Count Dracula's physical appearance is provided by Jonathan Harker in the May 5th entry in his journal, which is found in chapter 2of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel, Dracula.

Harker, a young lawyer on his first professional assignment, is traveling from England to Count Dracula's castle in Transylvania, in the Carpathian mountains of central Romania. The purpose of Harker's visit to the castle is to finalize a real estate transaction with the Count, who is in the process of purchasing a residence in London.

Harker arrives at the imposing castle late at night, where he stands in front of "a great door, old and studded with large iron nails, and set in a projecting doorway of massive stone." After a considerable length of time, the massive door is opened by "a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere." The man gestures toward Harker with his right hand, inviting Harker to enter the castle.

Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!

The man holds out his hand to Harker and then grasps Harker's hand, he writes, "with a strength which made me wince, an effect which was not lessened by the fact that it seemed as cold as ice."

"Count Dracula?" Harker inquires, not entirely sure who this man is. He responds,

I am Dracula; and I bid you welcome, Mr. Harker, to my house.

Harker finds the Count courteous, hospitable, and extremely well mannered, and he remarks that the Count is noticeably graceful in his movements.

Harker writes that after a dinner of excellent roast chicken, he has an opportunity to observe the Count's features more closely while they sit in front of the fireplace.

His face was a strong—a very strong—aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor.

Harker had noticed the Count's hands previously, and he thought at the time that they seemed pale white and somewhat delicate, but looking at them now, he has a different impression.

[S]eeing them now close to me, I could not but notice that they were rather coarse—broad, with squat fingers. Strange to say, there were hairs in the centre of the palm. The nails were long and fine, and cut to a sharp point.

The Count leans over to him, and Harker notices that his breath smells particularly rank. When the Count backs away, he looks at Harker with what Harker describes as a "grim sort of smile" that shows Harker "his protuberant teeth."

They sit quietly for a time in front of the fireplace, until the first rays of the morning sun filter into the room.

Count Dracula shows Harker to his bedroom and then excuses himself, and Harker doesn't see the Count again until later the next day.