Published in 1897, Bram Stoker’s Gothic novel “Dracula” launched an entire genre of literature and film about vampires, those sinister figures who use their supernatural powers to hunt humans and drink their blood. To create his immortal antihero, Count Dracula, Stoker certainly drew on popular Central European folktales about the nosferatu (“undead”), but he also seems to have been inspired by historical accounts of the 15th-century Romanian prince Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler. Born in Transylvania…

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• Article Details:
  Was Dracula a real person?
• Author
  History.com Staff
• Website Name
  History.com
• Year Published
  2015
• Title
  Was Dracula a real person?
• URL
  http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/was-dracula-a-real-person
• Access Date
  October 16, 2016
• Publisher
  A+E Networks