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Vlad the Impaler - Son of the Devil, Hero of the People
Vlad the Impaler: Son of the Devil, Hero of the People not only brings to life one of history’s most compelling and brutal characters, but traces his bizarre afterlife. A hero to his countrymen, Vlad Dracula became a byword for dread. Not just for generations of Western fans of Gothic fiction and film, but also for his fifteenth-century contemporaries, whose appalled fascination made accounts of Dracula’s atrocities into the world’s first horror bestsellers. Combining historical research and dramatic reconstruction, with groundbreaking contemporary reference, Vlad the Impaler includes his dramatic career, from pampered captive of the Ottoman Sultans, to exterminating angel of Christian vengeance. See the Impaler as fascist idol and communist icon—was he the model ruler of an embattled realm or the embodiment of unbridled cruelty?
335 pages, Paperback
First published February 9, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 16, 2019
This book provides an in-depth study on the life and times of Vlad the Impaler, a Wallachian warlord-prince from the 15th century. Vlad the Impaler, also called Vlad Dracula, ruled for seven years over Wallachia, now the southern region of Romania, and fought against the Ottoman Empire to defend his principality. The title of ‘Impaler’ is derived from his penchant for punishing criminals and opponents by the practice of impalement. His methodology of a reign of terror was successful, as the Ottoman Empire feared him still even after he was deposed from the throne and a hostage in Hungary. In the present day, Vlad the Impaler is lauded as a national hero of the Romanian people.
The authors take a neutral stance on their views of Vlad. They present both the known and recorded facts and the mythology and legends that have developed around him and share the views of his contemporary enemies and apologists. By providing information from both sides of the story, the authors allow the reader to draw their own conclusions on Vlad’s character, and if he should be considered a monstrous tyrant or a nationalist hero.
While deeply informative of Vlad’s life, the book also provides an excellent history of 15th century history and politics in Eastern Europe. This information is extremely necessary to truly understand the situations Vlad encountered as a ruler, and to understand that his acts of violence, while excessive, were often no different from that which his contemporaries practiced. The book also provides cultural and historical information on the Ottoman Empire, which is also vital to understanding the entire picture. The book also provided modern historical information on Romania, and how the Impaler’s influence lingers in his homeland.
Unfortunately, this book is bloated with large amounts of unnecessary information. The authors would often wander off onto tangents that were either tenuously, or not at all, linked to Vlad and his life. This endless practice of wandering from the main focus on the biography lead to large passages of rather useless information that bogs down the reader. While these tangents did at times contain interesting information, many of them could have been removed to create a much tighter biography. For me, these tangents were extremely distracting and mostly not enjoyable, and really took away from the book itself.
This book also suffered from an unnecessary psycho-sexual analysis of Vlad that added nothing productive to the discussion of his life. I personally think the conclusion of calling him a sadist is rather unfair, as many of the accounts discussed in that section were based on sources that likely exaggerated events for propaganda purposes. And, while understandable, the book carries an extreme Christian bias in much of its writing. This is understandable, as Vlad was an Eastern Orthodox Christian battling against the expansion of the Turkish Muslims into Europe at the end of the Medieval era of Holy Crusades against Muslims. However, this viewpoint may offend some readers, and should be taken into consideration before choosing to read it.
This book also suffers from a common practice of chronicles of Vlad’s life. Vlad’s younger brother, Radu cel Frumos, was also a Wallachian prince and assumed the throne upon deposing his brother Vlad. Radu unfortunately is constantly relegated to a historical footnote and aside, for one or both of two reasons: he is often decried as a traitor to his country and his religion, and he was homosexual. Biographical sources of Vlad rarely shy from discussing important political figures of the time and place, such as Matthias Corvinus, John Hunyadi, Stefan the Great, and Mehmed the Conqueror; yet Radu is always mentioned least of these, though he played an equally important role in Vlad’s life and political career. As with other sources, this book sweeps Radu under the rug in comparison to other political figures of Vlad’s era. This attitude towards Radu is unfair to him, as independent research can prove that he was an equally interesting historical figure, and in quite a few regards a much better ruler, even if he was an Ottoman Empire vassal.
In conclusion, this book provides all the necessary information to follow Vlad’s life, but it is unfortunately buried among large amounts of unnecessary text. If the reader is willing to explore all the information discusses in this biography, it can be a very interesting read.
Rating: 2.5/5
The authors take a neutral stance on their views of Vlad. They present both the known and recorded facts and the mythology and legends that have developed around him and share the views of his contemporary enemies and apologists. By providing information from both sides of the story, the authors allow the reader to draw their own conclusions on Vlad’s character, and if he should be considered a monstrous tyrant or a nationalist hero.
While deeply informative of Vlad’s life, the book also provides an excellent history of 15th century history and politics in Eastern Europe. This information is extremely necessary to truly understand the situations Vlad encountered as a ruler, and to understand that his acts of violence, while excessive, were often no different from that which his contemporaries practiced. The book also provides cultural and historical information on the Ottoman Empire, which is also vital to understanding the entire picture. The book also provided modern historical information on Romania, and how the Impaler’s influence lingers in his homeland.
Unfortunately, this book is bloated with large amounts of unnecessary information. The authors would often wander off onto tangents that were either tenuously, or not at all, linked to Vlad and his life. This endless practice of wandering from the main focus on the biography lead to large passages of rather useless information that bogs down the reader. While these tangents did at times contain interesting information, many of them could have been removed to create a much tighter biography. For me, these tangents were extremely distracting and mostly not enjoyable, and really took away from the book itself.
This book also suffered from an unnecessary psycho-sexual analysis of Vlad that added nothing productive to the discussion of his life. I personally think the conclusion of calling him a sadist is rather unfair, as many of the accounts discussed in that section were based on sources that likely exaggerated events for propaganda purposes. And, while understandable, the book carries an extreme Christian bias in much of its writing. This is understandable, as Vlad was an Eastern Orthodox Christian battling against the expansion of the Turkish Muslims into Europe at the end of the Medieval era of Holy Crusades against Muslims. However, this viewpoint may offend some readers, and should be taken into consideration before choosing to read it.
This book also suffers from a common practice of chronicles of Vlad’s life. Vlad’s younger brother, Radu cel Frumos, was also a Wallachian prince and assumed the throne upon deposing his brother Vlad. Radu unfortunately is constantly relegated to a historical footnote and aside, for one or both of two reasons: he is often decried as a traitor to his country and his religion, and he was homosexual. Biographical sources of Vlad rarely shy from discussing important political figures of the time and place, such as Matthias Corvinus, John Hunyadi, Stefan the Great, and Mehmed the Conqueror; yet Radu is always mentioned least of these, though he played an equally important role in Vlad’s life and political career. As with other sources, this book sweeps Radu under the rug in comparison to other political figures of Vlad’s era. This attitude towards Radu is unfair to him, as independent research can prove that he was an equally interesting historical figure, and in quite a few regards a much better ruler, even if he was an Ottoman Empire vassal.
In conclusion, this book provides all the necessary information to follow Vlad’s life, but it is unfortunately buried among large amounts of unnecessary text. If the reader is willing to explore all the information discusses in this biography, it can be a very interesting read.
Rating: 2.5/5
July 31, 2025
Serious historical research and sound principals on critic on sources and accounts, is in my opinion missing in this book, which could have made a good contribution to the subject. Instead of keeping the focus on the main subject, the book losses its focus wandering around in conjectures and hypothesis about Vlad the myth and the historical Vlad, sometimes interesting but never really relevant.
February 9, 2025
Interesting Historic-Journalism effort on Vlad the Impaler
You’ve probably already heard about Mr. Gavin Baddeley. He is a prolific writer, a competent journalist, a true authority on Metal music (and has a vast knowledge of several other musical genres), fabulously witty and usually with a peculiar sense of humor. Obviously he can’t avoid having some Bias against his favored enemies (like some religions for example…we must remember he is a reverend in the church of satan); but lets face it…everybody have Bias against something, and truth be told, Baddeley tries hard to overcome his prejudices using his considerable intellect and professionalism as journalist to give an extremely balanced view of the times and personality of Vlad the Impaler.
Now the first small criticism…I’m sure Mr. Paul Woods worked very hard on this book (and others he co-authored with Mr. Gavin Baddeley), but who is he? There is absolutely no information about him in the book, back cover or even the publishers’ site! It’s quite unfair for Mr. Woods in my opinion.
Gavin made a very interesting voyage to the sites and wrote a charming chapter on that field trip. Like Jonathan Harker he experienced a new world. And that alien landscapes are reinforced with political confusion (the country was dominated by communist dictator Ceaucescu for decades), identity crisis, and hero remembrance. In the Romania dominated by Nicolae Ceausescu, the association between the fictional vampire Vlad Dracula and the historical voivode Vlad III Tepes Dracula was offensive, and a denigration of the Romanian (truth be told, Vlad was Wallachian) autocratic leader that faced insurmountable odds and like other “athletes of Christ” like John Hunyadi or Skanderbeg, protected Western Europe on their most critical hour. Well, in terms of cruelty the vampire of Bram Stoker is far less monstrous than the real one, but as the authors quite accurately express…those times were different and there are many rulers of XVth century (both Christian and Muslim) that shared that annoying personality trait - cruelty; and curiously those atrocities are only considered a curious anecdote or side story on most rulers. But Vlad had, even in his lifetime, very negative (or positive, he really wanted to be feared) propaganda from both sides of the border.
In this book you will find a fine background description of the social and political situation before Vlad II, during Vlad II Dracul’s reign and his politicking between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, and also the rise of Vlad III Dracula and his rule over Wallachia (ascending to the throne three times). The rivalry between the Draculs and the Danesti is well explained, and their rise or wane from power reflecting their puppeteers fights.
The authors, as competent journalists, try to provide balanced accounts on every subject about the historical Vlad and the fictional Dracula explaining the issues and the different interpretations (e.g. Is the monastery of Snagov as the final resting place of Dracula?). But this isn’t properly a History book. There are no sources, there are more books on (or by) Nietzche and Marquis de Sade than about the historical Vlad on the bibliography.
This is a very good work of historical journalism that could deserve 4 or 5 stars but unfortunately it suffers from a huge flaw: It wasn’t sufficiently edited; the authors enthusiasm describing personality characteristics go so far from the mark that you will find in this book considerable biographies of de Sade, Machiavelli or Nietzche; they provide explanations to Chinese sayings among many other curiosities that would be excellent in a coffee table conversation or a Blog but completely inadequate to a History book (even a historical-journalism book). For example; I think it’s worthy to mention that both the historical as the fictional Dracula inspired many artists in the music industry, and there is no problem at all mentioning some of the most important like Cradle of Filth…but to write almost 10 pages about it is ludicrous!
A new edition with more information on the authors, with more information on Vlad Tepes and his battles, with more information on the historical figure and less (much less) on psychological profiling and secondary information (like the Marquis de Sade life history and his literary work for example) would dramatically improve this interesting title.
You’ve probably already heard about Mr. Gavin Baddeley. He is a prolific writer, a competent journalist, a true authority on Metal music (and has a vast knowledge of several other musical genres), fabulously witty and usually with a peculiar sense of humor. Obviously he can’t avoid having some Bias against his favored enemies (like some religions for example…we must remember he is a reverend in the church of satan); but lets face it…everybody have Bias against something, and truth be told, Baddeley tries hard to overcome his prejudices using his considerable intellect and professionalism as journalist to give an extremely balanced view of the times and personality of Vlad the Impaler.
Now the first small criticism…I’m sure Mr. Paul Woods worked very hard on this book (and others he co-authored with Mr. Gavin Baddeley), but who is he? There is absolutely no information about him in the book, back cover or even the publishers’ site! It’s quite unfair for Mr. Woods in my opinion.
Gavin made a very interesting voyage to the sites and wrote a charming chapter on that field trip. Like Jonathan Harker he experienced a new world. And that alien landscapes are reinforced with political confusion (the country was dominated by communist dictator Ceaucescu for decades), identity crisis, and hero remembrance. In the Romania dominated by Nicolae Ceausescu, the association between the fictional vampire Vlad Dracula and the historical voivode Vlad III Tepes Dracula was offensive, and a denigration of the Romanian (truth be told, Vlad was Wallachian) autocratic leader that faced insurmountable odds and like other “athletes of Christ” like John Hunyadi or Skanderbeg, protected Western Europe on their most critical hour. Well, in terms of cruelty the vampire of Bram Stoker is far less monstrous than the real one, but as the authors quite accurately express…those times were different and there are many rulers of XVth century (both Christian and Muslim) that shared that annoying personality trait - cruelty; and curiously those atrocities are only considered a curious anecdote or side story on most rulers. But Vlad had, even in his lifetime, very negative (or positive, he really wanted to be feared) propaganda from both sides of the border.
In this book you will find a fine background description of the social and political situation before Vlad II, during Vlad II Dracul’s reign and his politicking between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, and also the rise of Vlad III Dracula and his rule over Wallachia (ascending to the throne three times). The rivalry between the Draculs and the Danesti is well explained, and their rise or wane from power reflecting their puppeteers fights.
The authors, as competent journalists, try to provide balanced accounts on every subject about the historical Vlad and the fictional Dracula explaining the issues and the different interpretations (e.g. Is the monastery of Snagov as the final resting place of Dracula?). But this isn’t properly a History book. There are no sources, there are more books on (or by) Nietzche and Marquis de Sade than about the historical Vlad on the bibliography.
This is a very good work of historical journalism that could deserve 4 or 5 stars but unfortunately it suffers from a huge flaw: It wasn’t sufficiently edited; the authors enthusiasm describing personality characteristics go so far from the mark that you will find in this book considerable biographies of de Sade, Machiavelli or Nietzche; they provide explanations to Chinese sayings among many other curiosities that would be excellent in a coffee table conversation or a Blog but completely inadequate to a History book (even a historical-journalism book). For example; I think it’s worthy to mention that both the historical as the fictional Dracula inspired many artists in the music industry, and there is no problem at all mentioning some of the most important like Cradle of Filth…but to write almost 10 pages about it is ludicrous!
A new edition with more information on the authors, with more information on Vlad Tepes and his battles, with more information on the historical figure and less (much less) on psychological profiling and secondary information (like the Marquis de Sade life history and his literary work for example) would dramatically improve this interesting title.
June 2, 2022
Baddeley and Woods have done a really good job of telling Vlad Tepsis story. There are many digressions that fill in blanks by coming to modern more familiar places, My Lie 1968, Sarajevo 1995, familiar Victorian settings etc that seem like rabbit holes but actually add to the understanding of the times that Vlad lived. My biggest complaint: NO MAPS. I spent the afternoon of the first day reading at my local college library looking up locations and drawing my own map. A VERY useful exercise as I referred to my map on 20 + occasions over the next 200 250 pages. Please, publishers give us a map in the front leaf so much better. But this is an excellent read that takes a dark subject makes it more understandable and has some humor to it. If you like Jimmy and James from Small Town Murder, you will like this work.
March 8, 2018
This book had potential but never quite meets it. It has some good spots here and there, but they are buried in among the mess that is the rest of the book. The book is too broad in the text, tedious, and very dry for the most part. You're never quite certain if this book is about Vlad III Dracula or vampires in general. There are a lot of comparisons to other serial killers, lots of stuff about vampire films, and a very confusing photo section. I am unable to recommend this book to any serious seekers of information on Vlad Dracula. Those with a serious interest in the topic would be better served finding copies of the Matei Cazacu or Radu Florescu biographies of Vlad III Dracula.
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December 24, 2016This book is actually just for a very small part about Vlad the Impaler.
It contains a history of the Ottoman Empire and its sultans. Other persons described in this book are, for example, Bogdan II (p. 111-13), Al Capone, Ceausescu (p. 28, 285-94), Cesare Borgia (p. 194-9), Edward Gibbon (p. 114, 118-20), Jean-Bedel Bokassa (p. 174-6), Jean de Nevers (p 48-50), Nietzsche (p. 201-3) and Andrew Wheatcroft (52-3, 94, 214). Other topics described are the Stockholm Syndrome, the Battle of Agincourt and the Vietnam War.
I do have an interest in Vlad the Impaler and Royal History in general, but the few actually interesting bits about Vlad are mostly taken from his biography by Florescu & McNally & I’d already read that one.
Worse, every time I start reading in this book, before sleeping, I fall asleep within at most 3 pages, because this book is so booooooring.
It contains a history of the Ottoman Empire and its sultans. Other persons described in this book are, for example, Bogdan II (p. 111-13), Al Capone, Ceausescu (p. 28, 285-94), Cesare Borgia (p. 194-9), Edward Gibbon (p. 114, 118-20), Jean-Bedel Bokassa (p. 174-6), Jean de Nevers (p 48-50), Nietzsche (p. 201-3) and Andrew Wheatcroft (52-3, 94, 214). Other topics described are the Stockholm Syndrome, the Battle of Agincourt and the Vietnam War.
I do have an interest in Vlad the Impaler and Royal History in general, but the few actually interesting bits about Vlad are mostly taken from his biography by Florescu & McNally & I’d already read that one.
Worse, every time I start reading in this book, before sleeping, I fall asleep within at most 3 pages, because this book is so booooooring.
June 5, 2012
I am so not into graphic novels, but this book was very informative and I'm glad I checked it out at a friend's advice. I am very unlikely to read something of this sort without a recommendation. This book was historically interesting even though it was about a pretty awful person.
July 22, 2012
Titties and gore. Terrible, sometimes nonsensical art. A heaping helping of misogyny and homophobia. Avoid.
November 8, 2014
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