Excellent Book | Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and His Times

History is more compelling than fiction | Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and His Times | Radu R Florescu, Raymond McNally

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	• Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and His Times Radu R Florescu, Raymond McNally Back Bay Books, 1990 - 261 pages average customer review:based on 39 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Prince Eclipses the Count

Florescu and McNally boldly proclaimed that the historical Dracula is far more interesting than the fictional vampiric version. They proved it in this extraordinary book. I hold tightly to the adage that "life is too short to read a book twice" but made an exception here and have read it 3 times and counting. I have been fascinated with the fictional Dracula since childhood and now have had new life (unlife?) breathed into the subject -the catalyst was this book.

The book is exhaustive although not ponderous -they place the story in its proper historical context and discuss the political volatility of the region, the dying crusading spirit, the anxiety of the Roman pontiff, as well as the rich and fascinating context of Sultan Mehmed II's world. And make no mistake, it almost was his world. Dracula, betrayed by a father who was himself betrayed by his subjects, forced to spend most of his developing years under the heel of his Ottoman captors, and soon thrust into a position of authority in his native land where he will be torn between two competing, greater powers, must always have his back to the wall. While still in his twenties, Dracula casts aside all ambiguity and chooses a side in the conflict between the east and the west, becoming a nemesis of Mehmed the Conqueror and actually making a fight of it -with virtually no support...

Rome sings of this Crusader on the eastern hinterlands who defends the Cross with such heroic virtue...

But there is a dark and sinister strain in this prince. His techniques against Mehmed are, shall we say, extreme, even by the measure of that brutal period. Wait until you get a load of the "Forest of the Impaled" -you won't forget it. It was said that Mehmed himself took one look at that ghoulish spectacle and said "see ya". Dracula is not your average Christian knight. The Turks scare their children with stories of "Kaziglu Bey" -the "Devil Impaler". German merchants in Wallachia are terrorized by Dracula who has vendettas that won't end... As they trickle back to their homeland, Gutenberg is printing the Bible on his new invention in the 1450s -and soon enough, Dracula gets bad press as the first horror stories are printed and circulated.

Cast aside the horror and the terrorism that he undeniably committed against foe and countryman alike, and you may see what I saw by the end of your study: Dracula could very well have been the veiled model for Machiavelli's "The Prince".

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Excellent Book

This book was incredible. I have been a fan of Vlads for quite some time and am of Hungarian descent myself. Its very difficult to find history books about eastern european history. This book is graphic and accurate. Well worth the read if you want to know what life was like in dark europe during Vlads reign.

History is more compelling than fiction

A fascinating figure in history deserves a book as good as this. Immoral butcher, and defender of most Holy Christian Europe, murderer of the poor and upholder of absolute justice, war criminal and heroic defender of his people.

One could perhaps describe Dracula in simple terms as the Dr. Doom of his day. A horrible villain to some, yet a hero to his people and one who followed for the most part his own code of twisted, and very literal honor. In fact, half of the fun of reading this book is the way Vlad consistently deals out the most extreme punishments for minor and major infractions (and they are infractions make no mistake). Yet the way it is done is both so brilliant and logical to the extreme you can't help but applaud him for him being such a magnificent bastard.

Disrespectful envoys not taking off their hats? Nail their caps to their heads so they won't break their own rules by *accident*. Islamic armies oppressing your land and taking your kids to raise as their shock troops? Impale their prisoners of war and make a forest of them to send their greatest general a message. Poor masses and criminals dragging down your country? Give them a *banquet*, and then mercifully send them to God's kingdom by locking them in and burning them alive. Traitorous nobles kill your father and brother? Work them to death building YOUR fortress and then bury them alive. A visiting merchant robbed in your kingdom? Threaten to burn down the town unless the money is returned... and then give extra gold back to the merchant to see if he's just as bad as the thief (with equal punishments for both if guilty). Disgusted seeing a peasant with shoddy clothes? Impale the wife responsible and get the poor guy a new one (Good help is so hard to find).

Even Vlad's own people eventually tired of his reign towards the end of his life. But after the fact, it's amazing how many people thought he did far more good than harm in his life, saving his country from being humiliated and enslaved from outside powers and decayed from within from crime and lawlessness.

Of course, a modern prejudiced mind that thinks putting a rapist or murderer in jail for a few years before cutting them loose is a 'just' punishment, will instantly peg Vlad as yet another two bit Hitler or Stalin or warlord of your choice. This is an unfair depiction in my view, especially considering most of Vlad's bad press came from his enemies who were rightly terrified of him. Vlad comes off in these accounts as having far more courage, class and cunning than these hack jobs. If you consider Vlad a villain, at least give credit where its due.

Best said in the words of the author, Vlad was only occasionally guilty of bouts of random murder. His extreme killings were directed at three main groups, the Turks invading his country, the merchants squeezing the life out of his country, and the vagrants and the poor.

Dracula was by no means a nice person, but his contributions to history are really much more positive than most common histories (i.e. dumbed down garbage) would have you think. If you can be as bad mother as Vlad was, and STILL have your face on your country's currency and be regarded as a national hero, my hat's off to you.

It just goes to show that history is far more interesting than fiction. Highly recommended.

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informational read!

This book is an educational read not only to learn about Vlad Dracula but also the history of the surrounding area at the time. If your just interested in Dracula alone this book will probably not be of interest to you. It explains the legend well and goes into the whole life of Vlad.

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.

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