Product Description

A biography of the 15th Century Prince of Romania, Vlad Dracula (1431-1476), nicknamed the Impale and on whom Bram Stoker based his fictional character. It covers his career as ruler of Wallachia, terror of Transylvania and crusader against the Turks and examines how closely he compares to his fictional counterpart. It shows 'Vlad the Impaler' to be a man as extraordinary in his political and crusading abilities as he was in his evil. Considered a hero by the Pope and his fellow Romanians whom he liberated from the Turks and generations of Russian Turks studied accounts of his political genius and used his regime as a model for their own. Yet despite all these things Vlad is remembered chiefly for his crimes, excessive in both nature and number. The 'Impaler' got his name for protecting his capital from the Turks by constructiong "a forest of the impaled". Only in the context of his times - a time of plague, the beginning of the Renaissance, of cut-throat politics and conflict between East and West - can one understand fully the many faces of Dracula. In this definitive biography covering Vlad Dracula's life and subsequent legend, readers will discover that life can truly be more terrifying than fiction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50622 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 261 pages

Review
'A shocking page-turner...A convincingly humanized portrait' - NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

About the Author
Radu R. Florescu and Raymond T. McNally are the authors of the international bestseller, IN SEARCH OF DRACULA and have long been recognised as the leading experts on Dracula and Eastern European history and folklore. Raymond T. McNally

Customer Reviews

Somewhat hard going. For history buffs only
Casual fans of the legendary Bram Stoker villain beware - there will likely be very little to appeal to you.
What we instead have here is a rather dry history of the 'real Dracula' ie the Romanian prince Vlad the Impaler, and his often gruesome history in the 1400s.
For those looking beyond the blood sucker in the black cape there is much here of interest. Dracula's life was an interesting and, of course, bloody one. Considered, in differing circles, to be a champion of the Christian world, or a devil in human form, the most interesting sections consist of the cruel and unusual punishments meted out by Dracula, sometimes for next to no reason.
Tales are related of how he nailed skull caps to the heads of visiting Italians who did not doff their headwear in his presence, the mutilation of unchaste women and the fascinating tale of how he allowed a monk to condemn him to damnation before personally impaling him.
It was an unbelievable world back then and this sheds valuable light on one of history's darkest characters without ever being particularly enjoyable reading.
What is most interesting is the reverie in which Dracula is still held in back in his homeland. Here he is considered a hero who saved the nation from Muslim enslavement in ages past. In short, his real history is a million miles from that which Stoker created, although there is a fascinating chapter which points out the accuracies in Stoker's novel.
For those seeking the true Dracula, this is a decent read at a good price, but it will not appeal to the casual vampire fan.

The historical Dracula
Florescu is a historian descended from one of Dracula's aristocratic victims. He has done a great deal of research on the subject and has produced the most readable of Vlad III's biographies. The book includes translations of several contemporary documents and an extensive bibliography. I would recommend it to anyone interested in history, literature (Bram Stoker, Dracula), movies (Nosferatu) and folklore.

A decent attempt, but there are better
Florescu and McNally have done a decent job of telling the sotry of Vlad Tepes, or Vlad Dracula, in this book. Unfortunately, in order to get at it, you have to wade through some poor writing. In addition to poor prose, the authors seem content with providing only a storyline. They do not delve too deeply into context, which is essential to gaining a good understanding of why Vlad III Dracula rose to and fell from power so many times.

In my research, there were better accounts of Vlad's life. The best, however, is almost £30, so this is a good start for the beginner, but definitely not the end.