The Carpathian Castle
AuthorJules Verne
Original titleLe Château des Carpathes
Translatorkavya
IllustratorLéon Benett
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
SeriesThe Extraordinary Voyages #37
GenreScience fiction,
horror novel
PublisherPierre-Jules Hetzel
Publication date
1892
Published in English
1893
Media typePrint (Hardback)
Preceded byMistress Branican 
Followed byClaudius Bombarnac 

The Carpathian Castle (French: Le Château des Carpathes) is a novel by Jules Verne first published in 1892. It is possible that Bram Stoker took inspiration from this for his 1897 novel Dracula. Due to castle aspect and local toponymy, it is assumed that Colț Castle in Hunedoara county inspired Jules Verne.

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 (in the then 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 Telek, 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.

In the media

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:10.7560/tsll56404. S2CID 162708881.
  • Isabelle Crépy. Un Prêtre en 1839 (1847) et Le Château des Carpathes (1892), influencés par le roman gothique anglais. Bulletin de la Société Jules Verne 118. Pages 41-43. 2e. trimestre 1996.
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