A Dracula Handbook

By Elizabeth Miller

A DRACULA HANDBOOK

A Dracula Handbook provides succinct and accurate information about Dracula. Written for a general readership, the book should appeal to aficionados, students and the just-plain-curious. Using question/answer format, the book covers a range of topics: the origins of the vampire myth; the life of Bram Stoker, author of Dracula (1897); the novel, its genesis and sources; the historical figure (Vlad the Impaler) whose nickname Stoker borrowed for his Count; an examination of the connection between Vlad and Count Dracula; the phenomenal impact the novel has had since its publication; and an overview of interpretations of the book. Also included is a comprehensive reading list.

Here are some of the many questions that are directly answered in the book:

What are the roots of vampire lore?

How did vampires move from folklore to literature?

What do we know about the actual writing of Dracula?

Where did Bram Stoker find his information about vampires?

Are there any autobiographical elements in Dracula?

Did Dracula originate in a nightmare?

What do we know of the relationship between Stoker and his wife?

Did Stoker die of syphilis?

How did Count Dracula become a vampire?

Does Count Dracula have any redeeming qualities?

How was the novel Dracula received when published in 1897?

What did Stoker himself say about the novel?

Why did Stoker name his vampire Dracula?

Why did he select Transylvania as the vampires homeland?

How much did Stoker really know about Vlad the Impaler?

Was Vlad ever associated with vampire legends?

What are our main sources of information about Vlad?

Why do many Romanians consider Vlad to be a national hero?

Which of the Dracula movies is the best adaptation of Stokers novel?

What impact has Dracula had on subsequent vampire fiction?

Why does Count Dracula have such enduring appeal?

How do Romanians feel about Dracula tourism in their country?

Is there a real Castle Dracula?

What are some of the interpretations of Dracula?

Is Dracula a classic?

And many, many more! Depending on the complexity of the questions, the answers range from 5-6 lines to several pages. At the end of each chapter there is a shortlist for further reading. At the end of the book there is a comprehensive Bibliography.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 22, 2005
• ISBN: 9781465334008

Elizabeth Miller

Spinning and Weaving’s Contributing Editor, Elizabeth Miller, is a Chicago feminist activist who runs the Chicago Feminist Salon and co-organized the Women in Media Conference, a radical feminist conference held in Chicago in 2018. In recent years, she worked on the successful campaigns to get the U.S. Equal Rights Amendment ratified in Illinois and to enact Illinois House Bill 40, which ensured that abortion will remain legal in Illinois even if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Among other projects, she is currently working with the U.S. radical feminist organization Feminists in Struggle to lobby Congress to pass legislation protecting women’s sex-based rights and the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and gender non-conforming people, organizing two other radical feminist conferences in the United States, and running several large radical feminist social media pages and groups.

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Copyright © 2005 by Elizabeth Miller.

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Contents

PREFACE

1

The Vampire before Dracula

2

Bram Stoker

3

Dracula, the Novel

4

The Origins of Dracula

5

Transylvania

6

Dracula: Vlad the Impaler

7

The Voivode and the Count

8

Dracula since 1897

9

Dracula and the Tourist

10

Dracula Scholarship

FURTHER READING AND RESEARCH

To Yuka and Jason—

who have helped make Toronto feel like home

PREFACE

The intention of this book is to provide succinct information about the phenomenon of Dracula: both the fictional vampire immortalized by Irish author Bram Stoker and the historical figure, Vlad the Impaler. At the same time, my object is accuracy. Given the extent to which errors and misconceptions have invaded the field, I hope to set the record straight on a number of key issues about Stoker and his famous novel. For those who would like to dig more deeply, I am providing reading shortlists at the end of each chapter and an extensive Bibliography at the end of the book.

My interest in Dracula is of rather recent vintage. Before 1990, my efforts as a scholar and university professor were focused primarily on Newfoundland Literature. But then I decided it was time for a change. I revisited the subject of my Masters dissertation many years earlier—British Romanticism—and found myself drawn to the more Gothic elements of Lord Byron and the Shelleys. Along the way I stumbled on the figure of the vampire and was bitten.

This book had its origins in a project undertaken by the Transylvanian Society of Dracula in Romania, who were interested in acquiring an informative booklet that they could offer the participants on their Dracula tours. Given the popularity (and more important, the usefulness) of that Handbook, I decided to expand it and make it available to a wider readership. In its preparation, I have relied (at times heavily) on two of my earlier published works: Reflections on Dracula (1997) and Dracula: Sense & Nonsense (2000).

I want to thank several individuals who have given me assistance along the way: Robert Eighteen-Bisang (Transylvania Press), Cathy Krusberg, B.J. Kuehl, Clive Leatherdale (Desert Island Books), Gordon Melton, Nicolae Paduraru, David J. Skal, Lanie Woodfine, and Jeanne Youngson. Thanks also to the Rosenbach Museum, the Dracula Society, members of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, and contributors to alt.vampyres and the Vampyres listserve. A special debt of gratitude goes to Jason Nolan for help with design and photographs for the cover.

Elizabeth Miller

Toronto

February 2005

Textual Note: All quotations from Dracula throughout this Handbook are taken from the Norton Critical Edition (1997). To enable those working with other editions to find the pertinent passages, chapter numbers are added.

1

The Vampire before Dracula

For most people, the word vampire and the name Dracula are synonymous. But the figure of the vampire precedes the novel by Bram Stoker that gave us Count Dracula by hundreds of years. This chapter outlines the origins of the vampire, especially in folklore and literature.

What is a vampire?

The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition) defines vampire as follows: a preternatural being of a malignant nature (in the original and usual forms of the belief, a reanimated corpse), supposed to seek nourishment or do harm by sucking the blood of sleeping persons. The term also refers to one or other of various bats that are known to be blood-suckers, and is used metaphorically for a person who preys ruthlessly on others. In recent years, it has even been adopted by certain individuals who claim to live a vampiric lifestyle (usually without the supernatural powers). For the purposes of this book the primary OED definition will apply.

Most folklorists agree that the word vampire has Slavic roots, first appearing as a proper name (Upir) in a Russian manuscript of the eleventh century and as a generic term in a Serbian manuscript two hundred years later. The form vampir has been found in a fifteenth-century South Slavic source.

What are the roots of vampire lore?

The two powerful components of the legend—the fear of death and the importance of blood—have firm roots in ancient myth and practice. A sense of dread that the dead would find a way to return and haunt the living gave rise to numerous superstitions and folk beliefs about revenants. But what was unique about vampire beliefs was the conviction that this particular revenant was a blood-sucker.

Since early times, human beings have been aware of the link between blood and life. Blood has been perceived as both a literal and a figurative expression of family, race, culture and power. Not surprisingly, pre-scientific societies attached magical and supernatural properties to the life-sustaining fluid. Some warriors, for example, believed that drinking the blood of an enemy would enable them to absorb some of their opponents’ strength. The ritualistic use of blood flourished in many ancient religions. For example, blood sacrifice is an inextricable part of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Mosaic law required of the ancient Israelites that they sprinkle the blood of sacrificial animals on the altars of the Most High as a form of atonement for the sins of the people. There were proscriptions against its consumption, as in God’s command to Noah: But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat (Genesis 9:4). Again, God’s law to Moses required that Thou eat not the blood, for the blood is the life (Deuteronomy 12:23). Christianity revitalized the ancient practice of blood-sacrifice, giving it new meaning and significance. Christ was presented as the Lamb whose blood was shed for the sins of the world. During the Last Supper, Jesus asked his disciples to drink the wine, declaring, This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, shed for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 27:2526). The forbidding of blood-drinking combined with the sacred nature of Eucharistic blood gave new significance to vampirism. Not only did a vampire consume blood in direct defiance of Holy Scripture, but in doing so it was defiling the very blood of Christ. In the seventeenth century, Leo Allatius, a Catholic theologian, asserted that vampires were real and were the work of the devil.

The vampire as we know it today (and as Bram Stoker would have known it when he composed Dracula) originated in the folklore of Central and Eastern Europe and moved from there into literature. Vampire-like creatures (by other names) have been identified in the myths and legends of many cultures around the world, for example Babylonia, ancient Greece, India, Malaysia, etc.

Image283.JPG

The vampire bat, native only to Central and South America, was named after the vampire of European folklore

What are some of the common elements of Eastern European vampire lore?

Explanations for what causes some individuals to become vampires after death differ from one folk culture to another. Some are predisposed at birth: those born on certain holy days, or on the new moon; those born with a defect such as a caul, an extra nipple, or teeth; anyone who is the seventh son of a seventh son. Others are doomed to return as vampires because of transgressions committed against acceptable codes of behavior during their lifetime, such as practising sorcery or engaging in acts of violence. Still others return from the dead because of the circumstances surrounding their death or burial: they died without baptism, they died in a state of excommunication, they committed suicide, they were in life attacked by another vampire, or their bodies were not buried in accordance with proper rituals.

We also find in the folk legends a variety of means by which a vampire can be detected: a disturbed grave-site, a strange reaction by animals around a grave, tell-tale signs in a victim (anemia, bite marks, nightmares, sleep-walking, weight loss, aversion to garlic), and the appearance of the exhumed corpse of the suspected vampire (ruddy and/or bloated appearance, new nails or hair, lack of decomposition, presence of blood). Not surprisingly, ways were devised to cure the community of such visitations. The most widespread was to drive a wooden stake through the heart of the suspected vampire; other techniques included decapitation, drenching the body in garlic or holy water, extracting and burning the heart, or burning the entire corpse.

When and under what circumstances did the word vampire enter the English language?

The word vampyre apparently made its first appearance in the English language in 1732. The occasion was a rash of vampire sightings documented in several parts of Europe and eventually reported in the British press. Early in 1732, a commission headed by Austrian military surgeon Johann Fluckinger released a report entitled Visum et Repertum which clearly reported that vampires were a reality. The publication became an immediate best-seller. Dozens of similar reports evoked an electrifying reaction. Some of these sensational stories were picked up by British publications, two of which carried accounts during 1732. Thus the word vampyre officially entered the English language.

Subsequent accounts of new sightings were so widespread that in some countries government officials became directly involved. So did the academic community. In 1746, French Biblical scholar Dom Augustin Calmet wrote a treatise on the subject, including this account of the famous case of Arnold Paul:

About five years ago, an inhabitant of Madreiga [in Austrian Serbia], named Arnald Paul was crushed to death by the fall of a wagon-load of hay. Thirty days after his death four persons died suddenly, and in the same manner in which, according to the tradition of the country, those die who are molested by vampires. They then remembered that this Arnald Paul had often related that in the environs of Cassovia, and on the frontiers of Turkish Servia, he had often been tormented by a Turkish vampire; for they believe also that those who have been passive vampires during life become active ones after their death, that is to say, that those who have been sucked, suck also in their turn; but that he had found means to cure himself by eating earth from the grave of the vampire, and smearing himself with his blood; a precaution which, however, did not prevent him from becoming so after his death, since, on being exhumed forty days after his interment, they found on his corpse all the indications of an arch-vampire. His body was red, his hair, nails, and beard had all grown again, and his veins were replete with fluid blood, which flowed from all parts of his body upon the winding-sheet which encompassed him. The Hadnagi of the village, in whose presence the exhumation took place, and who was skilled in vampirism, had, according to custom, a very sharp stake driven into the heart of the defunct Arnald Paul, and which pierced his body through and through, which made him, as they say, utter a frightful shriek, as if he had been alive: that done, they cut off his head, and burnt the whole body. After that they performed the same on the corpses of the four other persons who died of vampirism, fearing that they in turn might cause the death of others. (51)

In another report, the body of Peter Plogojovitz of the Hungarian village of Kesolova was said to have been exhumed by an officer of the Emperor who asserted that in his mouth [was] some fresh blood, which these people believed that this vampire had sucked from the men whose death he had occasioned. As a consequence, a sharp pointed stake was driven into the corpse whence there issued a quantity of fresh and crimson blood which served only to confirm local convictions concerning vampirism (Calmet 138).

Meanwhile the vampire sightings continued throughout Europe. Austria’s Empress Maria Theresa even stepped in after a new outbreak of vampirism had been reported in Silesia. She sent her chief physician, Gerard van Swieten, to investigate. His report (1755) concluded that belief in vampires was a superstition, leading the Empress to pass decrees aimed at stopping the spread of the vampire hysteria, and ensuring that all investigations were conducted by civil rather than religious authorities. Major scholars of the eighteenth century could not resist being drawn into the debate. For example, we have this comment from the French philosopher Voltaire: What! Vampires in our Eighteenth Century? Yes . . . in Poland, Hungary, Silesia, Moravia, Austria and Lorraine. There was no talk of vampires in London, or even Paris. I admit that in these two cities there were speculators, tax officials and businessmen who sucked the blood of the people in broad daylight, but they were not dead (although they were corrupted enough) (qtd. in Frayling 30-31).

Have scientific explanations for these phenomena been offered?

Several explanations have since been forthcoming to account for these strange cases. One of the most widespread is premature burial, a practice that resulted from failure to recognize signs of true death. Some have suggested that misunderstood infectious diseases such as the plague and tuberculosis were often blamed on supernatural causes (or by religious fanatics, on the devil himself); others speculate that outbreaks of rabies were interpreted by superstitious villagers as vampire attacks. We even have theological explanations: confusion over the question of the corruption of the body after death, as well as concern that the vampire was a hellish imitation of Christ. Modern anthropologists, most notably Paul Barber (Vampires, Burial and Death), have proposed that a lack of understanding of the process of decomposition of the human body after death and burial coupled with the conviction that disease was spread by the dead, can account for many of the reports. When a corpse was exhumed, the investigators would find signs which today we understand, but which to them would have confirmed their folkloric beliefs.

How did vampires move from folklore into literature?

The vampires of Eastern European folklore (and certainly those described in Calmet’s book) are a far cry from the romantic, seductive members of the undead to which we have become accustomed in popular culture today. That image of the vampire has its origins in literature. The reports about vampire sightings coincided with (and maybe contributed to) a rising interest in Gothic literature, first in Germany and later in England.

The term Gothic is applied to a body of literature, mainly poetry and fiction that appeared during the second half of the eighteenth century. Literary Gothicism developed from the same impulses that sparked the Romantic movement: the focus on subjective experience, the emphasis on the imagination as the central human faculty, the revival of interest in medievalism and, most essentially, the reaction against rationalism and empirical science. Gothic literature explored the intuitive, non-rational and chaotic aspects of the self, concentrating on the darker side of human nature. The term Gothic, frequently used in a derogatory manner, was derived from the Goths, one of the barbarian tribes that had invaded the Roman Empire centuries before.

The Gothic movement in literature developed first in Germany and made its appearance in England in 1764 with the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. It peaked in the 1790s due to the popularity of novelists such as Ann Radcliffe and Matthew (Monk) Lewis. The prototypical Gothic villain, usually a tall, dark and mysterious nobleman who lived in a remote castle, adopted the characteristics of the demon lover whose very appearance aroused sexual desire in helpless female victims.

It was inevitable that the vampire would be adopted by Gothic writers. This occurred first in Germany, in poetic works such as Der Vampyr by Heinrich Ossenfelder (1748), Die Braut von Korinth by Goethe (1797) and Ludwig Tieck’s short story Wake Not the Dead (1800). The first British writers to adopt the vampire were two minor Romantic poets. In 1801