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PRESS RELEASE
Special centenary edition of DRACULA commemorating Bram Stoker’s death,
revealing the true site of Castle Dracula and solving the mystery of the Vampire’s identity
THE ULTIMATE DRACULA
by Bram Stoker/Hans Corneel de Roos
A completely new approach to Bram Stoker’s famous DRACULA novel was introduced to scholars and readers at the London Book Fair and the Bram Stoker Centenary Symposium in April 2012. In his book THE ULTIMATE DRACULA the Dutch author Hans Corneel de Roos sets two fundamental errors straight:
- Bram Stoker did NOT want the historical ruler Vlad III Dracula a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler to represent the Vampire Count’s lifetime identity. In Chapter 25, Mina and Van Helsing opt for a nameless “other”, living “in a later age”. The reason: The novelist did not want to be pinned down on a person traceable in any history book.
- Similarly, the novelist did not want to disclose the precise site of Castle Dracula. In fact, Stoker had a specific location for the Castle in mind while writing the novel: 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. Efforts to promote the Poenari or the Bran Castle as the “real Castle Dracula” have no basis in Stoker’s narrative at all. Analysing the novel’s travel descriptions and Stoker’s own handwritten research notes, de Roos presents fool-proof evidence for his thesis.
As a writer, Stoker was faced with a complex dilemma: He wanted to present a supernatural mystery story, at the same time, he claimed to publish a factual eye witness report. But the more realistic detail is added, the easier it gets to demonstrate the story did not really take place. To deal with this paradox, Stoker used elaborate literary mechanisms. In the novel, all vital addresses are garbled. Castle Dracula resembles the Grail Castle: It cannot be found on purpose, only by guidance. Jonathan, Mina and van Helsing nodd off on their way; in all cases there is a narrative gap. To remove an initial link to Vlad III from his plot, Stoker uses an old stage magic trick and replaces the historical Voivode with a nameless double, while van Helsing’s clownish performance distracts the public. The trick is so smoothly performed that over a hundred years, no Dracula scholar ever noticed it.
The Ultimate Dracula’s fresh analysis of the classic novel, illustrated by many large, historical maps in colour, make this book a must for any serious vampire story fan. Besides three research essays, additional background texts, movie overview etc., it contains the unabridged text of the 1897 edition of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, illustrated by a stunning, colourful photo story – the first and only in its kind, worldwide.
HANS CORNEEL DE ROOS
De Roos was born in Indonesia of Dutch parents who moved back to Holland shortly after his birth.
He studied Social Sciences and Philosophy in Amsterdam and Berlin, and in 1986, moved to Munich, where he built up his own studio for artistic nude photography, with numerous group and solo exhibitions in Germany and abroad. Between 2001-2007, he created the academic Rodin platform rodin-web.org and initiated an art-historical research project collecting background information and high-resolution 3D scans of original plaster sculptures by Auguste Rodin in 25 museums all over Europe.
Since 2008 De Roos has concentrated on visualising Grimm’s Fairy Tales and other well-known stories and teaches media design students in advanced photo composing techniques. He lives in Munich.
Website:
Book Details:
The Ultimate Dracula
Publisher: Moonlake Editions, Munich
ISBN: 978-3-943559-00-2
Contents:
The complete text of Bram Stokers Dracula novel (1897 edition), glossary,
three essays, 17 full-page and double-page maps, ca. 40 large photo illustrations, additional source texts, bibliography, movie overview, etc.
240 pages on 157 gsm matt art paper
Book size: 24 x 34 cm
Price: GBP £24.99 - Euro 29.90 – USD 39.00
Distribution:
Roundhouse Group 01273 603717
For more information and images regarding The Ultimate Dracula
or to interview Hans Corneel de Roos, please contact:
Tel: 0044 – 1865 – 514149
or
Tel. 0049 – 89 – 120050-33
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