The Ultimate Dracula

THE ULTIMATE DRACULA

For the first time, following meticulous research, the true site of Castle Dracula is revealed together with related information on Count Dracula’s mysterious parentage.

In The Ultimate Dracula, social scientist and photographer Hans Corneel de Roos presents the full and unabridged text of the 1897 original publication enhanced by a stunning full-colour photo-story. De Roos also addresses two major mysteries connected with Stoker’s novel:

Where exactly was Castle Dracula?
(Not in the Borgo Pass as commonly believed)

Who was the Vampire Count based on?
(No, not Vlad the Impaler!)

Since Bram Stoker first published his Dracula, its protagonist has become one of the most infamous fiction characters of all time – not least by virtue of the many stage and screen adaptations of the novel. Over the past four decades, a wealth of academic research has grown around the book, but despite the story’s detailed travel descriptions, no scholar has yet managed to pinpoint the exact location of Castle Dracula.

In many ways, Stoker presented his bloodthirsty aristocrat as the Anti-Christ, inverting religious ceremonies, e.g. when staging a “Baptism of Blood” with victim Mina Harker. Equally, and reminiscent of Arthurian legend, the location of the vampire’s stronghold has been impossible to pinpoint accurately. As Stoker’s characters approach the Castle, the route description gets vaguer, until all is lost in a whirl of snow. Until now, annotated editions of Dracula have reached a consensus that the Castle can only be reached by way of the Borgo Pass – and that Stoker had no precise location in mind beyond it being between Bistritz and the Bukovina.

By taking a fresh look at the novel’s text and with the aid of highly detailed military maps from Stoker’s era, De Roos has been able to reconstruct the exact routes of all the characters on their way to Castle Dracula and identify an area of just two square miles in which only two distinctive mountain tops 20 miles south-west of the Pass meet all the criteria set out in the original text. Moreover, by researching Stoker’s own handwritten notes, De Roos finally found the proof that Stoker had but one of these two peaks in mind when penning his compelling narrative.

Mount Izvorul Călimanului, 2,033 m high, located in the Transylvanian Kelemen Alps near the border with Romania, at 47°08′03″ North, 25°17′19″ East.

De Roos also explains why Stoker declined to reveal the Castle’s exact location in his book.

£24.99 pb | 9783943559002 | MOONLAKE EDITIONS