Dracula: Fact, Legend and Fiction

Dracula, the vampire that haunts our dreams, is the one created by the 19th-century author, Bram Stoker: but, as Paul Dukes explains here, there is a basis in fact and eastern European legend for the ghoul.

Vlad the Impaler; also known as Vlad Dracula.

First the fact, although as anybody who has ever investigated the life of an historical personage will know, this is by no means easy to establish. Dracula did indeed live, but who was he, and how did he acquire his reputation?

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