"I vant to suck your blood." 20 interesting items about the vampire that spawned folklore, books, and movies.
For many years, Dracula was thought to be based on Romanian count Vlad Tepes.
Dracula was created by British novelist Bram Stoker in 1897.
Dracula was performed numerous times on stage, including one 1920s production starring Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi, who would go on to play him in the 1931 Hollywood production.
The novel Dracula was partly inspired by the Sheridan Le Fanu novel, “Camilla” about a lesbian bloodsucker.
Dracul means “devil” in Romanian.
The novel has existed in public domain in the United States ever since its publication because of Stoker's failure to comply with copyright procedures.
The novel was repopularized when the 1922 silent classic Nosferatu was released. Stoker's widow sought to have the film banned.
There have been countless of film adaptations of the novel, including the 1921 and 1970s film versions of Nosferatu, the 1931 Universal picture Dracula, various British Hammer film productions, and the recent 1992 version by Francis Ford Coppola.
Coppola's 1992 version added a romantic element to the story between the characters of Dracula and Mina Harker, and a backstory of Dracula's origins.
The novel itself is an epistolary, written entirely in letters by its cast of characters, though Dracula himself is revealed only through the impressions of others.
Another possible inspiration for the character of Dracula is the Countess Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary, who reportedly murdered hundreds of virgins and drank their blood to retain her youthful beauty.
The novel represents the Victorian morals of the time, including its attitudes toward sexuality.
During the period in which Dracula was written, Britain saw an influx of immigration from Eastern Europeans, who were often blamed for bringing crime and diseases into the country. Dracula himself is a depiction of such attitudes toward immigrants by British natives.
The character of Renfield represented Victorian fears of and misunderstood attitudes toward insanity.
After the fall of the communism, Transylvania saw an influx of tourism based around the novel and Vlad Tepes's infamous and sometimes misrepresented history in the country. Romanians are decidedly mixed about their country's reputation.
Bram Stoker added one trait of vampirism in the novel that isn't found in Eastern European folklore: vampires can't cast their reflections.
In the novel, Dracula isn't killed by a wooden stake to the heart, the usual way to kill a vampire in folklore, but by a bowie knife.
In the novel, Dracula roams about in daylight, though his strength is weakened.
The 1922 film Nosferatu introduces the trait that vampires can only roam around at night and can be killed by daylight.
Bela Lugosi's most famous role was as Dracula in the 1931 film. Unfortunately, while the role earned him worldwide fame, it also eclipsed later roles and the actor was often typcast in horror films.
