Dracula 6

"We were prepared for some unpleasantness, for as we were opening the door a faint, malodorous air seemed to exhale through the gaps, but none of us ever expected such an odour as we encountered... here the place was small and close, and the long disuse had made the air stagnant and foul. There was an earthy smell, as of some dry miasma, which came through the fouler air. But as to the odour itself, how shall I describe it? It was not alone that it was composed of all the ills of mortality and with the pungent, acrid smell of blood, but it seemed as though corruption had become itself corrupt. Faugh! it sickens me to think of it. Every breath exhaled by that monster seemed to have clung to the place and intensified its loathsomeness."
Chapter XIX, Page 268

Here the door to Dracula's lair is opened for the first time. The narrator, Jonathan Harker states that even before the door opens, the reek is coming out of the sides of the door, which brings to mind a dank, humid atmosphere the almost gives the air a more solid texture, as if it could be parted with a hand. When the door is actually opened, the rankness pours out, almost like a liquid. The thing described, the smell, actually lends more to the mood than anything else could. It is already clear that the men are in a dark house, but the description of the horrible smell lends an almost slimy tangibility to the mood. Even the smell of the earth is described as a dry miasma, which means a noxious fume, so all in the air is really evil and they are truly entering the stronghold of the devil. The author makes his usual great use of simile and metaphor to describe the Gothic mood of the scene, and the bloodiness of the setting.