Any serious student of vampire legends or of Eastern European medieval history will not want to miss this book. First published over twenty years ago and now reprinted and expanded, this book in my opinion remains, along with Florescu's and McNally's other work on Dracula, "Dracula: Prince of Many Faces: His Life and Times," the standard introduction to Vlad the Impaler and his connection with Bram Stoker's classic Gothic horror novel "Dracula." Writing as historians, McNally and Florescu have been criticised by other authors for what appears to be their grudging admiration for the Impaler's political savvy and military skill; they do not praise him for his many atrocities however, but, like good historians, attempt to remain as dispassionate as possible towards their subject, attemting to understand and explian him. In the appendices they do compare the various medieval Dracula traditions, analysing the various reports of his atrocities by medieval Romanian, German and Russian writers-all of whom wrote from a biased position. Also refreshing to me is the fact that the authors do not share the now prevalent view that Bram Stoker was a sexually repressed Victorian author whose novel is filled with thinly veiled sexual undertones; to me, this is a result of modern authors reading the modern obsession with sex back onto Stoker. (For anyone who is ONLY familiar with the Coppola film-read the novel! Though more faithful to Stoker's original than any production to date (Florescu and McNally give it high marks, and so do I), it nevertheless portrays the novel as essentially a love story, with the Impaler being driven to his acts of cruelty by the death of his wife-in reality he had several wives and mistresses, and was reportedly as cruel to them as his enemies.) Thankfully McNally and Florescu do not waste any time on these theories. The book will be of value to students of Eastern European folklore as well as horror film buffs, as it sets forth much information on vampire lore from Eastern Europe and also contains a detailed film guide to Dracula films-from Murnau's silent classic "Nosferatu" to Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula". There is also much information on Bram Stoker and Dracula and Vampires in literature.

If you have an interest in Vlad the Impaler (or an obsession like myself)read this book! It has all the possible information you could ever want on this guy. From how he was revered in the past to how he is known today in Romania. It has some good vampire info too.

I had just recently found out that Dracula was a real person. So this is the first historical reading for me. This book contains excellent information on Vlad Tepes (the Impaler). The book not only tells about him but also contains chapters on what was going on in the world during his time. This gave me a better "feel" for his times. Most articles I have read on Dracula are pretty opinionated but the authors really tried to say clear of "pushing" their opinions of Dracula on me. The book also contains Chapters on the Stoker novel and the real Dracula's descendants. Although very little is know about the enigmatic Prince the authors did a great job of researching their topic. A must read for people who love history and/or mystery.

A nice blend of scholarship with fascination, this is the first book to look for the truth behind the fiction. Does a nice job not only of explaining where Bram Stoker got the bits and pieces he picked up to turn Vlad the Impaler into Count Dracula, but also puts the Wallachian Prince in historical perspective. There are more detailed biographies of Vlad out there, but this is really the book that opened the door and its writers are paricularly well suited to the task. If you only want to read one book about the real Dracula and his transformation into one of the major fictional characters of all time, this would be that book.

As a former student of both McNally and Florescu in history and in folklore I may be a bit biased. But suffice it to say that whether you want to know about the Dracula of contemporary media, mythical vampires (as well as a few pseudo-authentic blood-thirsters in history) in general or the historical and all too human Vlad, these are the guys you ask. This book is a terrific starting point for anyone who really wants to dig into the subject, and also a very well rounded study for those who want a (detailed) glance at the history and the myths. Enter freely and of your own will. :)

If you were ever curious as to how and where the vampire stories began and how Bram Stoker conceived the idea for his book this is a must have. It depicts the events in the life of Vlad Teppes (Dracula), the son of Dracul and notorious leader of Transylvania and the bloodthirsty Eizabeth Bathory of a Hungarian aristrocratic family.

I wished this book would have had a longer chapter analyzing the natures of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and the impact this short book has had on culture and society. The lists of movies and theatre plays are good, but there are some faults. (Wrong production year of Fredric March movie, storylines of some of the movies are not entirely correct.) A few times, I wondered whether the authors really had seen the movie or not. When you publish a book like this, you must look up your facts closely! The Stevenson biography was interesting and exactly the right length, though the Deacon Brodie chapter could have been considerably shorter. All in all, a good lexicon for Jekyll & Hyde-fans.

Saw Dr. McNally on TV discussing society's fascination with the "evil within". Great book, well-paced yet in-depth enough to satisfy the thoughtful reader. The chapters tracing the common theme of the two sides of humanity through the movies and media were particularly eye-opening for me. Also, the exploration of Robert Louis Stevenson's evolution of the story was fascinating. Great writer- will have to pick up the Dracula books now!!

This book is a great companion piece to the author's earlier studies of the historical Dracula. For anyone who is a student of literature or of Stevenson in particlar, this is a great resource. I had the good fortune to take one of Prof. McNally's classes, and thus be exposed to his work. They provide a well-researched historical context and examination of the origins of these Victorian classics.

If you haven't read any of McNally/Florescu's previous works on Dracula, do so now and pick this one up while you are at it. For anyone who is fan of Dracula or Jeckyll/Hyde, the two Dracula books and the Stevenson study are "must haves". Stop reading my review, and go buy the damn books!

Sure, maybe it's a little more accurate, seeing as how McNally allegedly got ahold of actual trial documents to use in his rebuilding of the facts, but one thing is a little out of whack: the book is almost 250 pages long, but only the first 92 are dedicated to the Bathory tale, and only about 50% of that is about Elizabeth. There is more info on the political upheavals going on at the time, and much of it has seemingly nothing to do with Elizabeth. It's sort of a "meanwhile, in another part of the country..." type of digression. The focus is largely on what was going on "around her" instead of what was going on "with" her. As if McNally is saying "look at me, I'm a professor of eastern European history and you're not!"
After page 92, it gets a little...ridiculous. Notice how each chapter afterward begins with a sentence which includes Elizabeth's name in it (just to remind you who the book is supposed to be about and poorly attempt to tie her in to the subject matter), then goes way off course and discusses Werewolves, Necrophilia, and then vampire movies. Apparently she fits into these somehow, but I think it is all in McNally's mind. He just needed to fluff up the book by a couple hundred pages with pointless sensationalism, since the actual part about Elizabeth had none and made her seem rather boring, believe it or not. He actually begins to champion her by book's end, as if he were her hero who will clear her name of these acts.
By the end of the tale, I still did not understand why she did it. There is no explanation or barely even a speculation. It's presented in a "yeah, she just kinda got into it for no apparent reason" fashion. McNally even alludes to the possibility of it all being a conspiracy against the Countess by other aristocrats who wanted to have their debts to her cancelled by having her imprisoned.
McNally says Elizabeth *probably didn't* bathe in blood since no official records tell of that, and that much of the killing was done by her servants. And there is nothing more than a glancing touch on her sexuality, which is a subject that could have helped paint a better picture of her as a person. Of course, with such little documentation available, some topics are going to suffer if there is a lack of speculation on the author's part.
Ultimately I was left thinking, this is it? that's all? Not that what she was accused of wasn't bad, but, if this is closer to the truth, it doesn't come near the drama of the legends. A bit of a let down for those fascinated by the myth.
If the legends were true it would have made for a more interesting psychological evaluation of the Countess, and subsequently a more interesting book.

this book rocked so much. i love this book. yeah i may be morbid, but this was so fascinating. ... i wish there were a lot more books about her just because what she did was fascinating. it was a dark time in history, but to bathe in blood because it supposedly made you look youthful? to have parents that had intermarried? this was riveting and it held me from the very first few pages. the last section about necrophilia was cool, but i kind of wondered what that had to do with her.

McNally did a great job of presenting and backing up all of his facts with historical documents that were uncovered in the early 80s in the archives in Budapest. He discounts all of the false legends regarding Elizabeth, including one that says she showered in young girls blood, bathed in, and drank it to remain youthful. Elizabeth tortured and killed servants merely because she enjoyed the act (similiar to Vlad The Impaler). It recounts the history of her family and her subsequent trial and house arrest, although she should have been executed along with her henchmen. The high body count she incurred sounds like a legend but some evidence did come out in the trial that did substantiate it as fact, im sorry but I wont mention it more than that cos I dont want to spoil it for you. If you want a well written, no-nonsense book about the Blood Countess of Translyvania get this book.