The Castle of the Carpathians.

VERNE, Jules.

Item Number: 95153

London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1893.

Rare first edition of Verne’s Gothic mystery novel that likely inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Octavo, original illustrated cloth, gilt titles to the spine and front panel, top edge gilt, pictorial endpapers, engraved frontispiece, illustrated with numerous engravings. In very good condition. Scarce and desirable.

Verne's The Castle of the Carpathians centres on the story of Count Franz de Telek, a visitor to the village of Werst in the Carpathian mountains of Transylvania who is inspired to visit the region after hearing that the town's villagers believe that the devil has come to inhabit its castle. The novel was likely the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Gothic horror novel, Dracula, published five years later in 1897 and featuring the character of Count Dracula, also of Transylvania.