In Search of Dracula

This book has engendered controversy for almost forcefully bridging the gap between the 15th Century Wallachian Prince Vlad III or Vlad the Impaler or Dracula. Stoker had already constructed his character, called “Count Wampyr,” before he learned of his future namesake. However, he quite clearly establishes a connection between the two through an explanation provided by Abraham Van Helsing. The Dracula of the eponymous novel is a heavily fictionalized version of the real-life figure, but so are most similarly positioned characters in literature, film, and television. Florescu and McNally provide a cursory overview of Slavic and Balkan vampire folklore,… show more.

I put this one at the top of my list because it is a serious, scholarly approach to the subject of vampires and dispensed with the need to include Bram Stoker’s book among the list of favourites.

After the appearance of Dracula in 1897, the Count took over as the stereotype of the aristocratic vampire. The McNally-Florescu investigation discovered authentic 15th-century manuscripts that confirmed there had been a “human being fully as horrifying as the vampire of fiction… who had been the subject of many horror stories even during his own lifetime; a ruler whose cruelties were committed on such… show more.