Monday, May 27, 2024

The Journey of a Vampire

a map of Europe showing Dracula's route from Transylvania to England

On a dark night in July, 1893, Count Dracula embarked on a long, secret journey from Transylvania aboard the ill-fated ship Demeter. Unbeknownst to the unsuspecting crew of the Demeter, a malevolent force lay hidden in the ship's hold—a coffin filled with the cursed soil of Dracula's homeland, concealing the vampire lord himself.

By the time the Demeter's ghostly silhouette loomed over the shores of Whitby, it carried with it a cargo of death. The once bustling ship had become a floating tomb, with the captain, the sole survivor, lashed to the ship's wheel in a desperate bid to maintain control over the vessel. 

You can follow Count Dracula's nightmare journey from Transylvania to England for yourself on a new interactive book map of the novel. Dracula: The Map is a project by Morgan Bishop, which plots all the locations mentioned in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Using the 'Character Routes' drop-down menu you can select to view an interactive map of the journeys undertaken by each of the five main characters in the novel; Dracula, Jonathon Harker, his fiancee Mina Murray, Dr. Seward and Dr. Van Helsing.

The journey maps in Dracula: The Map were all created using Knight Lab's popular StoryMapJS format.

StoryMapJS was also used by the Smitsonian in Jane Austen's Footsteps to explore some of the important locations in the English writer's life. It has also been used to map Ayra's Journey in The Game of Thrones series of novels. Other maps of character journeys in fiction can be found in the Maps Mania post Literary Journeys.

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