I. El viaje a Transilvania
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An A2 adaptation of Stoker’s vampire novel
Dracula Drácula
Bram Stoker
This is a retelling of Bram Stoker’s novel in simple Spanish, not the original text: a MovaReader adaptation for readers who already know the past tenses and want the whole story of Count Dracula. In the catalog it is A2: about 5,100 words, 10 words per sentence on average. 10 chapters follow the novel of 1897, which is told in diaries and letters: from Jonathan Harker’s journey to the castle in Transylvania and the ship that comes to Whitby to Lucy’s illness, the hunt in London and the chase back to the mountains.
- A2
- 5 101 words
- 1 hour
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 the past tenses will stop you: the narration runs in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto (llegamos, dijo, estaba, tenía), at 10 words per sentence on average.
A1A2
This text
You can manage it at A2: sentences are short, the story stays in the past tenses you know, and the headings of the diaries tell you whose voice you are reading.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 the adaptation reads with room to spare, almost without translation: in about an hour you get through the whole story before turning to the longer Spanish texts, which start at B2 in the catalog.
Start readingThe average sentence has 10 words: the story is told in the past, with events in the pretérito indefinido and background in the imperfecto, and the diaries, letters and lines of dialogue keep the sentences short. A word of 9 letters or more comes up about once in 42 words, and many of them are verb forms such as encontramos or desapareció. Each of the 10 chapters averages 9-11 words per sentence, so the difficulty is even. Spanish A1 books in the catalog run at 5-7 words per sentence, A2 books at 8-10 and B1 books at 11-12; full texts start at B2, and the complete original Dracula is not in the Spanish catalog. Hence A2. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 5 101
- words
- 10
- words in an average sentence
- 1
- hour of reading
MovaReader. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
A young English lawyer, Jonathan Harker, travels to a lonely castle in the mountains of Transylvania to help Count Dracula buy a house in London. His host never eats in front of him, casts no reflection in the mirror and keeps every door locked, and Jonathan slowly understands that he is a prisoner. In England his fiancée Mina and her friend Lucy spend the summer by the sea at Whitby, where a storm throws a strange ship onto the beach. Soon Lucy falls ill, and Dr. Seward calls his old teacher, Professor Van Helsing, who guesses what is hunting her. The friends gather around Mina and Jonathan, search London for the boxes of earth and follow the Count across Europe. How the hunt ends is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Drácula
V. El barco que llegó con la tormenta
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Choose an underlined word.
A welcome in polite commands
The count welcomes his guest with commands to usted: Entre con confianza is “come in, make yourself at home”, and deje aquí un poco de su felicidad is “leave a little of your happiness here”. Era alto y muy delgado: the imperfecto describes a person, “he was tall and very thin”. Frías como el hielo: como makes a comparison, “cold as ice”. En lo alto de una roca: lo alto is “the top”, so “on top of a rock”.
Storm and shipwreck in two past tenses
The scene switches between the two past tenses: apareció, chocó, saltó and corrió are events (indefinido), while tenía, corría and se veía describe the scene (imperfecto). Todos creían que iba a romperse: ir a + infinitive is “was going to break up”. No se veía nada: se veía is “could be seen”, so “you could see nothing”. Se perdió en la noche: se perdió is “vanished”.
Chapters
Translation while you read
The book stays free on every plan. Reader, €1 a month, removes the daily limit on words and sentences.
Reader
€1 a month
Reader translates whole sentences, and here that helps most with the count’s courtly speech, as in his welcome at the castle: Entre con confianza y deje aquí un poco de su felicidad.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
All books at this levelBefore you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
A learner adaptation, not the original: MovaReader retold Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula (1897) in simple Spanish, following the public-domain text on Project Gutenberg. The language and length have changed: modern Spanish in the past tenses, 10 words per sentence on average, 10 chapters and about 5,100 words, while the novel is many times longer. The story and its order stay: Jonathan Harker’s journey to the castle, the three women and his escape, the ship that comes to Whitby, Lucy and her three suitors, Professor Van Helsing, Lucy’s death and return, Mina and Renfield, the hunt for the boxes of earth in London and the chase back to Transylvania. The diaries and letters of the original stay as short headings such as “Del diario de Jonathan Harker”, many smaller scenes are left out, and the frightening moments are told without gory detail. The complete novel is not in the Spanish catalog.
Is there an audiobook?
There is no audio version of this adaptation: MovaReader gives you the text, not a recording. Tap an unfamiliar word and its translation appears next to it; here that will mostly be words of night and fear, such as niebla, lobo or tumba.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
The Reader plan translates whole sentences. They are short here, 10 words on average, so you will seldom need one translated: mostly the longer turns of speech, like Usted tiene una mente de hombre y un corazón de mujer, which Van Helsing says to Mina. The free plan also translates single words, up to a daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole adaptation takes about 1-1.5 hours: an hour at an easy pace, a little more if you still translate new words. A chapter averages about 510 words, or 5-9 minutes of reading, so one evening easily covers several chapters.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is even: each of the 10 chapters averages 9-11 words per sentence, so there is no easier stretch. Only long words vary: in chapter V, the storm at Whitby, one word in 100 has 9 letters or more, and in chapters II and IV about one in 33.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes, once you sign in: the reader keeps your last place and the words you opened, so next time you carry on from there. The contents on this page also take you straight to any chapter, say V, “El barco que llegó con la tormenta”, where a strange ship comes into the port of Whitby in a storm.