The Waters Of Hercules The Mystery Of Gaura Dracului 1st Edition Girard by Girard, Emily, Gerard, Dorothea. 9781592111329, 9781592112784, 1592111327, 1592112781 instant download after payment.

The Waters of Hercules is a long forgotten novel with close ties to Bram Stoker's Dracula. The heroine of the story, Gretchen, is an intelligent young German woman, who distinguished herself in school by winning the prix de logique. A very practical-minded girl, Gretchen, influenced by her Italian friend, Belita, considers marriage an economic proposition and is determined to marry a man of wealth. When the decent, respectable family lawyer Vincenz Komers, a man of modest means, seeks her hand in marriage, she rejects him, not once, but twice. When Gretchen's father is seriously injured in an accident, the family sets off to Transylvania, to the Baths of Hercules (Baile Herculane in modern Romania, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), in hopes that the waters of Hercules, known for their curative powers, will rehabilitate her ailing father. Her father, Adalbert, tells his daughter of a mysterious place in the surrounding forest, known as Gaura Dracului (the Devil's Pit) that he had discovered during a visit to the valley years earlier, but the location of which is now a mystery. Hercules, considered the god of the Valley, is said to have sworn that the pit would receive a sacrifice of human blood once every century. The legends of a mysterious treasure associated with Gaura Dracului inspires Gretchen to consider another way to make her fortune, so that she can marry any man of her choosing. Her efforts are redoubled when the long-expected inheritance of a family estate proves illusory. As Gretchen relentlessly pursues the secrets of Gaura Dracului and the hidden treasure it is said to hold, she is courted by the handsome, wealthy, and debonair Baron Istv n Tolnay, called the King of the Valley, who could provide the financial security that both she and her family seek.