The terrifying legend of Count Dracula silently skulking through the Transylvania night may have terrified generations of filmgoers, but the tall, elegant vampire captivated and electrified a young Jane Congdon igniting a dream to one day see his mysterious land of ancient castles and misty hollows. Four decades later she finally takes her long-awaited trip-never dreaming that it would unearth decades-buried memories of life with an alcoholic mother. Set in Dracula's back yard, the story unfolds in a mere eighteen days as the author follows the footsteps of Dracula from Bucharest, to the Carpathian Mountains and the Black Sea. Dracula's legend becomes the prism through which she would lay claim to a happiness she had never known. A memoir full of surprises, Jane's story is one of hope, love-and second chances.
It Started with Dracula
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"... an astonishing, unexpected detour in healing a wounded heart." -- Charles Whitfield, MD, Healing the Child Within
About the Author
Jane Congdon, a book editor for thirty years at Cengage Learning, is a member of West Virginia Writers and a veteran of writing workshops, including the October Writing Festival at Ghost Ranch. Jane is a member of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula. She likes bats--and all things Dracula. Jane resides in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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More About the Author
Jane Congdon grew up in Glen Ferris, a small town in the mountains of West Virginia. She now lives in a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, where she worked as an editor for a large educational publishing company. She retired in 2009 after 30 years and completed her first book, It Started with Dracula: The Count, My Mother, and Me.
Read Jane's story, "How I Found My Calling," in the anthology Chicken Soup for the Soul: Find Your Happiness, available now.
Read Jane's story, "How I Found My Calling," in the anthology Chicken Soup for the Soul: Find Your Happiness, available now.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From Book to Movie in Three Paragraphs,
By
This review is from: It Started with Dracula: The Count, My Mother, and Me (Paperback)
This book is compelling. Before I had finished the first page, I was hooked! The story begins nearly a half a century ago in the small town of Glen Ferris, located in the mountains of West Virginia. The author, Jane Congdon, sits with her best friend in the near-darkness of the Gauley Theater, mesmerized by a 1950's movie, Horror of Dracula. The movie tells the story of a vampire, Count Dracula, of Transylvania and those who seek to destroy him. The starring role is played by Christopher Lee, with whom young Jane is at once fascinated.
Jane didn't know then that Transylvania was a real place among the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, nor did she understand why it called to her. But, from the moment she discovered it was indeed real, she wanted to see it for herself--every aspect! She was only fourteen years old, but vowed she would make the trip one day. Forty-five years later, she planned that trip. Although Jane suffered an intense fear of flying, her lifelong desire to make this trip was more powerful than that fear, and in due time, she found herself landing at the Bucharest airport where she was met by a handsome guide from the travel agency she'd hired to manage her trip. Lucian deposited her luggage into a small blue sedan and off they went. The land of Dracula beckoned. From this point on, I began to see this book as a movie--visualizing Jane's character sitting in the front seat of the blue sedan beside Lucian, relishing every sight and sound she possibly could as they zipped over the curvy roads of the Romanian countryside; sharing her breathlessness as she and Lucian climbed the steps to the Poenari Citadel, one of two edifices known as Dracula's castle in Romania, and experiencing the shakiness of her legs after she descended those 1480 concrete steps. From her first cup of coffee each morning until she went to bed at night already looking forward to the next day's adventure, I was with her. But the part of the book that had the most profound effect on me was the way the author artfully merged the description of her sometimes painful childhood into the fabric of the main story - the legend of Dracula. It was difficult not to feel her anguish as she recalled still tender experiences that she and her brother, Joe, endured while growing up with an alcoholic mother. In the end, she forgave her mother. I suspect the writing of this book provided the cathartic effect needed to facilitate that forgiveness. At one fell swoop, the author accomplished two important things: she fulfilled her lifelong dream of seeing the land of Dracula and walking in the very steps where her movie idol, Christopher Lee, might have walked; and she purged herself of many years worth of agonizing memories. Moreover, she wrote about it masterfully!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It Started with Dracula: The count, My Mother and Me,
This review is from: It Started with Dracula: The Count, My Mother, and Me (Paperback)
I read Jane Congdon's new book: It Started with Dracula: The Count, My Mother, and Me at every opportunity, drawn in by the author's prose and fascinating story. This memoir is uniquely engaging because of the author's ability to make the reader feel present. She took me with her on her trip and also back to her childhood. I felt her feelings, and that is rare and amazing.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Read To Bite Into,
This review is from: It Started with Dracula (Kindle Edition)
It Started With Dracula is the long awaited pilgrimage to the homeland of Jane Congdon's film hero, Dracula, which, in turn, serves as a catalyst for another type of journey -- a trip back in time to the days of her youth filled with all the fears,dread, and embarrassment of growing up with an alcoholic mother. Congdon's descriptions of the Carpathian Mountains and the quaint villages where she walked in the footsteps of the evil, blood sucking count introduced to us over a century ago by the Irish writer, Bram Stoker, create the compelling feeling that the count could be waiting just around the next corner, ready to prey upon anyone who dares to come near. But it is not just the legendary Count Dracula who filled Congdon's imagination as much as the actor she first saw portray him on the silver screen...Christopher Lee. Female readers will smile knowingly to themselves as Congdon recounts her adolescent crush on the man behind the fangs. Similarly, we can empathize with Congdon's realization that her mother was not like the other moms in her small hometown in southern West Virginia; we feel her frustration over wanting the happy family life portrayed on television shows back in the sixties. What seems to be a period in her life which she simply stored in the cellar of her mind is brought into full focus while Congdon travels the winding roads of Transylvania. Just as she needed to see the actual setting of her favorite film character, perhaps she needed the reminders she comes across -- the mountains so like the ones where she grew up, the train which reminded her of her girlhood, and those long ago moments she spent in the small movie theater back home -- to awaken the memories of what she calls the real life "monster" she knew. Through this soul searching journey comes healing and that is the great strength of Congdon's memoir. She is able to overcome old resentments and begin to forge an entirely new relationship with her mother in her later years. As much as this book is a travel journal, it is even more a tale of forgiveness and acceptance. A thoroughly enjoyable read which should have great value to everyone who reads it.
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