The exact words
A courteous host and a howl in the dark
The line comes in the quiet middle of a long evening. Jonathan Harker has reached the castle after a frightening coach journey, been welcomed at the door, and eaten a supper of roast chicken, cheese, salad and old Tokay while the Count asks him about his travels. Afterwards Harker draws a chair up to the fire and smokes a cigar the Count has offered, and he finally has a chance to look closely at his host. In his journal he notes the pallor, the sharp teeth, the pointed ears and the hairs in the palms of the Count’s hands, and he admits that a horrible feeling of nausea comes over him when the Count touches him.
Then the scene turns. Harker looks toward the window and sees the first dim streak of dawn. Everything is strangely still. From the valley below he hears what sounds like the howling of many wolves. The Count’s eyes gleam, and he says, “Listen to them—the children of the night. What music they make!”
What the line tells us
The sentence is short, but it does several jobs at once. It shows that the Count hears the wolves as company rather than danger. It is polite, almost warm, and so it comes as a shock to a reader who has been told to fear him. And it separates host from guest in a single stroke: where Harker feels dread, Dracula feels at home.
Stoker immediately underlines the difference. Seeing the expression on Harker’s face, the Count adds, “Ah, sir, you dwellers in the city cannot enter into the feelings of the hunter.” The remark is a tidy piece of characterisation. It presents the Count as an old aristocrat who looks down, gently, on the soft habits of the city, and it plants the idea that the hunter and the hunted are about to change places for Harker.
Wolves, not bats
Many people carry the line in memory as something to do with bats or with the dark in general. The novel’s children of the night are wolves, and the line is tied to a specific hour, the grey light just before dawn. That detail matters for how the scene feels. It is the end of a night of questions and courtesy, and the Count’s remark about the music is the last thing he says before he sends Harker to bed with the words, “sleep well and dream well!”
It is also worth noticing how plain the surroundings are. There is no thunder and no cloaked figure. A man is sitting by a fire after supper, and the most frightening moment in the chapter is a polite comment about the sound of animals outside.
The film echo
A later screen version fixed the line in popular memory. The 1931 film with Bela Lugosi gives the Count a closely similar speech about the wolves, and it was delivered so memorably that many quotation lists treat the film’s phrasing as the original. If you want to quote Stoker, go back to his sentence: “Listen to them—the children of the night. What music they make!” The dash after “Listen to them” and the exclamation mark after “make” are his, and the phrase about the hunter that follows is part of the same beat.
How to use it
The line works best in writing about the book itself, or about how a story introduces its villain. It is a fine example of menace delivered through good manners. When you quote it, give the speaker and the setting, and name the animals the Count means, because that detail is what makes the line precise. Quote it as “Dracula, Chapter 2,” and, if you are comparing it with the film, say plainly which one you are citing.
What people get wrong
A line the Count says on first meeting Harker, in a menacing voice, about bats or about people.
In the book the children of the night are wolves, the Count says it only after supper, near dawn, and the line is followed by his remark about the hunter. The wording in films and quotation lists often varies from Stoker's sentence, which has a dash after “Listen to them” and “the children of the night” as the object of that phrase.
Timeline
- 26 May 1897Dracula is published in London. The novel is told through journals, letters and other documents, and its first four chapters are the journal of Jonathan Harker.
- 5 May, in the storyHarker, a solicitor's clerk who has travelled to Transylvania to settle a property sale, sits by the fire with the Count after supper. As the first light of dawn appears, he hears wolves howling in the valley.
- Same sceneThe Count says, “Listen to them—the children of the night. What music they make!” and adds that city dwellers cannot enter into the feelings of the hunter.
- 1931A film version of Dracula with Bela Lugosi in the title role gives the Count a very similar line, and it becomes one of the best-known speeches of the character.
Use it in a speech
Questions people ask
Who says “Listen to them, the children of the night” in Dracula?
Count Dracula says it to Jonathan Harker in Chapter 2, when they are sitting by the fire at the castle and wolves are howling in the valley.
Who are the children of the night?
In the novel they are the wolves. The Count calls them his “children” in an affectionate and chilling way.
What does the Count say next?
He adds, “Ah, sir, you dwellers in the city cannot enter into the feelings of the hunter,” and then tells Harker that his bedroom is ready.
Is the line in the 1931 film too?
A very similar line is spoken in the 1931 film with Bela Lugosi. The book's version comes first and is the one quoted here.
Cite this quote
These cite the original source directly, so you can use them in an essay or paper. Always check your teacher's required style.