Dracula, The Hunters' Journals: 12 September Lucy Westenra’s Diary.

 We get a rare diary entry from Lucy.

Lucy Westenra’s Diary.

12 September.—How good they all are to me. I quite love that dear Dr. Van Helsing. I wonder why he was so anxious about these flowers. He positively frightened me, he was so fierce. And yet he must have been right, for I feel comfort from them already. Somehow, I do not dread being alone to-night, and I can go to sleep without fear. I shall not mind any flapping outside the window. Oh, the terrible struggle that I have had against sleep so often of late; the pain of the sleeplessness, or the pain of the fear of sleep, with such unknown horrors as it has for me! How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads; to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams. Well, here I am to-night, hoping for sleep, and lying like Ophelia in the play, with “virgin crants and maiden strewments.” I never liked garlic before, but to-night it is delightful! There is peace in its smell; I feel sleep coming already. Good-night, everybody.

Notes: Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous

Compared to Mina, we barely get to know Lucy at all. Her diary entries are infrequent and she soon falls victim to Dracula. In fact in some movie versions her character is folded into that of Mina's and she even portrayed as either Dr. Seward's (John Balderston's play) or Van Helsing's (1979 movie) daughter.

This has given rise to some "headcanon" that Dr. Seward later marries and names his daughter after Lucy. I hope his wife doesn't figure that out. 

I'll spend some time trying to reconcile the novel with the Hamilton Deane (1924) and John L. Balderston (1927) play(s). This play gave us the Bela Lugosi (1931) and Frank Langella (1979) versions of the Dracula movies.  

Of note, in the 1927 production of the play, Quincey Morris was gender-swapped to a woman in Deane's original plan. That might be fun to play around with. An American adventuress in say the 1920s (the setting of the 1979 movie.)  Maybe Quinn? Maybe someone like Bonnie Bedelia who was born in 1948 and would have been 30 for the movie. American and could pull off the role of an adventuress.  She would not be Quincey's daughter, but likely the daughter of his brother or something like that.