The Dracula Papers, Book I: The Scholar's Tale

by Reggie Oliver

Bram Stoker's immortal Dracula told us about Count Dracula as an undead vampire. But how did this come to be? Who was Dracula in real life? There has always been speculation, but The Dracula Papers now offers the ultimate answer. It takes us back to the year 1576, to the wild land of Transylvania and to the early life of Prince Vladimir who came to be the horror known as Dracula. The result is a story as remarkable and extraordinary as the Bram Stoker classic. Battles, intrigues, sorcery, sexual passion, hauntings, a mechanical tortoise and a burning rhinoceros all have their part to play in a thrilling narrative that nevertheless plunges deep into the mystery of Evil. With The Dracula Papers Reggie Oliver presents a grand tour of the sixteenth century, and of every variety of occult lore surrounding the vampire myth, that is rollicking, wise, macabre, but always unexpected. The Scholar's Tale is the first volume of a scholarly and picaresque Gothick Extravaganza.

Genres: Horror, Gothic, Historical Fiction, Vampires, Fantasy, Weird Fiction

504 pages, Paperback

First published January 19, 2011

About the author

Reggie Oliver is a stage actor and playwright. His biography of Stella Gibbons was praised as “a triumph” by Hilary Spurling in the Daily Telegraph, his play Winner Takes All, was described as “the funniest evening in London”, by Michael Billington in The Guardian, and his adaptation of Hennequin and Delacour’s Once Bitten opened at the Orange Tree Theatre in London in December 2010.

He is the author of four highly-praised volumes of short fiction: The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini (Haunted River 2003), The Complete Symphonies of Adolf Hitler (Haunted River 2005), Masques of Satan (Ash Tree 2007), and Madder Mysteries (Ex Occidente 2009). His stories have appeared in over 25 anthologies and, for the third year running, one of his stories appears in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, the most widely read and popular of contemporary horror anthologies.

Reviews

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Reading voyage of this book.

3/26/2014 - Being currently without an active book in my reading process, and yet knowing that this is the Horror Group read for April, I will damn the torpedoes and begin the book tonight anyway as sort of a carrot.

I first considered reading Stokers "Dracula" because it has been about fifteen or twenty years since I read that particular book. I remember "Dracula" with great fondness as it scared the shit out of me. The movies never did that, they only entertained. I will have to multitask through this book, as my accountant called today and needs me to submit my papers to her for Income Tax Time.

3/27/2014
Read the Following:

Pages XI - XXII Introduction By Reggie Oliver discussing his finding of a manuscript by Casanova de Seingalt alluding to more information about Van Helsing. A fascinating creation and story.

Pages XXIII - XXIIV Forward by Dr. Abraham Van Helsing - discussing the narrative of Martin Bellorius the Scholar in the title of the book and the teller of the Tale. A short history.

Chapters I - III Narrator, Martin Bellorius, a doctor and scholar is also a fantastic story teller. Each chapter is almost a story within itself. The narrative draws you in with compelling writing of Martin's adventures of being recruited and the beginning of his journey to Transylvania. Unavailing the highlights of the journey, his traveling companions and interesting characters Martin meets is so compelling and thought provoking to make it near impossible to stop reading.

3/28/2014
Chapter IV - We discover that our hero's are faced with cannibalism and GIANT sex and death.
Chapter V - The art of being poisoned and surviving. A dwarf falls in Love. Escape from a killer party. So far so great the writing continues to be top notch as we work our way through the Balkan countries on the way to Transylvania.

3/29/2014
Chapters V-1X - Our Hero's (?) are captured by a band of brigands led by a woman as they cross the Carpathian Mountains. Escape occurs. Retribution abounds. Ahhh finally we get to Transylvania. Wolves attack.

>>>> Interlude <<<<
At this point in the narrative it would be nice to discuss some of the aspects of the story (so far). If nothing else I will list them as discussion points for anyone interested in discussing them some time next month (in three days).

How reliable is the narrator ? Is he being truthful with his story ?
This question actually struck me when thinking about the Title of the book "The Scholar's Tale". So, I looked in Websters and found this definition of the word Tale.

tale noun \ˈtāl\
: a story about imaginary events : an exciting or dramatic story

: a story about someone's actual experiences

: an exciting story that may not be completely true

this put me on my guard.

Being over 100 pages along, another fabulation used by or narrator throughout the story (so far) is giving us internal spoilers about the plot of his own narrative. Telling us such and such will happen at a future point in the story, or Soon we will be revealed. I love that Mr.Oliver is doing this.

Something else I would like an opinion on is the humorous subtext concerning Razendoringer the dwarf and his ability to have carnal knowledge with almost any female character encountered so far. He must not be a dwarf in all aspects. As a matter of fact Razendoringer is my favorite character, even beyond our narrator The Scholar.

So far this voyage has been highly enjoyable. Now onward.

3/30/2014
Chapters X - XV
Castle intrigues.

3/31/2014
Chapters XVI - XIX
We meet the dream egg and the flying turtle. Hidden Passages in castle Dracula. War breaks out with the Turks. Vlad's first kill.

4/4/2014
Chapters XX - XXX
Epilogue - by Dr. Abraham Van Helsing
Afterword - By Reggie Oliver
Acknowledgements

Coming soon...

"The Dracula Papers Book II - The Monks Tale"

Update 01/21/18 No hint of Book II so far.

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the short supernatural fiction of Reggie Oliver--I consider Reggie Oliver a major voice in our new Golden Age of the weird tale--so I decided to give his novel a go.

This might be the first novel I've read in two years. In the past two years, I've mainly been reading either short fiction, or non fiction. Around two years ago I read a novel which suffered from padding and I am still somewhat wary about big, fat novels. _The Dracula Papers_, though, is a normal size novel.

This novel is sort of a prequel to Bram Stoker's _Dracula_, though this book is the first in a projected series of novels.

The first person narrator of this novel is an academic named Dr. Bellorius, nicked named "Doctor Polymathus". He receives a request by the King of Transylvannia to come to the king's land in order to tutor his two sons, Mircea and Vladimir. On his trip to Transylvannia, he takes with him a student from the university who has been dabbling in alchemy, and a dwarf. The trip to Transylvania is filled with adventures--there is an interesting plot development about every 1,000 words.

And the adventures don't stop when they are in Transylvannia. In this book, Vladimir, who will become Count Dracula some day, is an adolescent. Vladimir is a good student, shows courage and kindness, and is attractive to women.

The book is written in a highly readable style, and was hugely entertaining. It is available in paperback and electronically.

[Andrew Schultheis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was less of a horror story and more of an adventure/fantasy. A bit different than Reggie Oliver's normal fare. Smartly told, vividly written, this was a fast paced book, epic in scope. Monsters, magic, tales of ribaldry and lots of blood. Had a lot of fun reading this. Will there be a Book 2?

[Paul Finch · Rating 5 out of 5]

WARNING FOR MINOR SPOILERS ...

In the mid-16th century, Prince Vladimir Dracul of Transylvania, son of the vain and greedy king, Xantho, commences his rise to prominence as ‘the Impaler’ and in due course as ‘Dracula the Vampire’, through a series of violent, hair-raising adventures, an intense love affair and a succession of bizarre supernatural events.

All of this is observed and related to us in diary form by the German scholar, Doctor Martin Bellorious, who at the start of this book, along with his companions, sly alchemist-in-training Matthew Verney and good-natured dwarf, Razendoringer, flees the University of Wittenberg before a heresy charge can be levelled, and heads east through ever more dangerous territories.

It is already difficult to say much more about this astonishing narrative, because almost from the word-go, amazing, delightful and crucially important plot-developments occur – and continue to occur at a rate of at least one a chapter. Suffice to say that this is Europe of the 1570s, a vast, desolate, largely lawless land, where bandits haunt the highways, wolves fill the forests, armies wage endless internecine warfare, noblemen rule as crazy despots, black magic is very real and, when night falls, all kinds of evil supernatural beings walk abroad.

Even before Bellorious and his friends reach the ‘safety’ of Castle Dracula, they have several hair-raising escapades in this torturous land of far beyond, narrowly avoiding nasty fates at the hands of various antagonists, including, among several others, two ogre-like cannibals and Rudolph, the unhinged ruler of Bohemia. And when the dauntless band makes it to Transylvania and then into Castle Dracula, they find themselves immersed in the cutthroat politics of Xantho’s Machiavellian court.

For example, despite a straightforward appointment to school rival princes Vlad and Mircea, Bellorious soon earns the enmity of the ambitious chamberlain, Alexander of Glem, who constantly puts dangers and difficulties in his path, he learns unsavoury things about Queen Eupraxia – things which could easily get him killed, he discovers that Xantho is more interested in acquiring wealth and in mocking his gibbering courtiers than he is in organising matters of state, and he struggles to educate Prince Mircea, whose main interests are guzzling wine and ravishing servant girls.

At the same time, there are countless weird and wonderful things in Castle Dracula. From complete absurdities – like a mechanical eating machine which Xantho forces upon one of his boyar flatterers; to the highly distasteful – like the deranged courtier who lives on a diet of spiders, cockroaches and other vermin; to the truly terrifying – like the vampiristic ghost said to roam the Old Queen’s apartments and the tribe of madmen living in the deepest parts of castle.

Unfortunately for Bellorious, he doesn’t have much time to explore properly in order to assess these curiosities. Because all the time this is happening, the legions of Murad III, Sultan of the immense Ottoman Empire, are massing on the border under the super-efficient leadership of the ferocious Turkish warrior, Grand Vizier Sokolly. Despite the warnings of Ragul, Xantho’s illegitimate son and commander-in-chief of his armed forces, Xantho is strangely unconcerned about any this, so when the attack finally arrives it does so with overwhelming force. By this time, Bellorious has enlightened Prince Vlad sufficiently for him to realise that his homeland is in very serious trouble, and the noble youth participates in the following campaign with reckless courage. But both he and his teacher are aware from an early stage that victory, ultimately, is going to elude them, even if it is wrested away from them by skillful negotiation rather than bloody conflict.

Only God knows – or maybe the Devil – what will happen to them after that …

It’s often said of Reggie Oliver that he is genre fiction’s best-kept secret. I have two immediate thoughts on that. First of all, it’s probably true. Secondly, if it is true it’s an absolute crime.

Oliver, who already had a successful career as an actor, theatre director, playwright and biographer before his writing took a distinctly darker turn in the early 2000s, is by far one of the most talented practitioners of spookiness currently working in the English language. It’s probably true to say that he first came to the literary horror world’s attention with a series of searingly frightening and at the same time very eloquent short stories – ghost stories on the surface, though often much deeper and more complex than that, strongly reminiscent of both M.R. James and Robert Aickman (if you can imagine such a thing!), and embracing every kind of nightmare in the weird fiction spectrum: from the restless dead to the demonic, from the spirits of myth to the often even worse aberrations of the human psyche, and invariably wrapping it all up in succinct, readable, and poetic prose.

Of course, not every expert in the short form is able to expand his skill into the much broader realm of the novel; the two disciplines don’t necessarily overlap. However, it was a joy (and somehow no surprise at all) to discover that this does not apply to Reggie Oliver, whose first novel, The Dracula Papers, is just as elegantly written, just as thought-provoking, just as shudder-inducing and just as much a pleasure and an entertainment as any of his short stories.

The first volume in a proposed trilogy studying the origins of Count Dracula the vampire, this is already a phenomenal feat of strange literature and though only one of three, a completely satisfying novel in its own right.

To begin with, The Dracula Papers isn’t specifically a horror novel, though there is much horror on show here: spine-chilling horror of the traditional ghost story variety on one hand, and sensual, shocking horror on the other – nothing explicit, though of such a lurid and Gothic tone that some of it wouldn’t be out of place in the old Dracula movies of the Hammer era. But in addition to all that, the book is written with such an air of authority, delving so deeply and fascinatingly into the culture of the time and place, touching on the many beliefs and philosophies prevalent in that age – everything from long-held superstitions, to late-medieval romances, to the intellectual chaos wrought by changing religion and advancing science – that it reeks of scholarship in its own right.

On top of that, it’s an historical saga on a grand but brutal scale. We see brandings, beheadings and impalements galore, a truly memorable scene wherein an avalanche of severed heads is launched over the walls of Castle Dracula by the besieging Turkish army, and one enormous battle which becomes a literal slaughterhouse.

Again, none of this is graphic or titillating, but it’s all there on the page – which only adds to the vivid portrayal of a terrible world now thankfully lost in time. And yet this itself is a kind of irony, because Oliver, rather bravely, makes no real effort to depict true historical events.

The Dracula Papers owes as much to folklore as it does to genuine history, and not a little amount to fiction. For example, the real Vlad Tepes and his brother, Mircea, lived in the 15th century not the 16th, there was no actual kingdom of Transylvania in this era, rather it was a principality of the kingdom of Hungary, while the lofty position the real Vlad aspired to was not as a king but as Prince of Wallachia, and Elizabeth Bathory (later known as ‘Countess Dracula’) who appears here renamed Nyela and as a deceased but murderess noblewoman of earlier decades, was not even born in 1477, when the real Vlad the Impaler died.

But none of this matters. In fact, it adds to the joy. Because what we’ve got here, rather than a textbook, is a richly-woven fabric of adult-themed fairy tales. For example, not even the well-educated and clear-minded Martin Bellorious thinks it odd that a local village is terrorised by a ‘murony’; in fact it is he who takes it on himself to dispose of the evil sprite. Rumours of the terrifying Black Cathedral – a secret university dedicated to the dark arts – are believed with absolute certainty. When Bellorious encounters Issachar, a vagrant claiming to be the Wandering Jew of apocryphal legend, he is honoured rather than doubtful. Likewise, when the Turkish sorcerer, Zushad, displays necromantic powers, Bellorious is only one of many fascinated witnesses to the dramatic and nightmarish outcome.

But this is not just a story about myths coming true. Oliver also presents us with the real, functioning and yet terribly unjust world of the Reformation, where the peasantry struggles annually for survival, monarchs seek only to enrich themselves, and seats of intellectualism like colleges and guilds are too busy arguing about heresy to care about everyday affairs. He also concerns himself with military matters. Eastern Europe is now under threat from the Ottomans, the gunpowder-capable armies of the Early Modern Age constantly redrawing the map as they manoeuvre around each other, feinting and sallying, and occasionally clashing full-on to spectacularly bloody effect. At the same time, courtly intrigue is everywhere, both in the magnificent Ottoman capital of Istanbul – ‘Stamboul’, as it is referred to here – but also in the Spartan confines of Castle Dracula.

This brings me onto the characters, which – even those who only make a fleeting appearance – are constructed by Oliver swiftly and yet in full, complex fashion.

Even though we’re immersed in the world of angels and demons, there are few individuals here who are all good and all bad. Bellorious himself makes a fine lead, though he’s very human. Despite his status, he is only in his late 20s, and yet throughout the narrative displays wisdom, probity and empathy – he only takes lives when he has to, and though he’s a scholar and in many ways an ascetic, his lustful yearning for the beautiful slave-girl, Inanna, is almost painful.

Dracula himself – Vlad in this preliminary volume – though he starts off a wide-eyed youth and an eager student, soon gives hints that he has a darker side: he is petty, he sulks and he will kill in battle with what can only be described as gusto. In addition, he is instantly recognisable as the scion of a noble house, for though he is brave, handsome and dashing, he is also self-centred to an alarming degree.

Other characters are equally colourful, if more briefly handled. Matthew Verney is untrustworthy from the outset, but Oliver paints him slowly and with immense skill, transforming him from ambiguity to villainy with a pace so subtle that it consciously takes up the length of the novel. Others meanwhile are more bound by their stations in life: rival sovereigns, Murad and Xantho, and the latter’s son and heir, Mircea, are unimpressive men, undeserving of the life-and-death control they exert, and yet so bored by it all that they often neglect their responsibilities, allowing ambitious underlings like Sokolly and Alexander of Glem to grow in power. Meanwhile, below them, better people are eternally doomed by their subservient status: Commander Ragul takes his job seriously, but knows that ultimately he will fail because he lacks the support of his king, a failure that he himself will pay for; star-crossed lovers Razendoringer and dwarf lady-in-waiting Dolabella, though spirited individuals of many talents, will always be servants and/or buffoons because they are dwarfs; while Inanna, the saddest character of all, has accepted her life as a sex-slave to the point where she will trade the abuse of her body to get better deals for her friends.

Despite these melancholic moments, The Dracula Papers, what we have so far seen of it, is a richly textured, meticulously-researched piece of fiction, but also a rolling, comedic, action-packed yarn, filled with magic, mystery and mayhem, romantic and sexual love, wild violence and chilling horror, and dosed throughout with the author’s trademark scholarly asides and scathing humour.

A bona fide treat of a novel that will leave no-one disappointed.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a most extraordinary book written by one of the present masters among the practitioners of gothic & classic tales. The book is purportedly the memoirs of Dr. Martin Bellorius (1553-1635). It is preceded by a prologue (which is a slightly modified version of Reggie Oliver's "The Devil's Number") as well as an introduction from Dr. Abraham Van Helsing himself, eventually describing the strange, terrible, beautiful and often tragic chain of events that had introduced Bellorius to Vladimir, son of Xaltho, the King of Transylvania, and what had led Vladimir irreversibly towards becoming the infamous Count Dracula.

Along with the protagonist [with a commission of teaching the princes of Transylvania] and his companions (a noble & enterprising dwarf, and a talented but shifty Matthew Verney), we travel from renaissance-touched (and blighted by fanatics) Germany, through dangerous forests (encountering cannibalistic robbers as well as the Wandering Jew in the process), to Prague (meeting Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph of Bohemia), running away with enemies in pursuit, towards Transylvania (where robbers hold them to ransom and almost kill them before they manage to escape) reaching Castle Dracula almost at the point of being eaten by wolves. Intrigue, tragedy, love, and suspense follows, mixed with unexpected dosaages of bawdy humour. Eventually, Ottoman Turks defeat the Transylvanian forces, and as a result of hateful treachury & conspiracy, our protagonists (now comprising the author, the dwarf, and Prince Vlad) are dispatched to Murad's court in Istamboul. Several supernatural and action-packed events follow them there as well, as they narrowly escape (this time also accompanied by a girl from Vizier's harem, who had fallen in love of Vlad, but whose love was never reciprocated by the prince, since he had loved the daughter of a noble from Bohemia) a purge when the Grand Vizier is found to be conspiring against the Sultan. Then they come under the clutches of a pirate, from whose clutches they escape miraculously, thanks to the sacrifices of the girl, and also with active support of [I know it appears unbelievable] 2 lions and a rhinocerous on-board the pirate ship. Then they reach Transylvania, only to be greeted by the news of Prince Vlad's elder brother (a brute, by all means) getting married to the girl whom Vlad loved. Then Vlad becomes a fugitive (since as per the King's decree he had to remain in Istamboul as hostage) and takes shelter with the Black Monks of Snagov, as Bellorius reveals the true story of Vlad's origin from a document composed by his mother, the queen of Transylvania. This part of the tetralogy ends at this stage.

Once again, the only comment that leaps to the mind while describing this book is "extraordinary". It is a product of meticulous research (into history & folklore of the people of the Eastern Europe and the Middle East), near perfect art of story-telling that has made Reggie Oliver a modern master, a sense of compassion for all the characters involved, liberal dosages of ribald descriptions often accompanied by humour (subtle as well as coarse, as per the demand of the situation), and a sense of epic proportion, as if the author is trying to hint at the significance of all these events & persona, while trying to draw our attention away from the future (which we know, thanks to either Bram Stoker, or Kim Newman) towards the grim-yet-vivid past being realised as present. I will be waiting for the other 3 volumes with suspended breath, to see how this saga unfolds.

[Mieneke · Rating 4 out of 5]

To begin with, I must confess I've never read the original Dracula by Bram Stoker. I did see the movie with Keanu Reeves and Gary Oldman, but that is generally the extent of my familiarity with Dracula. Vampires are less of an unknown quantity thanks to Buffy and Angel, but still, I'm hardly an expert. So when I was approached to review The Dracula Papers I was intrigued. Especially since the story seemed to have a bit of a historical fiction flavour.

Don't be mistaken though, this is not an historical novel describing the early years of Vlad the Impaler. Instead it is a highly imaginative re-telling of the Dracula myth or rather of Dracula's genesis. Various historical figures are mentioned, Vlad himself, his fictional mother Eupraxia of Saxony, the Grand Vizier Sokolly, Emperor Murad, but they aren't all from the time the novel is set in. In truth, only Sokolly and Emperor Murad lived in that time, the others were all from a different age. Through the introduction and the afterword the author places himself within the story, lending another hint of veracity to a totally fictional tale.

The story is a confessional, written by Martin Bellorius. In it he tells the story of his time as tutor to the two sons of the king of Transylvania, the princes Mircea and Vladimir. There are elements of folktales and mysticism in the story, such as the encounter with the giants on the way to Transylvania, the meeting with Issachar, the Wandering Jew, and the meditation rooms where they find Emperor Rudolph. These adventures, which Bellorius, his servant Razendoringer and Matthew Verney all suffer on their journey to Castle Dracula, seem rather happen stance at the time, but are all woven back into the narrative later.

Overall the book was a smooth read, though not always very fast-paced. In places it was jarring, however, due to some strange transitions, such as the passage where Sokolly takes the castle and the narrative suddenly switches to present tense. It truly took me out of the story, trying to figure out why it had been written that way, which was a shame as it was an important scene in the narrative. Another passage which puzzled me was the Queen's letter. It seemingly went off on a complete tangent, though in fact it is very important to Vlad's story. But the first five or six pages the letter only served to confuse me and I just wanted to get back to the main storyline.

It's a puzzling story, as it's hard to categorize. In any case, I liked it and it kept me reading. At points it was spooky - Bellorius' exploration of the Old Queen's Apartments comes to mind - hilarious and engaging. I'm curious to see what happens next on the way of Vlad's transformation into Dracula. In his Afterword, Van Helsing tells the reader that there are three more packets of paper, which translates to three more books in this series. So Vlad has a ways to go yet, before he becomes the Dracula everyone knows and loves. The Dracula Papers Book I: The Scholar's Tale is published by Chomu Press and will be for sale January 19th.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forget any preconceived notions that you may have by having watched endless Hammer Horrors - this is the real deal, a book that should be read by those who
simply enjoy the act of reading.

Forget genre for this book is legion. Dramatic, bursting with intrigue and adventure, fear and superstition Oliver's debut novel is stunning and as a reader I can rejoice in the knowledge that 3 further volumes are forthcoming.

I should also note that folks should not be put off from reading this because of the historical setting. The main narrator of the tale, Dr Martin Bellorius, draws you into the world of Castle Dracula with ease. The wants, desires and needs of the characters are really no different to our own, reaching across time to win our hearts and minds.



The Dracula Papers Book 1: The Scholar's Tale - Reggie Oliver

[A.R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book written, Reggie claims, from old discovered manuscripts, one of which by Abraham Van Helsing. This book exposes how Dracula and Van Helsing were (are?) real, and, in the foreward, Van Helsing claims this book will drive you insane if read merely for entertaiment. The author of most of the book, the one who'd been followed and tormented by Dracula, said it should be burned. This is the first part of the tetraptych, and I can't wait to read the other three.

[Irwin Fletcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

After seeing the high rating for this book I was expecting more than I got. For one thing this was seemingly the first part of a series of books that I imagine (since the author hasn't picked it back up in 12 years) is probably abandoned. So I wouldn't suggest you read this until the future day, if there is one, when the author has picked it back up. The end result just feels incomplete.

Also, it's not much of a vampire/Dracula book. It covers a short period of young Dracula's life long before he becomes a vampire, when he's around 12/13 years old. I'd often forget I was reading a Dracula book instead of just a random historical novel with a young prince as one of the characters. For the most part it's just a bunch of adventures through the late 1500's. And Dracula doesn't even show up until about 1/3 of the way through the book but in hindsight I found the first 1/3 of the book without him to be the most interesting. Once the narrator gets to Castle Dracula I felt like the story got bogged down in castle intrigue which I didn't find all that intriguing.

One weird thing about this book is that in spite of the picture of Vlad Tepes on the cover, he's not the character in this book who becomes Dracula at some later point. The prince IS named Vlad Dracula but he isn't the historical Vlad Dracula. For one thing this story takes place about 100 years after the historical figure died and is for the most part an original creation by the author with a few references to the real Vlad thrown in but most everything about him and his family is just made up. I feel like he should have either created an entirely original historical character or done a fictionalized version of Vlad Tepes rather than an odd combination of the two.

Also the writing is kind of weird and other times just not that great. One character who seems like he's going to be a major player and the author promises will become so just kind of fades into the background and then barely does anything later in the story. The main character is a teacher and the author does not come up with very believable reasons for him to be included in many of the events that the plot requires him to be present for. When there's going to be battles they put him in the army, when Vlad gets sent to be a hostage of the Turks he gets sent along also. So you have this school teacher fighting the Turks, escaping the Sultan's palace, getting captured by pirates and other adventures that just get more and more unbelievable and tedious to read about because he's so bland I don't really care what happens to him.

[Michael Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael W. Thomas, review of Reggie Oliver, The Dracula Papers, Book 1: the Scholar’s Tale. The Chomu Press: chomupress.com, 2011. E-mail: info@chomupress.com
ISBN 978-1-907681-02-8. Paperback, 470pp. No price.

Tricky matters, they are: sequels, prequels, pastiches, hommages. Essentially, they depend upon two factors: that the original narrative is engaging and robust enough to withstand such re-visiting; and that the re-visitor is skilled enough to convince the reader that the enterprise was worth it. If anything, the second factor is rather more important. The literary landscape is strewn with, as it were, crushed light aircraft that have attempted to fly in the slipstream of the ‘master narrative.’ There they lie, all the Sherlocks, feckless (and, actually, not that bright); the pantomime Crusoes; the ever more bestial Frankenstein monsters, each betraying more emphatically than the last that the re-writer has not grasped what Shelley’s original was really about.
And then there’s the Prince of Darkness—bloodied (always to his satisfaction) but unbowed after all the years. It could be argued that Dracula’s best re-visionists appeared early on—Nosferatu, the creations of Hammer in its pomp—and that, latterly, quality control has been removed. It has been argued that the likes of Twilight are actually updates of the 1950s ‘beach movie,’ with fun and sun being replaced by dim alleys and forests, by leading fang-meisters designed to appeal to the Justin Bieber demographic. This reviewer couldn’t possibly comment.
Reggie Oliver’s interest is far removed from the above. Though supposedly presented to the public a little time after the events of Bram Stoker’s novel, The Dracula Papers purports to weave together ‘a number of documents . . . relating to the early history of the person whom we knew as Count Dracula.’ Our guide in this matter, the weaver himself, is Dr. Abraham van Helsing, whose Foreword comes to us across the years from University College, Oxford, December 1894. This alone reveals the breadth of the task that Oliver has set for himself: to establish factual credibility around the Papers themselves; to maintain tonal credibility in a narrative which will doubtless feature many characters; and to handle the Papers, and the history that flows from them, in a way that avoids parody on one hand and an uninspired plod through Stoker terrain on the other.
Other demands arise: van Helsing’s interest is particularly piqued by ‘the Memorial of Martin Bellorius (1553-1635), one of the most outstanding scholars of the Renaissance,’ and it is this material that gives The Dracula Papers its narrative. Bellorius must develop into a fully-formed character; he must, of course, make a daunting journey—as he does, prompted by a mysterious letter which comes into his hand and leads to the events recounted in the Memorial; he must trust some characters, accidentally encounter others, gamble with his life when yet others make their dark moves; he must, given the figure at the heart of his quest, become embroiled in Gothic perils; he must dissect Translyvania, focusing on particular elements in its discomfiting history which will provide a . . . well, life-story is hardly the phrase, but a cogent, engrossing narrative of the being who now lurks, perhaps discontentedly, at the back of the Twilight sets. Aside from all that, Oliver has to invoke the linguistic tones and registers of the seventeenth century and earlier, feed them into Bellorius’s account and then, as it were, hand them on to van Helsing; the whole narrative cannot be levelled out in the voice of an Oxford scholar at the close of the Victorian era.
That Oliver manages all of the above with some brio is a testament to the novel’s plotting, to the period of time during which the idea presumably gestated in his mind and made its way through notes and first drafts to the book we now have—and to the enduring appeal of (or appalled fascination with) the Dracula tale itself. Oliver demonstrates a capacity to bowl his story along in a straight line; the book’s bulk is offset by his sprightly style. And he is to be commended for ringing changes in Bellorius’ character. Though appealing as a seeker, Bellorius is not without bumptiousness, a sense of self-importance reminiscent of Marlowe’s Faustus. At one point, he bestirs himself to confront the fiery, unpredictable Prince Vlad in a way that the latter’s character really doesn’t encourage:

I had embarked on a mild but dignified remonstration when he suddenly stood up, eyes blazing with rage, a little pulse racing in his neck, left leg trembling. He shouted:
‘How dare you interrupt us, old pedant!’ Old! I was twenty-three at the time!
(p. 183)

As Dr. van Helsing’s Epilogue informs us, Book 1: the Scholar’s Tale is the result of but one packet of documents that have come into his possession. The Doctor was inclined to destroy all of them, so shocking are their contents, but his hand was stayed by ‘my old and valued friend, Mr William Ewart Gladstone.’ The real and the unreal, the known and the unimaginable, the touchable world and the halls of nightmare—these sit one on top of the other in this first part of The Dracula Papers, offering existence as a palimpsest, layers of words and action that can be peeled away to reveal . . .

well, not the whole story of this most Undead of undead—yet. Oliver is working on packet two of van Helsing’s documents, intended to become The Monk’s Tale. It is to be hoped that his touch will remain as sure.

[Des Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of imaginative contraptions, wild scatological and eschatological conceits and the hurly-burly of visionary fiction-on-the-hoof (controlled and uncontrolled at times, if not controlled all the time to seem that way) – this is as I earlier anticipated: a genuine popular and literary classic in the Gothic arena, while tantalised by humour and theatricality and adventure.

The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.

[Vivienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily the most impressive book I've read so far this year, and the most enjoyable book I've read for a long time. It is a retelling of the origins of Dracula, and is set in the 16th century. This is the first of four planned books telling the story. It is exquisitely crafted. Each chapter is like a jewel on its own, and together they build to something very special. The storytelling is sublime, the imagination of the writer superb, and the variety of places and characters encountered, both in Castle Dracula and elsewhere, described with great depth and richness. I can only hope that the remaining three volumes keep up this quality.

[David Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a genuinely pleasing literary event with an author finally managing to match the better side of Hollywood with an origin story for Dracula (before all the unpleasantness, so to speak). What might, in other hands, have become an over-the-top supernatural and Gothic exaggeration is reduced to more or less factual prose by a learned academic of the age. We must thank Reggie Oliver for persuading the relevant authorities into releasing this historical document to the public. It is wonderfully illuminating.

http://opionator.wordpress.com/2011/1...

[Caleb Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great gothic prequel-of-sorts to Stoker's "Dracula", set in the 16th century, mostly in Transylvania. Hits all the right notes--frame stories, secret passages, pirates/bandits, and madness. (Oliver references "The Monk" several times, if I'm not mistaken.) I particularly liked the pedantic narrator, who does not seem to recognize his own bravery.

[Erin Osumi-Demotte · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not worth it.

don't bother, or waste your time. this was not even close to what I expected. certain things added into this book didn't even belong. I don't even give it a star. A waste of money.