Dracula in literature and cinematography

Think of Romania and literature together, and what may come to mind is the story of the famous vampire Count Dracula. Vampirism, in some form or another, has appeared in all times, in all cultures. Very often it has emerged during periods of spreading epidemics, of social changes and anxiety over the future or at the end of millennia. In 19th century England the mythology of vampires was quite popular. In 1819 Polidori published the fist vampire-novel in English "The Vampyre - a Tale". In 1872 Rymer wrote "Varney the Vampire". But undoubtedly the most famous is "Dracula", a masterpiece of the Irish writer Bram Stoker and published in 1897. The end of the 19th century was propitious to a profusion of horror stories and while writing the novel Stoker lived for a time in Whitechapell, the London neighbourhood where Jack the Ripper murdered many girls in 1888.
Though the tale may have Romanian roots, Bram Stoker never set foot in Romania. The truth is he never came closer to Transylvania than the reading room of the British Museum. Stoker worked for seven years on his novel, spending many hours in libraries documenting himself on the Balkan. As a result from his research the final Dracula incorporates many influences. Stoker mixed East European folklore with factual elements of Hungarian history and culture.
In the 19th century the West was fascinated by the East in a kind of negative way. The Habsburg Kingdom was seen as the limit of the so-called "civilised" world in opposition to the Orient, this mysterious world of sultans, where people were easily decapitated. From Vienna many coaches went to Western Europe, a single one went to Eastern Europe. The last stop was Sibiu, and the further territories were said to be "the land of the orthodox heretics". And seen from England, Transylvania was part of this enigmatic world. Besides many horror stories were going about and Bram Stoker read reports from Austrian servants on vampire epidemics in Romania and Serbia.
Stoker also mixed in elements of Hungarian countess Elisabeth Bathory (1560 - 1610), a Transylvanian woman who murdered hundred of serving girls and bathed in their blood in the belief that she could keep her eternally young.
And the strongest influence was Vlad Tepes . Stoker's friend Arminius Vamberey, a specialist of oriental matters, had explored the kingdoms of Central Asia and Mongolia, and witnessed human cruelty. As he was enthousiastic about these tales, Stoker immersed himself in research at the British Museum library and he discovered the historical figure Vlad Tepes , who suited perfectly to his project considering his cruelty and his nickname Dracula (devil/dragon). Beyond some elements borrowed from the original, historical Dracula - great strength, cruelty and savagery - Count Dracula has not so much in common with Vlad Tepes . The rest is literature, pure fiction. Count Dracula is an undead being, a being, who is never alive or dead, but who exists somewhere indefinably between the two states. He casts no shadow and reflects no image in a mirror, he hates garlic, cannot bear the view of a cross and sleeps in a coffin on good Transylvanian earth. He is completely plastic, able to change himself into several shapes, most familiarly those of bats and wolves.
Late Victorian audiences loved vampire stories, and almost immediately the novel sold successfully, both in England and on the continent and Stoker became suddenly famous. Since then for the Western world Transylvania has been the best place for horror scenes and symbolises a gloomy, dark land, a country of macabre beauty with baying wolves and bloodsuckers. The novel has never been out of print and its impact on the 20th century popular culture has proved phenomenal. Stoker's neck-biting, blood-sucking count has been the most widely popularised anti-hero in the whole Western culture. This masterpiece has inspired a century of horror writers and scores of films (about 400). The most famous among them are the silent movie "Nosferatu" by F.W. Murnau (1922), "Dracula" by Tod Browning (1931), "Dracula, Prince of Darkness" by Terence Fisher (1965), "Dance of Vampires" by R. Polanski (1967), "Nosferatu, Phantom of the Night" by Werner Herzog (1979), "Dracula" by F.F Coppola (1992) and "Interview with the Vampire" (1994).
In summer 1997, exactly a hundred years after the issue of Stoker's novel, a convention in Los Angeles even declared 1997 "The Year of the Vampires". First published in 1897, Dracula has been a best-seller around the world, including Hungary. But it wasn't published in Romania until 1990 and till recently the movie "Dance of Vampires" was forbidden in Hungary. This censorship was probably due to the negative image of Transylvania this book and this film conveyed in the eyes of the authorities. On the other hand Romanian tourism-managers rapidly understood how to take advantage of the popularity of the famous neck-biting Count.