In the novel Dracula, Van Helsing is called in by his former student, Dr. John Seward, to assist with the mysterious illness of Lucy Westenra. Van Helsing’s friendship with Seward is based in part upon an unknown prior event in which Van Helsing suffered a grievous wound and Seward saved his life by sucking out the gangrene. It is Van Helsing who first realizes that Lucy is the victim of a vampire and he guides Dr. Seward and his friends in their efforts to save Lucy. In the novel, from the annotations of Leonard Wolf, it is mentioned that Van Helsing had a son who died. Van Helsing says that his son, had he lived, would have had a similar appearance to another character, Arthur Holmwood. Consequently, Van Helsing developed a particular fondness for Holmwood. Van Helsing’s wife went insane after their son’s death, but as a devout Catholic, he refuses to divorce her. (“with my poor wife dead to me, but alive by Church’s law, though no wits, all gone, even I, who am faithful husband to this now-no-wife …”) Van Helsing is one of the few characters in the novel who is fully physically described in one place. In chapter 14, Mina Murray describes him as: Van Helsing’s personality is described by John Seward, his former student, thus: In the novel, Van Helsing is described with what is apparently a thick German accent, in that his English is broken, and he uses various German phrases like “Mein Gott”. Though his name is Dutch and he receives the telegram in Amsterdam there is no given explanation for the German accent, as a result many films depict the character as being German instead of Dutch, despite the Dutch name and having received the telegram in Amsterdam. Adaptations of the novel have tended to play up Van Helsing’s role as the vampire professional-expert, sometimes to the extent that it is depicted as his major occupation. In the novel, however, Dr. Seward is unaware of this side of his old friend and requests Van Helsing’s assistance simply because Lucy’s affliction has him baffled and Van Helsing “knows as much about obscure diseases as any one in the world.” Indeed, Van Helsing takes too much time (weeks and months) to recognize Lucy’s illness, and seems to have no practical knowledge about vampires. Until her funeral, he tells no one his theory of Lucy’s death.
First Publisher Archibald Constable and Company (UK)
Appearance List Eerie #12, Dracula (play) and Dracula (novel). Bram Stoker’s Dracula originally appeared as a stage play on May 18, 1897 (which only two people attended). The (much-more famous) novel was released eight days later.
Description In the novel Dracula, Van Helsing is called in by his former student, Dr. John Seward, to assist with the mysterious illness of Lucy Westenra. Van Helsing’s friendship with Seward is based in part upon an unknown prior event in which Van Helsing suffered a grievous wound and Seward saved his life by sucking out the gangrene. It is Van Helsing who first realizes that Lucy is the victim of a vampire and he guides Dr. Seward and his friends in their efforts to save Lucy. In the novel, from the annotations of Leonard Wolf, it is mentioned that Van Helsing had a son who died. Van Helsing says that his son, had he lived, would have had a similar appearance to another character, Arthur Holmwood. Consequently, Van Helsing developed a particular fondness for Holmwood. Van Helsing’s wife went insane after their son’s death, but as a devout Catholic, he refuses to divorce her. (“with my poor wife dead to me, but alive by Church’s law, though no wits, all gone, even I, who am faithful husband to this now-no-wife …”) Van Helsing is one of the few characters in the novel who is fully physically described in one place. In chapter 14, Mina Murray describes him as: Van Helsing’s personality is described by John Seward, his former student, thus: In the novel, Van Helsing is described with what is apparently a thick German accent, in that his English is broken, and he uses various German phrases like “Mein Gott”. Though his name is Dutch and he receives the telegram in Amsterdam there is no given explanation for the German accent, as a result many films depict the character as being German instead of Dutch, despite the Dutch name and having received the telegram in Amsterdam. Adaptations of the novel have tended to play up Van Helsing’s role as the vampire professional-expert, sometimes to the extent that it is depicted as his major occupation. In the novel, however, Dr. Seward is unaware of this side of his old friend and requests Van Helsing’s assistance simply because Lucy’s affliction has him baffled and Van Helsing “knows as much about obscure diseases as any one in the world.” Indeed, Van Helsing takes too much time (weeks and months) to recognize Lucy’s illness, and seems to have no practical knowledge about vampires. Until her funeral, he tells no one his theory of Lucy’s death.
