In Search of Dracula: A True History of Dracula and Vampire Legends - Hardcover

Florescu, Radu; McNally, Raymond T.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0450040577 ISBN 13: 9780450040573

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1979

Synopsis

From the fly-leaf: 'Dracula - the greatest vampire in literature - is here traced back to a real 15th century Romanian prince. Count Dracula, the hero of Bram Stoker's late 19th century novel, by day walked the streets of Victorian England, by night drank blood from the necks of Victorian ladies. But the real Prince Dracula gained glory as a crusader against the Turks and everlasting infamy as "the impaler" of both foreigners and fellow countrymen. His ghoulish atrocities and personal depravities were recorded by contemporaries ranging from refugee monks to Byzantine chroniclers. This book traces the exploits of the bloody prince, and his evolution via Stoker's novel into the vampire star of the cinema and late-night television. McNally and Florescu, serious scholars who specialise in Eastern European history,have spent ten years investigating Prince Dracula, unearthing in the process a treasury of centuries-old vampire literature and superstition. Their explorations have taken them from Dracula's birthplace at Sighisoara in Transylvania to his mysterious grave in the island monastery at Snagov. They have located his mountain retreat, Castle Dracula; searched for documents about the prince in the town archives, the libraries and the monasteries of Europe; researched ancient maps and art works. They have traced Stoker's extraordinary knowledge of the real Dracula and of Transylvanian legends, related it to the development of his fictional Dracula, and analysed vampirism in all its forms: legend, literature, film - and reality.'

Edition details

• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
• Publication date: 1979
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0450040577
• ISBN 13: 9780450040573
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224