Dracula, that archetypal vampire made infamous in Stoker's 19th
century Gothic romance cum horror story, is not entirely a myth.
His prototype, Prince Vlad III of Wallachia (now Romania), alias
Dracula (not of the devil but of the dragon, after the Order
bestowed on his father by Luxemburg's King Sigismond in 1431),
sobriquet "The Impaler," was a Byzantine/Balkan 15th-century
condottiere who by adroit diplomatic realpolitik kept his
principality independent of both Turk and Magyar. Internally he
stayed in power by decimating the feudal boyar aristocracy, by
centralizing the state administration and building up a peasant
army. Dracula is known, however, not for his nation-building but
for the means he used - "he blinded, strangled, hanged, burned,
boiled, skinned, roasted, hacked. . . nailed, burned alive and had
his victims stabbed." Considered a folk hero in Romania, his
reputation as a legendary monster is based on tales originally
spread by German refugees from Transylvania. The authors,
astoundingly multilingual, have sifted through a plethora of
surviving documents and artifacts to produce this portrait of the
man - "stem, unyielding" and sexually disturbed - his times and his
society, including tidbits from their earlier In Search of Dracula.
They do not claim that this is a "definitive biography" (because
"too many pieces of the puzzle are still missing") but it's a
sturdy enough reconstruction. (Kirkus Reviews)
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.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
