The novel was originally called The Un-dead, and certainly in publishing terms it remains one of the longest-lived successes in horror history.

First issued in 1897, the book has sold millions and is still in print, has been translated into 44 languages and countless cinema versions have been made.

Now the original manuscript of Bram Stoker's Dracula looks set to set a new record when it goes under the hammer in New York next month.

Experts at Christie's reckon bidding will be keen and the long lost manuscript could easily fetch more than £1m.

The story of Dracula, from his storm-tossed arrival in Whitby, through his reign of terror in London to his eventual demise in Transylvania, is now well-known.

But the history of the 529-page manuscript is more mysterious. It's whereabouts were unknown until 1980 when it turned up in New England. Four years later it was acquired by the current owner, an American collector of 19th century literature.

The script _ with a different ending as well as extensive scrawled revisions and deletions by Stoker _ bears the Irish-born author's hand-lettered titled page: The Un-Dead.

It was only days before publication that the title was simplified to somehow alluring name of its main character, the blood-sucking count who swapped his remote ancestral castle to stalk the streets of gas-lit England.

The first edition Dracula had a print run of 3,000 copies priced at six shillings (30p) each, with Stoker receiving a royalty of one and sixpence (7.5p) per copy after the first 1000 were sold.

Francis Wahlgren, (correct) head of the book department at Christie's, New York, said: "It is highly unusual for the manuscript of a major work of fiction to be entirely lost from sight for almost a century.

"But in the case of the original typescript of Dracula, the very existence of which was not suspected until its discovery in 1980, such a sudden re-emergence seems appropriate, as if mirroring the mysterious disappearances and reappearances of Count Dracula."

*Last summer Stoker;s original Dracula contracts with publishers Constable and Co were predicted to fetch £50,000 when they came up for sale at Sotheby's in London. In the end they failed to find a buyer.