Vlad III Dracula: The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula

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Summary: Vlad III Dracula: The Life and Times of the Historical
Review: Buy it! If you're a serious student (casual readers may be intimidated by the massive amount of footnotes), get this one. If one could own four books on Dracula they should be the Florescu-McNally books and this one.

This volume is well-written and heavily footnoted, with an extensive bibliography; one does wish certain chapters (such as the chapter on Dracula's relations with the church,) were a bit longer, however the only real drwaback is that many of the works cited in the footnotes and bibliography are by Romanian authors, hence, not available to the majority of nonspecialist readers, however, most Romanian quotations are also rendered in English.

This volume represents the latest in Dracula scholarship. Author Treptow attempts to portary Vlad as objectively as possible, divorced from the Stoker/vampire connection.

The book itself is very handsome; black hardback cover with imitation gold leaf; color dust jacket; and an attached cloth bookmark. And the illustrations by artist Octavian Ion Penda in the style of medieval/renaissance woodcuts, in imitation of Holbein's work, add to the book's overall attractiveness. The price can't be beat, either. All-in-all, a worthy addition to Dracula studies.

Rating:
Summary: The best of the Dracula biographies
Review: Having acquired a passing interest with the "real" Dracula, it was nice to find a detailed historical account more in the vein of academics than popular culture. If you have a causal interest in Vlad then this book will be more than you want to handle. But if you are ready to deal with an in-depth consideration of the Impaler, you cannot do better than this volume.

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Summary: A scholarly biography
Review: I'm a history professor who's teaching a course on Dracula next semester. I've already ordered Florescu's Prince of Many Faces and McNally's In Search of Dracula as required reading. I've attempted to read everything in English on Dracula.

I then found Treptow. From the very first page he avoids the tendency to sensionalize Vlad III. He avoids using documents that are suspicious, like other historians. He tells us how he came to the conclusion that they are not trustworthy. He attemps to set Vlad's action within their proper context. When I finished the book, I knew that I had read the best biography on Dracula now in existence.

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Summary: A superbly written, accurate, history-based biography.
Review: Kurt Treptow's Vlad III Dracula: The Life And Times Of The Historical Dracula is a superbly presented, meticulously researched biography of the 15th century Romanian aristocrat known to history as "Vlad the Impaler". Treptow draws upon all extant Romanian, Turkish, Russian, and German sources to reconstruct the history of a prince who, in his own lifetime, was acclaimed a dedicated national hero and an implacable, bloody, merciless, diabolical tyrant. The informative, definitive, "reader friendly" text is enhanced with a series of appendices offering translations of principal documents concerns the history of Vlad III Dracula. Vlad III Dracula is "must" reading for anyone seeking an accurate, history-based biography of a man whose life and accomplishments have become interwoven and obscured by myth, legend, and popularized fiction.

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Summary: Not bad but less pricey books can be found
Review: This is a nice scholarly book just teeming with footnotes and it made me feel like I was in college again. It could have contained a little more info and a little less footnote. It very well might have some snippets that the other books don't, but McNally and Florescu books have a wealth of information for much less money. For example "In Search of Dracula" is about $10 to $15 with shipping vs. this book at $40.00 or so. It is a good book, but not worth the price for the information that it contains.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, fascinating character, great documentation
Review: Vlad Tepes ("Vlad the Impaler," also known as Vlad III Dracula) is one of those historical figures everyone's heard of, but nobody really knows much about. This book will change that.

Author Kurt Treptow does a wonderful job giving the historical and political background of 15th century Wallachia (a province that would later form part of modern Romania). While his subject (Vlad Dracula) is the same as several other books (one of the notable populars being that by Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally), he approaches the documentary task as the capable historian he is. Chapters are divided along both major events of Wallachian history, as well as Vlad's interactions with particular entities (the Church, the boyars [ruling class], and the Ottoman Turks, for example). Detailed footnotes and supplementary documentation abound -- this is truly a history-buff's dream come true!

There are many illustrations and maps, many of which are from period artists. Some of the most striking, though, are originals by artist Octavian Ion Penda -- detailed woodcut-like drawings reminiscent of Albrecht Durer.

Especially exciting to me (it doesn't take a lot to excite a history geek!) is the inclusion of many translated letters from Vlad himself, as well as contemporary documents concerning him. These have been hinted at by prior authors writing about Vlad, but to actually read his words, or the words of the Turkish sultan (for example), shed much more light on the man mythologized as a "vampire." [Treptow also debunks, thankfully, the myth that "Dracula" was named such because he was the devil -- in reality, it means "son of the dragon," his father having been invested in the Order of the Dragon, a Christian religious and military order.] In addition, an extensive bibliography of both primary and secondary sources is a godsend for further reading and research.

If you're looking for an introduction to Vlad Dracula, this would be first on my list to recommend. If you've read Florescu & McNally's book already, you really must read this one, too!