Honourable Mention: My Vladislaus Dracula

The Blurb: When the name Dracula is spoken, what image comes into your mind? Do you think of a bloodthirsty monster made up by an Irish story-teller who never stepped foot on Romanian soil? Or, do you think of a legendary fifteenth century hero of Romania who risked his life and fought courageously to take on the Ottoman empire to protect his land, his people, all of Europe, and all of Christianity?

Since the age of 13, Amelia Justine Kari had a quest. Her quest was to one day take a trip to the beautiful lands of Romania, in search of the truth behind the mysteries of the real Prince Dracula. Once on Romanian soil, Amelia would find other forces already at work in search of her. Because of her career choice as a medical technician and her overwhelming fascination with the green eyed, Black haired man called Vladislaus Dracula, Amelia was always misunderstood.

But, what if Vlad Dracula was also misunderstood? What if the pamphlets and documents written about him, were only made up to control him, use his power, and condemn him to prison?

Amelia was determined to find the truth, but she’d have to search deep in her soul to find all the answers.

The Mention: My Vladislaus Dracula is a 2010 novel by Teresa L Jones and Teresa previously came over to the blog and told us a little about her theories of the man Vlad Dracula – that guest post can be found here.

It felt to me that the book was probably more appropriate for an honourable mention than a full on review because, whilst fiction, Teresa is looking at Vlad Dracula the historical figure rather than Count Dracula the vampire. Due to Bram Stoker borrowing the name the historical Prince will always have a connection to the genre but the man lent his name only to Stoker’s novel.

Not that this book does not mention vampires. Amelia’s favourite film is the 1979 Dracula and, indeed, there is a vampire thread within the novel. However, I felt that to do more than mention that the thread is there, to explore it and the resolution thereof, would be to do the novel a disservice.

The essential thrust of the book is to educate the reader in the historical man. There are historical liberties taken – a necessary evil in a fiction book – but what Teresa has attempted to do is to couch her research and theorems within a fictional setting so that she might better get those theorems across. It is a brave move inspired by the fact that Stoker added a name to a piece of fiction and created an entire legend. Perhaps it is like swimming against the tide, given the sheer weight of the legend Stoker created and the world embraced, but there is nothing wrong with doing that.