1897 AD
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Jonathan Harker, a solicitor (i.e., lawyer), traveled to the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania to meet with Count Dracula, a wealthy, landowning gentleman of very old lineage. Dracula was interested in moving to England and needed representation for the sake of purchasing land and gaining ownership (apparently wanting to move about the world legitimately, not through a quest to just kill every human and own the land as the last man standing -- so, see, he's growing as a person). Harker was to aid the Count, finalizing the paperwork and smoothing over matters.
As it turned out, Harker was in for quite a surprise: the Count was a vampire (we know, that's quite the shock), and as soon as Harker's legal job was completed, and the paperwork was sent, Harker was of no more use to the Count except as a source of blood. The Count left Harker to the Brides (the vampire women controlled by Dracula, and presumably made by him in the past, serving as vampiric servants about the castle), while the Count traveled by ship to Whitby, England where he would make his new home.
The ship the count hired ran aground in Whitby, with all crew dead or missing. The ship's log detailed a horror story of disappearing crew, a horrible curse, and a spectral wolf attacking the men. Unrelated to these events (of course, because to think otherwise would be silly), the Count had set up shop in his new digs, unperturbed by the events of the ship crash. To think the Count had anything to do with the ship crashing or the deaths of the men is simply preposterous (oh, and don't pay any attention to his nightly habits, his odd eccentricities, his lack of a reflection, etc.).
It was not long before a strange illness started spreading across the countryside, though. Lucy Westenra, friend of Jonathan Harker's fiancee, Mina Murray, fell ill, seemingly from anemia. When Abraham Van Helsing, a strange old doctor (and friend of one of Lucy's suitors, Dr. John Seward), came a-calling, he proclaimed it "the work of vampires!" (presumably while clutching a cross to his chest and giving his best "crazy eyes"). The men were unable to save Lucy, but when Mina, too, fell ill under the "disease", the hell-fiend vampire had to be found.
Soon enough, suspicions fell on Dracula (just because he's dashingly handsome, and never goes out during the day, plus there's that whole having no alibi, and the distaste of garlic, which is a total give-away as far as we at the Inverted Dungeon are concerned). Upon discovery, Dracula fled back to Romania while the men-folk of London (the late Lucy's suitors, including American cowboy Quincey Morris, plus Van Helsing) gave chase, leading to a confrontation at Dracula's own castle. The Brides of Dracula were dispatched. Dracula is lured out, and then killed. Mina is freed, and everyone who isn't an unassuming vampire (or already dead, sorry Quincey) lived happily ever after.
Important Information
In 1994, Konami decided to link the Castlevania series to Bram Stoker's original book, Dracula. The series already had a solid connection to the various cinematic works spawned by Dracula and its ilk, and since Dracula was the lead antagonist of the series, a more solidly set up literary connection actually made a certain amount of sense.
The next official, chronological game in the series, Castlevania: Bloodlines, established the direct connection. In that game, the back-story for hero John Morris states that he is actually the son of Quincey Morris (suitor of Lucy, as covered above). Quincey dies at the end of the book (and the start of the game), but it's declared that Johnny boy was there (at the age of three, apparently) and saw the whole thing. This inspired him to pick up the family whip (the Vampire Killer, implying that the Morris clan is an American offshoot of the Belmont clan), and eventually take on Dracula himself.
Now, far be it from us to tell Konami how to write their games (our story submissions keep coming back with rejection notices), but it's unlikely that a three-year-old kid -- or really any kid -- would have been taken on a last-ditch, cross-continent excursion to defeat Dracula. Beyond which, John never shows up in the book; as stated in the novel, Quincy was in Europe looking for a new bride so he could settle down and start a family. Why did he have his kid with him for a trip like this? "I know it's the early 1900s, and people are so very proper all over the globe, but here's my kid and will you marry me?" That seems a little fishy.
Still, considering the characters we did have in the novel, there probably weren't a lot of options. Lucy dies, Arthur Holmwood is a philandering rich boy who seems destined to never amount to anything, Dr. Seward lives for his work, and Van Helsing is way too old. The only other characters that could have a kid, and have that kid be inspired to take up the family whip, would be the Harkers, but they marry in the novel so having a kid already around doesn't make a ton of sense. For the sake of the novel, Quincey was probably the best choice, strange as that is.