Choice Review

The historical Vlad the Impaler was a Wallachian ruler in the mid-15th century, a time of regional turmoil when Turks, Hungarians, and local rulers fought over control of this Balkan country. Vlad made his reputation fighting Turks and repressing rebellions, only to be arrested by King Matthias Corvinus and blamed for the failure of a projected crusade. Corvinus kept the money Vlad had raised to hire mercenaries, then launched the massive propaganda campaign against Dracula on which subsequent horror stories rested. Vlad was later released, only to be murdered by one of his own men. Readers will probably be impressed by the number of contemporary sources quoted, and by the sections on conspiracies in the Ottoman court and revelations about Bram Stoker's sources for his thriller--spoiler alert: he took the characters and much of the plot from a Parisian novelist. There are chapters on the belief in vampires, on regional patriotism, and on the treatment of Dracula in film and literature. The appendixes contain translations of the most important contemporary accounts of his life, and excellent pictures. This book is the new standard for Dracula studies. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above. --William L. Urban, Monmouth College (IL)