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Title: Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and His Times
ISBN: 0316286567
Author:
Radu R Florescu
Raymond McNally
Publicate Date: 1990-10-31
Publish: 1990-10-31
List Price: $16.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $3.49
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.70
Amazon Merchant Price: $11.55
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| Customer Review: |
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1: 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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2: 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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3: 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.
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4: 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.
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5: Biased and Self-Glorifying, Xenephobic Work
Long ago I read the first book of Mr. Florescu on the subject, and so I threw myself eagerly to read this one. What a huge disappointment! To start, there are three things that are made clear with this book: 1.- Mr. Florescu will take ANY given chance to put his name and his family in the highlight, as if you bought to book to know about the nobility and long ancestry of his family tree. 2.- Oh, he HATES Hungarians, so he will take WHATEVER chance, real or fabricated to just expose his biased views about what a bunch of "traitors" and "spineless people" they are. 3.- Books will be SPOILED! So, if you just bought "Dracula" from Bram Stoker, read that one first or you will know the end of that book in the first chapter of Mr. Florescu and Mr.McNally's self-glorifying book. Oh, and another book is SPOILED the same way- no, even worse in the last chapter. Basically: "oh yes, there's this book about this that ends like this." Yep.
More in detail, the dates are scrambled, so do not read it without pen and paper next to you to unscrable the timelines and get a better view of the actions. It doesn't happen once in the book, but quite regularly. You will find interesting also, how the last chapter, after all you read, comes and states the exact opposite to what has been exposed in the rest of the book. Dracula's childhood, his younger brother's "encounter with the sultan", their opinion on the accuracy of Stoker's book and it's worth, and even the way Romanian people feel about Dracula. My advise is, if you are going to read this book, purchase a large stock of other books as crossreference. Among them, please do include the first book on the subject by Mr. Florescu himself. At the end, you are left with the feeling of having read the speech of a politician: you are just no longer sure whether it's true or a bunch of self-promoting lies.
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