While not explicitly about Dracula, this 1887 short story is often included in "Best Vampire Stories" PDF collections. It heavily influenced the invisible, psychological nature of the vampire in Stoker’s work. If you love the "Diary" entries in Dracula , you will love this.
Since Bram Stoker died in 1912, his original novel entered the public domain in most countries (life plus 70 years). However, abridgments can be copyrighted. Here is where to find legal, high-quality PDFs:
For the savvy reader looking for the free online, a few reliable sources exist. Sites like Project Gutenberg offer the complete novel for free, which a reader can then manually skim (focusing on chapters 1-4 and 21-23). For true short story adaptations, check public domain horror anthologies from the 1910s-1930s (e.g., The Best Ghost Stories collection). Avoid amateur blog posts that rewrite the story poorly; instead, search for academic or library-hosted PDFs of "Dracula's Guest" – a deleted first chapter later published as a standalone short story that is technically the closest authentic "short" version.