The Carpathian Castle
Author | Jules Verne |
---|---|
Original title | Le Château des Carpathes |
Illustrator | LĂ©on Benett |
Country | France |
Language | French |
Series | The Extraordinary Voyages #37 |
Genre |
Science fiction, horror novel |
Publisher | Pierre-Jules Hetzel |
Publication date | 1892 |
Published in English | 1893 |
Media type | Print (Hardback) |
Preceded by | Mistress Branican |
Followed by | Claudius Bombarnac |
The Carpathian Castle (French: Le Château des Carpathes) is a novel by Jules Verne first published in 1893. It is possible that Bram Stoker took inspiration from this for his 1897 novel Dracula.
Title
The original French title was Le Château des Carpathes and in English there are some alternate titles, such as The Castle of the Carpathians, The Castle in Transylvania, and Rodolphe de Gortz; or the Castle of the Carpathians.
Synopsis
In the village of Werst in the Carpathian mountains of Transylvania (then part of Austria-Hungary), some mysterious things are occurring and the villagers believe that Chort (the devil) occupies the castle. A visitor to the region, Count Franz de TĂ©lek, is intrigued by the stories and decides to go to the castle and investigate. He finds that the owner of the castle is Baron Rodolphe de Gortz, with whom he is acquainted; years earlier, they were rivals for the affections of the celebrated Italian prima donna La Stilla. The Count thought that La Stilla was dead, but he sees her image and hears her voice coming from the castle. It is later revealed that it was only a projected still image accompanying a high-quality phonograph recording.
Further reading
- Shah, Raj (2014). "Counterfeit Castles: The Age of Mechanical Reproduction in Bram Stoker's Dracula and Jules Verne's Le Château des Carpathes". Texas Studies in Literature and Language 56 (4): 428–71. doi:10.1353/tsl.2014.0018.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Carpathian Castle. |
French edition of Wikisource, the free library |
- Le Château des Carpathes at Project Gutenberg (French)
- The Castle of the Carpathians (English)
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