, vow from Thomas in private: ‘To kill and neutralize this beast disguised as a man, in whose path fate had now put me for a second time, was without a doubt the task God had called and prepared me for.
“Even if it costs me my life,” I said to myself, “so be it. I can only hope it will save countless others.”
-Page 1000, Thomas confirms Dracula was definitely there, as they see him putting on gloves and lighting a cigar, before he leaves and disappears around a corner: “It was him, it was definitely him,” I said, breathless with emotion. “He looks younger, but regardless, I recognized him perfectly.”
-Upon going back home, Thomas finds out that Quincey’s been in the asylum a few days undercover, pretending to be a patient. Van Helsing and Quincey had agreed on several fake symptoms, and was told that Seward was still not around.
-Professor Arminius in Prague is brought up on page 1006; he was mentioned several times in Stoker’s novel, too.
-With Barrington’s instructions, apparently the police were collecting the coffins for the last few hours from a few houses. Those are under lock and key in a warehouse, to Van Helsing’s shock. In Stoker’s version, Arthur was around to pay a locksmith. In this version, it’s Barrington getting the locksmith. Also this:
“I would obviously not have received the authorities’ permission for this little experiment—you are familiar with our deeply rooted English principle that every man’s house is his castle and all of that—if I hadn’t known how to use a certain powerful spell that opens all doors.”
“A spell?”
“Three magic words: ‘Anarchist assassination attempt!’ Before them all hesitation disappears.”
-A few minutes later, they answer the door: from out of the fog two figures emerge around page 1015. Unlike the Icelandic version, they’re not half naked on the lawn of a burning asylum. Say hello to Seward and Quincey; the latter is maimed with a head wound that briefly makes him collapse, while the former is quite insane at this point. According to Thomas’ journal:
“I did not personally know Dr. Seward, but had heard him described as a stately, powerful, and impressive man in his prime, with an interesting and intelligent appearance. What I now saw in front of me was hardly even the shadow of such a man, but rather a hollow-eyed, emaciated broken figure, with pale, sunken cheeks, snow-white hair, and eyes that stared straight ahead with the dull gaze of unseeing insanity.”
-Van Helsing begs Seward to speak to him. All he can say is the name of the Countess, and Thomas has a moment where he understands that this fate could have been his. Quincey and Seward are then sent to the hospital, so Thomas and Van Helsing can go on with the others. (We’ve picked up a man named Gray)
-“A genuine London fog. I do not know if it’s only in my head—we have cleaner air in Exeter—but it’s literally suffocating me. It smells like smoke to me.” Page 1020, we have confirmation that not only is it fog, but the asylum is also on fire.
-Page 1023, there’s confirmation via telegram that Arthur died that morning. For weapons when they go to the correct house, they bring silver bullets with crosses on them, and crucifixes. And this: “I’ll go first,” Van Helsing whispered. “If we find him asleep—or in hibernation—then this is the only tool we’ll need.” He pulled a long, narrow dagger with a cross-shaped guard out from under his coat and removed it from its sheath.
-At some point, they randomly picked up two strangers, who had also lost loved ones to vampires. These two were not named, and didn’t suddenly turn out to be vampires themselves. They were not there to get killed. They just added to the total number of people wandering about. Barrington, Tellet, Thomas, Van Helsing, Gray, these two.
-They find the Count laying in a bed of soil. Thomas looks in, has quiet horror, and this: “What I felt at this sight, and everything it brought back to mind, I will not even attempt to describe.” Bless you, sir, or this would be even longer.
-Just as they’re about to kill him, the sun sets. “The sun set and the powers of darkness reclaimed their rule.”
-Thomas doesn’t die in this version! I thought he would. He did in two sentences in the Icelandic version.
“The deceased—for just a moment ago he had essentially been dead—opened his eyes and sat up. His gaze went past Van Helsing and stopped at me. I saw it light up with the ominous red sheen I knew all too well. His face twisted, exposing his sharp white fangs. His thick black hair seemed to stand up like the mane of an irritated lion. And with a scream that resounded throughout the vault and made the blood freeze in our veins, he leapt out of the coffin and hurled himself at me. At that moment, there was nothing human about him. He was a raging beast thirsty for blood and revenge, turning on its pursuers.
I could feel his iron grip around my throat and his stinking breath on my face, now, just as once before. My eyes went dark and I fumbled to find the cross around my neck. Resistance was unthinkable; I was like a reed compared to his enormous strength.
I heard gunshots, confused voices, and suddenly felt something warm gush over my hands as he released his suffocating grip on my throat. I heard a heavy thump, and one last horrible scream, and as I regained complete consciousness, I felt the support of Van Helsing’s arm, and found myself surrounded by all the others.”
-Evidently, Dracula was shot with those special bullets, tripped backwards in his shock and fury, and fell onto a dagger that killed him. They decide he’s still in need of a proper burial, though.
“Brethren, let us fulfill one last duty. And now, let us put him in the grave, where his earthly being will finally find peace in the same consecrated ground where his ancestors’ bones have moldered away."
…
“Together we lifted the mighty figure from the floor and set him down in the tomb he had prepared for himself. When we had arranged his clothing and stretched out his powerful limbs in peace, Van Helsing walked up to the sarcophagus again, untied the cross from his neck, and ceremoniously placed it on the corpse’s chest. He then took a handful of soil and sprinkled it over the recumbent figure before he clasped his hands and lowered his head in silent prayer. We all followed his example, and for a few moments, there was a deep silence in the vault.”
-After this, they watch as the body decays at a rapid speed; apparently, he looked like he was dead for weeks, even as they were moving him.
“The process was so fast, and indeed so astonishing that I cannot fully describe it. What is certain is that only a few moments passed from the time that we put him in the coffin, to when we looked at each other with horror, doubting our own senses and wondering if an illusion was deceiving us all. For in the coffin in front of us, there was only a handful of dust, in which the crucifix still shone with undiminished splendor.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” Van Helsing said finally. “We have witnessed a wonder, brethren, and simultaneously a sign from Heaven, which gives us assurance and confirmation that we have acted justly, in case any of us ever doubted it!”
-Starting on page 1040, there’s an Afterword. It is not set seven years later, as was the case in Stoker’s novel. Apparently, following events, Thomas had another collapse.
“As for myself, the soul-shaking efforts of the last few days were not good for my nervous system, which was still fragile after the terrible events of the last year. I fell ill with a violent fever, during which I was cared for with never-tiring tenderness by my beloved Wilma. When I started to recover, it was already late in the winter, and Van Helsing advised that we spend the spring on the Riviera and the summer in Switzerland.”
-They chose not to return until the following autumn. “It was not until now that I, through Barrington Jones and Van Helsing, learned about everything that had happened during my convalescence. I had Van Helsing’s explicit orders to refrain from bringing any of these painful and upsetting events to mind.”
-Certain political figures and agents disappeared without a trace when the Count died. “There was talk of secret arrests, house searches, blood-curdling revelations, and much more, but the true contents of the documents Barrington Jones took from Count Draculitz’s writing room on that fine December day have never been known.”
-Seward lived a few more months, and then died without regaining his sanity.
"John Seward himself lived for a few more months, tenderly cared for by his fatherly friend, Van Helsing, in whose arms he calmly and peacefully took his last breath, shortly before we returned to England. He never regained his sanity, but the horrible visions that had initially haunted him eventually disappeared."
-They found his diary in a fireproof box hidden away, so that’s why it survived the asylum burning down. Seward randomly shouted out “Lucy! Arthur!” before he died. Van Helsing hopes that they are together again in the great beyond. A week prior to that, Van Helsing told Mary Holmwood everything that happened; together, the two went and staked Lucy one midnight.
They then staked Arthur, so that plot thread was not left dangling. After that, they were cremated, and the vault was bricked up. During everything before Thomas’ collapse, a man was found murdered outside the asylum, and in the afterword it’s revealed that it was Prince Koromeszo. Mary faints at the news, since that was her husband (who she left, since he abused her; Arthur had been helping Mary obtain a divorce until all the biting started).
-Van Helsing verifies the man they found dead was definitely that guy, by taking a picture with him for verification. He also recognizes the man as the one that claimed to be an assistant doctor at the asylum, who he didn’t trust.
-Quincey Morris confessed to killing Koromeszo, once he had recovered in the hospital. He was acquitted of all charges. “What he experienced during those terrible days in the asylum will — he has assured us of this himself — remain a secret forever. He says, just like Mary Holmwood, that there are things you do not speak of.
“I have been to Hell and I’ve seen the devils and the devils’ colonel,” he said with profound seriousness, the only time we ever talked about it. “For such things, human languages have no words.”
-Quincey does reveal the fire was started by Renfield. This gives me pause: “After the mysterious catastrophe that one could only assume, after reading Seward’s diary, had happened there, he seemed to have claimed the position of superintendent of the asylum.
“You see, it was the patients that were the masters over there, and the sane that were locked up,” Morris said with a shudder. “Yes, now I know what Hell is like.”
Yeah, Renfield’s in charge over there now. Renfield. Think about that.
-The Countess and Leonardi vanished without a trace, and Carfax was found vacant when the police searched it. Ten boxes of earth were never found. “The remaining ones were found to validate Barrington Jones’s conjecture; under the foot-thick layer of earth, there were sacks of gold coins, precious stones, and valuables of all kinds, worth several million pounds.”
-Nobody was around to take possession of all that money, so it went to the Bank of England, “where it will probably provide future legislators much trouble.” It’s noted others in the future will have to take up the fight if the remaining legions of undead that the Count once ruled choose to pop up, and that’s why the papers were gathered.
-All in all, I did enjoy this Swedish version a bit more than the Icelandic version. The plot threads were resolved here, aside from a couple things. At least Lucy and Arthur weren’t completely forgotten following his request to leave snacks out for her.
Renfield’s alive and holding down the fort with the inmates as superintendent, which I will forever consider utterly bizarre. Is...is he still consuming flies, spiders and sparrows? Does he still believe the proclamations that came from Dracula? Who did the job interview? Heh. I have so many questions.
Wilma basically wandered away to do needlepoint in the story after a certain point, popping in and out to help Thomas when he had anxiety, and otherwise letting the men handle everything. At least she didn’t get bitten.
However, I do love the lengths she went to in order to get Thomas back to England. Oh, and that mysterious magical ring that Dracula gave to Thomas never pops up again, so that was a dead end. I had hoped that it would lead to him being under some form of diabolical mind control by the Count even as he struggled to regain his health.
I think I like the Lucy of Stoker’s novel more than I do the Lucy of the Swedish version. While it’s almost a tie for whether I prefer Wilma or Mina, I believe that I lean towards Mina. Even if Wilma ended up exploring a castle to save Thomas, there were just elements of her that I didn’t care for.
I loved how Thomas’ time in the convent was explored further. The subplot of Seward and the Countess was interesting, though I do wish he had been able to come back to himself, or that the Countess could have been slain.
I’m rather grateful they didn’t include Quincey’s exploits in the asylum, aside from the impact it had on him in the long run. And I'm sorry to report that the poor man had to sit through all of Van Helsing's speeches, and never got to wander outside and shoot through a window, terrifying all after missing his bat target, as in Stoker's novel. That incident just doesn't happen here, since the meeting place was moved to the Harkers' residence.
It was immensely satisfying to finally have the opportunity to read this version. I recommend it for curiosity’s sake, given how much I had heard of it over the years.
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“Blessed be the name of the Lord!” Van Helsing exclaimed, in a voice trembling with emotion. “He has held His protecting hand over us. The prince of darkness did not prevail!”
I followed everyone’s eyes, dizzy and confused, unable to comprehend what had happened.
There, stretched out on the ground in front of us, lay the dreadful one, bathed in the blood that was still gushing from his heart, which had been pierced by the dagger. We stood there in silence for a few moments, overwhelmed by the incredible event we had just witnessed and survived. Then Van Helsing said, with the same solemnity...'
Cue "Brethren, let us fulfill one last duty," and go bury him in his own coffin if he's not rotting too fast.
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