Customer Reviews

Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and His Times

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Florescu and McNally have done a commendable job not only at revealing the historical person of Dracula but also at providing the reader with a fascinating window into the man's world. I found this work extremely informative since I am deeply interested in the history of Eastern and Central Europe and well-written and well-researched works in English can be difficult to come across when it comes to this part of the world. It is nice to read a book about this period and not have to wade through a myriad of contemporary Western biases.

The title may sound flippant, but make no mistake, this is a very deep & studious history of the character. Thrill seekers should be more than satisfied by the vivid descriptions of Dracula's divers forms of despatching those poor individuals who incurred his wrath. The authors deal both thoroughly & entertainingly with all the characters, wars, international intrigues, & give a chilling idea of what life was about in those violent & dangerous times. Dracula in particular is described in a most non-judgemental manner. Whilst it is impossible to defend his awful behaviour, study of his early life leads one to easily understand how his baser instincts might be brought to the surface. The book abounds with ironies & contrasts. Depending on the country of origin, there are totally different historical treatments of his deeds. He was brave, cruel, ambitious, devious, loyal, unreliable, resourceful & vain. A clever, or honest response to his interrogation could result in impalement, or dinner & a pot of gold, depending on Dracula's violent & unpredictable mood swings. Anyone however, remotely interested in seriously knowing more about Dracula's "life & times" can't fail to be impressed by this book.

In an earlier review I wrote regarding Dr. McNally's work on Robert Louis Stevenson, I noted that I had been a student of his in college. In reviewing this book, rather than discuss the meat of what lies within, I thought I would relate a couple of stories related to me by Professor McNally.

The first is that the opening of Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula film was inspired directly by the writings in McNally and Florescu's two Dracula books, although there was a bit of tiff over the fact no credit was given.

The second tidbit came later in that semester, when I caught an "In Search Of..." episode on A&E which detailed the search for Dracula's castle and featured some rube gumming happily to the camera over his discovery. Well, the next day I tracked down the Professor and mentioned it to him. Befitting his status as the "Dracula professor", he let out this deep, rumbling and, well...evil, laugh. He was well acquainted with the special, and the simple fact was the castle in the special was the wrong one! In fact, as Prof. McNally evidenced in class soon after with a nifty little highlight video from the late 70's/early '80's, he and Radu Florescu had gained their noteriety by being the ones to find and prove which castle belonged to the historical Vlad.

These two stories evidenced for me, and ought to evidence for the prospective buyer, that Ray McNally and his longtime associate Radu Florescu are the definitive academics on the historical Vlad and the legend of Dracula. If you are interested in the man and the myth, then you need go no further than "Dracula: Prince of Many Faces" and "In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires".

More a study of the region than of the prince who inspired the Dracula tales, this book offers a rich picture of the circumstances of Vlad Dracul's era.

Thick in geographical data, this book only falls short if you're looking for a book that focuses on Vlad Dracul himself. This is more of a study of the people and circumstances that spawned him than a deep look at the man himself. While battles are detailed, this is not an account full of gory details or one that gives much emotional impact. Even while describing the Prince's work ethic, religious beliefs and family history, you don't get much of a feeling for Vlad the man, who he cared for, why he hated the people he did and why he was rumored to be so bloodthirsty.

This is a superb look at roughly 50 years of Romanian history in the mid to late 1400s, but there are better books out there if you're looking for a more graphic and personal view of Vlad the Impaler.

I'm a college professor in History and next semester I'll be offering a special course titled Dracula and his Contemporaries. I have chosen Prince of Many Faces as one of the required readings after reading most of what is available on Vlad in English. Florescu's biography is impossible to put down. It is written for the general public and is scholarly at the same time. The title tells us exactly what we will find in the book. But it also provides a selection of translated contemporary sources which allows us to savor the contemporaty attitudes towards the Impaler.

The world over, Vlad the Impaler is considered a ruthless and bloodthirsty tyrant who butchered 100,000 people just for the sick pleasure of watching them die. Sure, this is absolutely true, and in Romania they say it with pride, where he is regarded somewhere on a level between George Washington and Jesus. A huge chunk of Transylvanian land that Vlad gave to a clan of minor nobles was never made subject to Communist collectivization 500 years later. Maybe Romanians know something we don't.

Virtually every movie about him has been a blockbuster and every book a top seller (including the ones that came straight off Gutenberg's press!), but this is one of the few biographies about him. It is also the only one that dares to tell the story of the desperate conditions that threatened his sovereignty. This tells not only the most complete story of Dracula's life, but puts it into context by giving accounts of all the players and politics of the 15th century Eruopean theater.

The stories about and around Vlad's life are enough to satisfy anyone's thirst for romance, horror, or history. As he is faced with the incalculable odds against him, one will marvel at Vlad's fast and effective soultions to his multitude of problems. He is, for example, a true pioneer in the fields of chemical and germ warfare on the battlefield. Domestically, the tales concerning government reform, rearmament, Transylvanian justice, and what could be termed as the first "barbecue for the homeless," are both horrific and hilarious. No book about the condition of Dracula's death can ever compare to the story of his life.

Off of their original research "In Search of Dracula," the authors have given Vlad the Impaler a more detailed historical assessment without losing their initial sense of fascination with their subject. They do not give in to the sensationalism of their infamous subject, which is a pretty neat trick. It is hard to think that even without Stoker's novel this is a character who would have been forgotten by history. After all, you can make the argument that Vlad does in Eastern Europe what El Cid accomplishes in Spain: stops the Muslim invasion of Europe.

Having expounded on the connection between the fictional Count Dracula of Bram Stoker's 19th century novel and the real Prince Vlad Dracula who ruled 15th century Wallachia in their book "The Search for Dracula", professors Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally subsequently wrote "Dracula: Prince of Many Faces", a meticulously researched biography of the real-life warrior prince. This book starts with an overview of the extremely convoluted political landscape of 15th century Europe, in particular that of Wallachia, in present day Romania, when Vlad Tepes, also called Vlad Dracula, ruled for only 6 years in the mid-15th century. The authors follow Dracula into his youth, spent as a hostage held to insure his father's obedience in the court of the Ottoman Sultan Murad II, among many distinguished fellow hostages and tutors. Dracula demonstrated his military competency even before securing the throne of Wallachia, having been instrumental in the defense of Belgrade from invading Ottomans. During his rule of Wallachia, the Prince would ruthlessly advance an agenda of centralized power, draconian law, and military might that earned him a reputation as one of history's most excessively cruel and murderous personalities, while at the same time his defeat of the Turkish army during the 1461-1462 Turco-Wallachian war did no less than stop the Ottoman advance into Europe and make Vlad Dracula a hero of Christendom.

The historical information in "Dracula: Prince of Many Faces" accounts for most of its contents, and it is where the book excels. There are also chapters on Vlad Dracula's descendants and the sources of his considerable notoriety in his own time, when he was regarded as a maniacal tyrant by the Germans, Hungarians, and Turks, and as a savior by many of his own people. One risks engaging in presentism by applying moral judgments to Dracula's actions 6 centuries after the fact. But the Wallachian Prince was excessively sadistic even by the standards of his own time, to which his far-flung reputation attests.

"Dracula: Prince of Many Faces"' weaknesses are its attempts at psychoanalyzing Vlad Dracula and its insistence that Bram Stoker based his fictional vampire, Count Dracula, on the 15th century prince. The authors use words like "clearly", "undoubtedly", and "obviously" too often to draw conclusions about Vlad Tepes' motives that require considerable leaps of faith. "Prince of Many Faces" indulges in Freudian and behaviorist speculation about Vlad Dracula's character while ignoring what I would consider to be a simple observation about his personality: Vlad Dracula was extremely uncomfortable with behavior that is not orderly, predictable, and regimented. Hence his obsession with protocol, insistence upon strict adherence to rigid laws, and inability to see anything in shades of gray, as opposed to black and white. It is not an uncommon personality trait, but it's not desirable in persons of power. As for the Vlad Dracula-Count Dracula connection, I have read 2 books on the subject by authors Florescu and McNally, and I still see no more of Vlad Tepes in Count Dracula than his name and vague ancestry ("one of my race who as a Viovode crossed the Danube and beat the Turk on his ground"), mostly because the novel "Dracula" contradicts itself repeatedly in describing Count Dracula. Bram Stoker certainly referenced Vlad Tepes, but it seems more to evoke a sense of grandeur and history than to assign a specific identity.

Alright, all vampire nonsense aside, this is the real article! I have studied this particular heroic figure all my life, and this book is a terrific work. Without question, Vlad III Dracula was a pitiless man at times, and dealt out immediate and permanent punishment to his enemies as well as his own people. This book also reveals the side to his personality which one never sees without a Great Deal of research. Vlad Dracula was a truly heroic knight against insurmountable odds, a fearless individual, and a brilliant tactician, and this book shows that in great detail. The story of his life is the stuff of a big-budget blockbuster film on the order of Gladiator, or yes, even Braveheart! I can only hope that it will be made in my lifetime, and that it will be faithful to this magnificent book. As far as the book itself goes, I read it the day I got it. It flows very well, and a true history buff will not be able to put it down! It is detailed without being tedious, and historically correct without being boring. A truly valuable work!

as far as i'm concerned, this book would probably be as yet the difinitive biography on prince vlad. i bought it when i was 14 only to read about all the gross things he did but as my interest in actual history grew i finally picked up the book and realized what a good biography and historical review it really was. it is well written, simple and clear, unbiased and fair towards vlad, and quite informative of the historical events of the era. the authors have a rather personal and lively tone to their writing style that is very easy to read and comprehend. and of course, gruesome discriptions of his atrocities are well documented. i wish it was a little longer.. but it's still a damn good history book with thought provoking speculations about the psychology behind vlad's bizarre and hideously violent personality. if you like colorful, informative history, character studies and blood, rest assured, this is a good book for you!