“ The Horla ,” Dracula ’ s Older French Cousin
As to underline this symmetry , this entry in Harker ’ s journal is dated May 8 th , which is the exact same date as the first entry in the narrator ’ s diary in “ Le Horla .” This particular date might seem innocuous enough outside of a close circle of friends , for it is the day on which Gustave Flaubert , Maupassant ’ s friend and mentor , passed away . From a strictly biographical standpoint , May 8 th had naturally ominous connotations for Maupassant , which explains why he chose it as the beginning for a dark fantastic tale . In Dracula , this day marks the first true confrontation between Harker and the supernatural , that is the moment when the novel becomes fantastic . This parallelism of dates and narrative motifs leaves little doubt regarding the influence “ The Horla ” had upon Dracula , for the choice of the 8 th of May to present the episode of the mirror , whether conscious or unconscious , is an undeniable reference to the vampire ’ s older French cousin .
THE UN-GOTHIC
From a generic point of view , “ Le Horla ” and Dracula are both exemplary illustrations of the modern fantastic . Although Dracula is often presented as a “ gothic ” novel , the term proves rather misleading for it describes a narrative category�a set of narrative motifs�rather than a particular narrative mode , that is the way the narrated universe relates to our reality . This common confusion explains why the gothic usually includes an almost infinite variety of authors , ranging from Edgar Allan Poe and Ann Radcliff to Howard Philip Lovecraft and Stephen King , enthusiastically overlooking the fundamental differences and specific intentionality of their respective works . Whereas many of Poe ’ s tales are uncanny rather than fantastic , for they do not present any supernatural element in their narrative universe , i . e ., “ The Purloined Letter ,” “ The Gold Bug ,” “ The Cask of Amontillado ,” those by Lovecraft ,
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