Dracula, Prince of Many Faces

September 1, 1989
The fictional Dracula of Bram Stoker's novel is better known than the actual Vlad Dracula the Impaler, who ruled as prince of Wallachia for three brief periods in the mid-15th century. This study by two Boston College professors who have written other books about Dracula explores how the legend of the Transylvanian vampire arose. As a ruler, Dracula spread terror far and wide, inflicting appalling tortures on his victims, killing them by impalement, by boiling or skinning them alive. Yet when the time came to defend Europe against Turkish invaders, he led the battle, and the authors view him as ``the first modern Renaissance prince of the land.'' Florescu and McNally offer so much detail about the battles of kings, princes, princelings and claimants to thrones that the book will appeal only to the most ardent Dracula fanatics. Illustrations not seen by PW.

September 15, 1989
Dracula is the third book that Florescu and McNally, both historians at Boston College, have written about either the real Dracula or the legendary vampire ( Dracula: A Historical Biography of the Impaler, 1431-1476, Hawthorn, 1973; LJ 2/1/74). This scholarly work focuses almost exclusively upon the "real" Dracula, a 15th-century Romanian prince. The authors present him as a multifaceted figure, a national hero still revered for defending Romania from the Turks, yet also a psychopath who used his power indiscriminately to torture and murder thousands of his enemies and subjects. Because of the constant interest in the occult (especially in the vampire Dracula), public libraries will want this for popular collections. Because of its sound treatment of an important figure in Eastern European history, academic libraries also should consider.-- Ann H. Sullivan, Tompkins Cortland Community Coll. Lib., Dryden, N.Y.

Copyright 1989 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.