The Journey to Dracula

De cómo Jonathan Harker viaja en tren para encontrarse con el conde Drácula, de su alojamiento en el Hotel Royale, de Transilvania, y de los habitantes del lugar.

En vocabulario buscamos foreknowledge y también un poco de la ciudad de Budapest, que se convirtió con el tiempo en un importante centro comercial y cultural.

Más abajo ponemos una foto de soldados rusos durante la rendición de la ciudad en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, en 1.945.

 

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… 

Tropas soviéticas dentro de Budapest

 

Generalidades

Drácula fue escrita en su mayoría en la década de 1.890. Stoker produjo más de cien páginas de notas para la novela, basándose en gran medida en el folclore de Transilvania. Algunos estudiosos han sugerido que Drácula se inspiró en personajes históricos como el príncipe rumano Vlad el Empalador, pero existe un desacuerdo generalizado. Las notas de Stoker no mencionan esto. Encontró el nombre Drácula en la biblioteca pública de Whitby mientras estaba de vacaciones allí, y lo eligió porque pensó que significaba diablo en rumano.

Tras su publicación Drácula fue recibido positivamente por los críticos que señalaron su uso eficaz del terror. Por el contrario, los críticos que escribieron negativamente sobre la novela la consideraron excesivamente aterradora. En el siglo pasado, Drácula se situó como una pieza de ficción gótica. Los estudiosos modernos exploran la novela dentro de su contexto histórico (la época victoriana) y discuten su descripción de los roles de género, la sexualidad y la raza.

Párrafos

3 May. Bistritz.--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. 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 little 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.

In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct nationalities: Saxons in the South, and mixed with them the Wallachs, who are the descendants of the Dacians; Magyars in the West, and Szekelys in the East and North. I am going among the latter, who claim to be descended from Attila and the Huns. This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered the country in the eleventh century they found the Huns settled in it. I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting. (Mem., I must ask the Count all about them.)

I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams. There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do with it; or it may have been the paprika, for I had to drink up all the water in my carafe, and was still thirsty. Towards morning I slept and was wakened by the continuous knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then. I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was “mamaliga,” and egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call “impletata.”… (Excerpts from Dracula de Bram Stoker, in Easier English)

Vocabulario

Foreknowledge: knowledge of something before it happens.

Synonyms: precognition, foresight, forewarning, clairvoyance, prescience (formal).

Foreknowledge: Saber de antemano, pre conocimiento.

Para saber

Budapest es la capital de Hungría. También se convirtió en la co-capital del Imperio Austrohúngaro, una gran potencia que se disolvió en 1.918, tras la Primera Guerra Mundial. La ciudad fue el punto focal de la Revolución Húngara de 1.848 y de la Batalla de Budapest en 1.945; así como de la Revolución Húngara de 1.956.

Budapest es una ciudad global con fortalezas en comercio, finanzas, medios, arte, moda, investigación, tecnología, educación y entretenimiento. Es además el centro financiero de Hungría, la sede del Instituto Europeo de Innovación y Tecnología, la Escuela Europea de Policía y la primera oficina exterior de la Agencia de Promoción de Inversiones de China. Más de 40 facultades y universidades están ubicadas en Budapest. Inaugurado en 1.896, el sistema del metro, el Metro de Budapest, presta servicio a 1,27 millones, mientras que la red de tranvía de Budapest atiende a 1,08 millones de pasajeros diariamente.

La zona central de Budapest a lo largo del río Danubio está clasificada como Patrimonio de la Humanidad por la UNESCO y tiene varios monumentos notables de arquitectura clásica, incluido el Parlamento húngaro y el Castillo de Buda.

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Fuentes

Dracula, Wikipedia