The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Note: I hope this topic never comes up again in my lifetime because too much emphasis is being put on a book that didn't even sell well to begin with. People make too much of it. It is a work of fiction and nothing more.

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20 COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT BRAM STOKER & HIS NOVEL DRACULA

Many misconceptions and downright errors appear both in print and on television documentaries about Bram Stoker and his famous novel. Here are 20 of the more widespread ones.



Here is one:



"Dracula's Guest" was the excised first chapter of Dracula.



http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/misconceptions.html



If Stoker found out about The Austrian Princess it would have to be from Baring-Gould's Werewolf book he took notes from. This is a really obscure story and they have found other skeletons elsewhere that have something stuck in their mouth. The way suspected vampires were buried varies from country to country. Many were not burned because burning was forbidden by the church. This is why so many are buried in and around Santorini. Let's face it, people were superstitious and tried all kinds of things. In these areas there were a lot of weird beliefs and activities. It makes no difference but I don't see how anyone can say he stole anyone's story. His book is a combination between vampire and werewolf folklore. Also, some of the things people think about the book Dracula and what is in it is not but only in the movies. The Coppola movie is way off from the book.



My question is why do people care about this book so much and where Stoker got his inspiration? Many books have been written based on some person's life or folklore so the whole thing is really silly. It really is not in keeping with his working notes. Stoker knew about a lot of folklore. I honestly think they probably thought she was either a sorceress in league with the devil or possibly a vampire but it doesn't sound like she was. Sounds like she was trying to find alternative ways to cure her illness which they probably had no idea the nature of the illness. If you watch the video you can see all of this. I think Stoker originally was going to put the location of his story in Austria because of the fact there was a big vampire scare in that area. I doubt he knew anything about this Princess. No one else seemed to until they dug these skeletons up and now...surprise...it is another person connected to the book Dracula. Wow, now they are showing shows...MORE MONEY TO BE MADE. This is a major extrapolation on their part. Dracula's Guest was never going to be part of the book Dracula. He wrote other stories as well. I just don't understand all the attention to this story.



This poor woman died of cancer in a time when they were having vampire scares...how sad. There is so much superstition.



You can watch the full video on the Smithsonian site here:



http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/site/sn/show.do?show=131383



Instead of tying her to the Dracula book they should write and research her separately. They had nothing to do with the other. I cannot believe they did what they did to her body...

Q. How familiar was Stoker with Vlad Tepes when he wrote Dracula? What other influences affected his work?



A. Here is what we know for sure. During the summer of 1890 while vacationing in Whitby, Stoker came across a book in the Public Library entitled An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia (1820) by William Wilkinson. In it there is a short section about a "voivode Dracula" who fought against the Turks in the 15th century. Stoker copied much of this section into his notes (now held at the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia), including a footnote Wilkinson made to the effect that "Dracula in the Wallachian language means Devil". That, in my opinion, is why he selected the name. He had already selected a name for his vampire (Count Wampyr) but at some point after the Whitby visit, he changed it to Count Dracula.



There is nothing in Wilkinson about Vlad's atrocities as "the Impaler" (in fact, the name Vlad and the sobriquet "Impaler" are never used). And there is no evidence that Stoker obtained additional material on the historical Dracula from any other source. There is plenty of speculation, but that is all it is. Thus, to say that Stoker was influenced by accounts of Vlad in creating his character is misleading.



Some claim that the inspiration for Count Dracula was Elizabeth Bathory. But the evidence just isn't there. One book that we know he consulted (he was kind enough to list his sources in his Notes) was The Book of Were-Wolves by Sabine Baring-Gould; that book does contain a short section on Countess Bathory. But the notes Stoker took do not include any from this section, and her name appears nowhere in his drafts or notes. Again, there are theories, but that is all that they are.



There are other theories about influences, one of the chief being that Stoker based Count Dracula on his employer, Henry Irving. According to this view, Stoker was indirectly expressing his resentment at being dominated by Irving in the workplace. But again, the available evidence contradicts this. Everything Stoker wrote about Irving (and there is plenty) is laudatory.



The influences that we know of (because of textual evidence or references in his own notes) include earlier vampire fiction, most notably Le Fanu's "Carmilla". We also have that list of books and articles which he consulted during his research for information on Transylvania in particular.



Q. What is Transylvania like?



A. Transylvania is part of the country of Romania. It is known to us in the West primarily because of its connection with Dracula and vampires, a connection due to Bram Stoker's novel. It puzzles people in Transylvania because to them Dracula is the historical figure Vlad Tepes (who was not a vampire); the Western concepts of Dracula and vampires are foreign to them. But Dracula fans are drawn to Transylvania to see the sites mentioned in Stoker's novel, especially Bistritz and the Borgo Pass. If anyone is interested in details about my trips to Transylvania, I suggest you browse through my Travel & Events page which has plenty of stuff about it.





From Elizabeth Miller's FAQ's

http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/faq.html