Available:*
Library | Shelf Number | Material Type | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Central Services | HUMP | English Fiction | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Umbilo Library | HUMP | English Fiction | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
A superb gothic novel about the real Dracula, Vlad the Impaler - one of history's greatest psychopaths or a hero of the West? Perhaps both...
'A chilling masterpiece that weaves fact and fable. Bedtime reading? Only if you don't need much sleep...' BEST
DRACULA. A name of horror, depravity and the darkest sensuality.
Yet the real Dracula was just as alluring, just as terrifying, his story not of a monster but of a man - and a contradiction. For the one they called 'The Devil's Son' was both tyrant and lawgiver, crusader and mass slaughterer, torturer and hero, lover and murderer.
His tale is told by those who knew him best. The only woman he ever loved, who he must sacrifice. His closest comrade and traitor. And his priest, betraying the secrets of the confessional to reveal the mind of the man history would forever remember as Tepes - 'The Impaler'.
But Vlad's actions defy such labels. His extraordinary life burns with passion, taking him from his years as hostage to the Turk, through torture, battle, triumph and betrayal, ultimately to a last crusade - there perhaps, beneath the twin banners of the Dragon and the Cross, to find redemption for his innumerable sins.
Author Notes
C.C. Humphreys was born in Toronto and grew up in Los Angeles and London. A third generation actor and writer on both sides of his family, he lives on Salt Spring Island, Canada. www.cchumphreys.com
Reviews (2)
Booklist Review
Humphreys' historical novel sets out to tell the real truth about the man behind the Dracula stories, Vlad Dracul, prince of Transylvania. Structuring the tale around the confessions of the prince's mistress, his best friend, and his longtime priest, Humphreys sticks to as many historical facts are as known about Vlad and his compatriots and about the tumultuous events of the late-fifteenth century in Transylvania, weaving an unapologetic tale about a man who endured great losses and was driven by intense passion for his country and religion. Without glossing over the more horrific events (the Easter Sunday impaling of Dracul's traitorous nobles), Humphreys generates considerable sympathy for the prince, who always and only did what he thought he had to do to save his country and Christianity. With the emphasis on history and with almost no supernatural elements, the novel is aimed much more at readers interested in the historical origins of the Dracula stories than at those looking for another vampire story. As such, it succeeds admirably.--Moyer, Jessic. Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Listeners won't find a bloodsucker here, but they will be excited to meet the real Prince of Wallachia, presented without judgment in all his gore and glory. In this dramatic and historically thorough fictional account, author Humphreys uses those who knew Vlad best-his boyhood friend, his mistress, and his priest-to tell his tale, following the man who would be known as Dracula through his Turkish education as a gentleman and torturer, across battlefields, into passionate embraces, and through exile and crusade. Actor Colin Moody skillfully narrates, though with such a broad cast of characters, some inflections get recycled. Vlad's obsession for power, sex, and violence make for a truly confessional novel that will appeal to fans of mob stories and similarly themed historical fiction (e.g., The Tudors, Gates of Rome). [The Sourcebooks Landmark pb will publish in May 2011.-Ed.]-Lisa Anderson, Metropolitan Community Coll. Lib., Omaha (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.