Rating: 
Summary: The Definitive Study.
Review: A truly comprehensive study of Dracula. The authors do an excellent job of not only recounting the details of Vlad's life, but the perceptions of that life, and what effects his actions had on the time period. So all-encompassing is this book that when I finished reading it I only had a single question (which was swiftly answered through correspondence with one of the authors).
Rating:
Summary: definitive
Review: as far as i'm concerned, this book would probably be as yet the difinitive biography on prince vlad. i bought it when i was 14 only to read about all the gross things he did but as my interest in actual history grew i finally picked up the book and realized what a good biography and historical review it really was. it is well written, simple and clear, unbiased and fair towards vlad, and quite informative of the historical events of the era. the authors have a rather personal and lively tone to their writing style that is very easy to read and comprehend. and of course, gruesome discriptions of his atrocities are well documented. i wish it was a little longer.. but it's still a damn good history book with thought provoking speculations about the psychology behind vlad's bizarre and hideously violent personality. if you like colorful, informative history, character studies and blood, rest assured, this is a good book for you!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, captivating book!
Review: Everybody has seen the "Dracula the vampire" movies, everybody does the Hungarian-accented "I vant to suck your blood" shtick, but virtually nobody really knows who the real Vlad Dracula was. I certainly didn't, and I'm kind of a history-geek.While wordy and heavy reading in a very few places, this book was a fascinating look at the history behind the real Vlad Tepes ("The Impaler"), upon whom Bram Stoker loosely based his Dracula. It also offered an absolutely wonderful look into the trials and tribulations of 15th and 16th century Romania (or, more accurately, the principalities which would later become Romania). This was especially welcome for me, as I am adopting a child from Romania, and it is extremely enlightening to get a peek behind the complex history of this country and its people. If you're interested in finding out about the "real" Dracula, I highly recommend this book. If you're also a history geek (or "buff," if you're not a proud geek like me!), I would go so far as to call this a must-read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, captivating book!
Review: Everybody has seen the "Dracula the vampire" movies, everybody does the Hungarian-accented "I vant to suck your blood" shtick, but virtually nobody really knows who the real Vlad Dracula was. I certainly didn't, and I'm kind of a history-geek. While wordy and heavy reading in a very few places, this book was a fascinating look at the history behind the real Vlad Tepes ("The Impaler"), upon whom Bram Stoker loosely based his Dracula. It also offered an absolutely wonderful look into the trials and tribulations of 15th and 16th century Romania (or, more accurately, the principalities which would later become Romania). This was especially welcome for me, as I am adopting a child from Romania, and it is extremely enlightening to get a peek behind the complex history of this country and its people. If you're interested in finding out about the "real" Dracula, I highly recommend this book. If you're also a history geek (or "buff," if you're not a proud geek like me!), I would go so far as to call this a must-read.
Rating:
Summary: Florescu and McNally provide window into fascinating past
Review: Florescu and McNally have done a commendable job not only at revealing the historical person of Dracula but also at providing the reader with a fascinating window into the man's world. I found this work extremely informative since I am deeply interested in the history of Eastern and Central Europe and well-written and well-researched works in English can be difficult to come across when it comes to this part of the world. It is nice to read a book about this period and not have to wade through a myriad of contemporary Western biases.
Rating: 
Summary: the man behind the myth
Review: Florescu and McNally have exhaustively researched the REAL Count Dracula bringing the historical figure to light. Readers will not be disappointed, as the historical Dracula (aka Vlad Tepis) is every bit as interesting - dare I say bloody - as the better known character of Stoker's novel. _Dracula:Prince of Many Faces_ shows us the Machievellian politics of East Europe and how Tepis survived - even thrived - in the laybrinth that was 15th century politics. As a fan, historian, or curious on-looker, I recommend this book. You will not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: the man behind the myth
Review: Florescu and McNally have exhaustively researched the REAL Count Dracula bringing the historical figure to light. Readers will not be disappointed, as the historical Dracula (aka Vlad Tepis) is every bit as interesting - dare I say bloody - as the better known character of Stoker's novel. _Dracula:Prince of Many Faces_ shows us the Machievellian politics of East Europe and how Tepis survived - even thrived - in the laybrinth that was 15th century politics. As a fan, historian, or curious on-looker, I recommend this book. You will not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Detailed Biography of a Ruthless Prince in a Decisive Era.
Review: Having expounded on the connection between the fictional Count Dracula of Bram Stoker's 19th century novel and the real Prince Vlad Dracula who ruled 15th century Wallachia in their book "The Search for Dracula", professors Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally subsequently wrote "Dracula: Prince of Many Faces", a meticulously researched biography of the real-life warrior prince. This book starts with an overview of the extremely convoluted political landscape of 15th century Europe, in particular that of Wallachia, in present day Romania, when Vlad Tepes, also called Vlad Dracula, ruled for only 6 years in the mid-15th century. The authors follow Dracula into his youth, spent as a hostage held to insure his father's obedience in the court of the Ottoman Sultan Murad II, among many distinguished fellow hostages and tutors. Dracula demonstrated his military competency even before securing the throne of Wallachia, having been instrumental in the defense of Belgrade from invading Ottomans. During his rule of Wallachia, the Prince would ruthlessly advance an agenda of centralized power, draconian law, and military might that earned him a reputation as one of history's most excessively cruel and murderous personalities, while at the same time his defeat of the Turkish army during the 1461-1462 Turco-Wallachian war did no less than stop the Ottoman advance into Europe and make Vlad Dracula a hero of Christendom.
The historical information in "Dracula: Prince of Many Faces" accounts for most of its contents, and it is where the book excels. There are also chapters on Vlad Dracula's descendants and the sources of his considerable notoriety in his own time, when he was regarded as a maniacal tyrant by the Germans, Hungarians, and Turks, and as a savior by many of his own people. One risks engaging in presentism by applying moral judgments to Dracula's actions 6 centuries after the fact. But the Wallachian Prince was excessively sadistic even by the standards of his own time, to which his far-flung reputation attests.
"Dracula: Prince of Many Faces"' weaknesses are its attempts at psychoanalyzing Vlad Dracula and its insistence that Bram Stoker based his fictional vampire, Count Dracula, on the 15th century prince. The authors use words like "clearly", "undoubtedly", and "obviously" too often to draw conclusions about Vlad Tepes' motives that require considerable leaps of faith. "Prince of Many Faces" indulges in Freudian and behaviorist speculation about Vlad Dracula's character while ignoring what I would consider to be a simple observation about his personality: Vlad Dracula was extremely uncomfortable with behavior that is not orderly, predictable, and regimented. Hence his obsession with protocol, insistence upon strict adherence to rigid laws, and inability to see anything in shades of gray, as opposed to black and white. It is not an uncommon personality trait, but it's not desirable in persons of power. As for the Vlad Dracula-Count Dracula connection, I have read 2 books on the subject by authors Florescu and McNally, and I still see no more of Vlad Tepes in Count Dracula than his name and vague ancestry ("one of my race who as a Viovode crossed the Danube and beat the Turk on his ground"), mostly because the novel "Dracula" contradicts itself repeatedly in describing Count Dracula. Bram Stoker certainly referenced Vlad Tepes, but it seems more to evoke a sense of grandeur and history than to assign a specific identity.
Rating:
Summary: Dracula Book
Review: I decided to read this book because I wanted to learn about the real Dracula -Vlad, the impaler,- and I wanted to learn something about the struggle against the Ottomans during the middle ages. I was satisfied in both those regards. However, I cannot say that this book was an easy read. I found the sentence structures often awkward, so that it didn't flow, and often there were so many different names of people and places that it was difficult to follow the details. Despite these difficulties, Dracula was a fascinating character, and since Europe during the middle ages generally interests me, I enjoyed a look at the Balkans during that time and in particular, the battle against Mehmed II. Even though Dracula was a terrible butcher (with a mind similar to Saddam Hussein's) I found his tactics in that battle fascinating and I found myself rooting for him. I found myself wanting to learn more about Hunyadi, but that is another book. I was glad I read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting book
Review: I decided to read this book because I wanted to learn about the real Dracula -Vlad, the impaler,- and I wanted to learn something about the struggle against the Ottomans during the middle ages. I was satisfied in both those regards. However, I cannot say that this book was an easy read. I found the sentence structures often awkward, so that it didn't flow, and often there were so many different names of people and places that it was difficult to follow the details. Despite these difficulties, Dracula was a fascinating character, and since Europe during the middle ages generally interests me, I enjoyed a look at the Balkans during that time and in particular, the battle against Mehmed II. Even though Dracula was a terrible butcher (with a mind similar to Saddam Hussein's) I found his tactics in that battle fascinating and I found myself rooting for him. I found myself wanting to learn more about Hunyadi, but that is another book. I was glad I read this book.
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