World classic, retold in simple Mandarin
Dracula
德古拉
Dracula (德古拉, Dégǔlā) is a classic by Bram Stoker, retold in simple Mandarin as a 6-chapter story with audio for learners at about HSK 4 (Upper intermediate).
Retold from Bram Stoker's 1897 classic: a young English lawyer is trapped in a Count's mountain castle, and his friends must race across Europe to stop the vampire before sunset.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — An old storyteller who tells the tale calmly, like a grandfather by the fire.
- Jonathan Harker · 乔纳森 — A polite, brave young English lawyer who is far from home and engaged to Mina.
- Count Dracula · 德古拉伯爵 — A tall, courteous old nobleman in a mountain castle, who is not what he seems.
- Mina · 米娜 — Jonathan's clever, loyal sweetheart, who keeps a notebook and never gives up on him.
- Lucy · 露西 — Mina's playful best friend, who has three suitors and only one heart.
- Professor Van Helsing · 范海辛 — A calm Dutch professor who knows old secrets and is certain how to fight the Count.
- Dr. Seward · 西沃德 — A young English doctor who runs a hospital and loves Lucy.
- Arthur · 亚瑟 — Lucy's kind, warm-hearted fiancé.
- Quincey Morris · 昆西 — A cheerful, brave American from Texas who jokes even in danger.
- The Innkeeper's Wife · 老板娘 — A kind Romanian innkeeper's wife who worries about her guest.
- The Coachman · 马车夫 — A gruff old driver who is afraid of the road to the castle.
6 chapters, one journey
Chapter 1: The Road to the Castle
通往城堡的路
A cheerful young lawyer laughs at the warnings of a mountain village and rides to a count's castle, where a strange welcome and a stranger mirror wait.
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Chapter 2: The Locked Door
锁上的门
The Count wants Jonathan to stay a month and write three letters home. Then Jonathan sees something climb down the castle wall, and finds a very strange bed.
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Chapter 3: The Ship Without a Crew
没有人的船
A storm drives a ship with no crew into Whitby harbor, and a huge dog leaps ashore. That night, Mina wakes to find Lucy's bed empty.
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Chapter 4: Lucy Grows Pale
露西病了
Mina finds Lucy sleepwalking with two tiny marks on her neck. Professor Van Helsing arrives with garlic and a terrible truth: someone in the shadows will look for Mina next.
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Chapter 5: The Hunt Begins
找伯爵
Jonathan spots the Count on a London street. Van Helsing gathers friends to search the old house at Carfax, and Mina hears something in the dark before dawn.
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Chapter 6: Race Against the Sun
和太阳赛跑
Mina waits in a circle of holy bread while her friends race a wagon up a mountain road. Sunset is minutes away, and the Count's last box must be opened before dark.
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Key words in Dracula
Behind the story
Dracula was written by the Irish author Bram Stoker and published in 1897. The book is told through letters, diary pages and telegrams, so readers piece the mystery together as the characters do. Stoker never visited Transylvania; he studied it in books, and he took the name Dracula from a history of the region. The story's seaside chapters were inspired by the town of Whitby in Yorkshire, with its ruined abbey on the cliff.
Chinese readers know the story as 德古拉, and the monster in it as 吸血鬼, literally a “blood-sucking ghost.” Chinese folklore has its own undead figure, the 僵尸, but it is a different creature from Stoker's vampire. This retelling keeps the eerie mood and the great chase across Europe, and leaves out the scary details.
Did you know?
- The novel is told in diary entries, letters, telegrams and newspaper stories rather than by one narrator.
- Stoker took the name Dracula from a book about the history of Wallachia, where it was used by a real fifteenth-century prince. The Count in the novel is an invented character.
- In old European belief, garlic and the cross protected people from evil, which is why Professor Van Helsing uses both in the story.