"Hotel Royal" in B.S.'s Dracula?
cff...@aol.com
In Bram Stoker's Dracula, Jonathan Harker stays in the "Hotel Royal" while
he is in Klausenburg (called Cluj-Napoca these days). However, there is no
Hotel Royal in Cluj-Napoca today. Does anybody know if the hotel name is
just phantasy or is the Hotel Royal identical with the "Hotel Continental"
in Cluj-Napoca today? Nobody in Romania could tell me anything about it
but the "Hotel Continental" is supposed to be the oldest hotel in
Cluj-Napoca. Also, it would have been impossible for a hotel to remain a
name such as "Hotel ROYAL" during communism.
I know a lot of the names in Bram Stoker's Dracula are phantasy names, but
I'm not sure about this one.
I hope somebody of you has travelled to Transilvania in the last couple of
years as well and can tell me more about this.
Please e-mail me as I don't read this page very often.
Horvath
On 2 Dec 1996 20:11:27 GMT, cff...@aol.com scribbled:
I am familiar with all the major hotels in Cluj. There is no Hotel
Royal. The story is fiction. Cluj hasn't even been called Klausenburg
for over 800 years.
Horvath
My OTHER sig is rude, obnoxious, and insulting, asshole!
cff...@aol.com
You're probably right about the non-existance of "Hotel Royal". However,
I'm not really sure what you mean with your comments about the name
Klausenburg. The city definetly was called Klausenburg for a long, long
time. Of course, the Hungarian name was Kolozsvar, but both names were
used. Germans and Austrians as well as Germans in Romania still call it
Klausenburg.
Horvath
On 7 Dec 1996 09:33:28 GMT, cff...@aol.com scribbled:
No, they do not call it Klausenburg. They call it Cluj.
Horvath
Don't be alarmed by the sudden splendor of my appearance,
and do not let the fear of the fury and chaos of darkness
trouble you any longer. My name is Horvath, a soldier of
the night. Henceforth I shall be your shield, and your
defender. Step closer, join me, and you shall live, forever.
Bryan Tso Jones
On 7 Dec 1996 cff...@aol.com wrote:
> You're probably right about the non-existance of "Hotel Royal". However,
> I'm not really sure what you mean with your comments about the name
> Klausenburg. The city definetly was called Klausenburg for a long, long
> time. Of course, the Hungarian name was Kolozsvar, but both names were
> used. Germans and Austrians as well as Germans in Romania still call it
> Klausenburg.
From desk of M. Tarak, pen by Wei-Lun:
"Now this intrigues me. Has anyone done a study on geographical accuracies
on the little tale dear Mr. Stoker wrote for us? Granted most of the
material has been borrowed from half-baked legends and fanciful tales, but
what of the places? Might anyone know just how careful Mr. Brahms was?"
Curiousity poking a fang,
Jlas Ben-Tarak.
bhaus...@aol.com
Jlas Ben-Tarak writes:
>Granted most of the material has been borrowed
>from half-baked legends and fanciful tales, but
>what of the places? Might anyone know just how
>careful Mr. Brahms was?"
Most scholarship I have seen on this subject acknowledges that Stoker
borrowed heavily (bordering on plagiarism) from contemporary travelogues,
or travel narratives if you will. I have never seen (or noticed, I should
say) any citation of the specific narratives used by the author. Clearly,
these scholars must have had access to these narratives to be able to
claim that Stoker virtually copied them verbatim. Though I do not have my
copy with me, I would think Wolff's _Essential Dracula_, or _The Annotated
Dracula_ may have the actual citations in the bibliography.
Without recourse to source documents, about the only analysis one can make
is that the accuracy of Stoker's description of the Carpathians and their
environs could only have been as good as the authors of the various
narratives he perused in the library of the British Museum.
My 2 pfennigs,
Dr Hauser
--"Of course not, but who knew the plankton would take it so personally?"