Radu R. Florescu

Matei Cazacu

This engrossing book tells the story of the Florescu family, from its feudal blood ties, to the notorious 15th century figure Vlad Tepes (Count Dracula), right up to present day, touching on such diverse personalities as the Kennedys, Bill Clinton, and Michael Jackson. In the tradition of Alex Haley’s Roots, Dracula’s Bloodline relates a multi-generational saga through the prism of one family’s narrative, from medieval Eastern Europe to the post-Communist era. The book provides an inside look at Romania’s bloody and turbulent history—a mostly untold narrative that embraces the cruel Ottoman invasions, vying boyars seeking to change the political order at home, and the toppling of the Ceausescu regime. The story of each century is told through the eyes of one Florescu (or more) who had a unique perch from which to view his or her contemporary society. Florescu and Cazacu drew on research that had mostly been kept in family hands. To track the Florescu footprint down through the centuries since the 1400s, they used many sources: the Brasov archives in Transylvania, select letters, unpublished diaries, and extensive family documents that have been scattered from Europe to the United States. This fully indexed book offers many photographs from family archives, as well as a glossary of terms and titles, and a full genealogy showing the Florescu’s family links to Vlad Tepes.

A Florescu Family Saga

Dracula's Bloodline

This book tells the story of the Florescu family, from its feudal blood ties, to notorious 15th century figure Vlad Tepes (Count Dracula), right up to present day. The authors drew on research that had mostly been kept in family hands, and include original photographs and a full family genealogy.

Cazacu’s Dracula offers the most authoritative scholarly biography of Vlad III the Impaler (d. 1476), including how his imagery evolved from contemporary to modern times.

Dracula

Radu Florescu

Frankenstein : la littérature lui a donné vie, le cinéma l’a pourvu d’un visage. Personnage éponyme du roman de Mary Shelley paru en 1818, il est entré dans l’imaginaire collectif où se confondent parfois créateur et créature. L’histoire de ce mythe devenu aussi effrayant qu’incontournable demeure pourtant méconnue. Villa Diodati, Cologny, 1816. Il était une fois un poète qui, lors d’une nuit sombre et pluvieuse sur les rives du Lac Léman, met au défi ses hôtes d’écrire la meilleure et la plus abominable histoire de fantôme. Ce poète n’est autre que Lord Byron, et parmi ses amis Mary Shelley. Pour bâtir son récit, la jeune femme puise dans la vie de Johann Conrad Dippel, un alchimiste et théologien allemand qui exerçait la médecine de manière excentrique. La rumeur court que l’homme, demeurant dans le château de Frankenstein, pratiquait autopsies et expériences médicales en tout genre : l’histoire peut commencer. Réalité et fiction s’unissent pour donner vie à Victor Frankenstein ! Dans un récit savamment orchestré, Matei Cazacu et Radu Florescu reviennent sur ce mythe ô combien célèbre et tentent de démêler le vrai du faux en perçant le mystère des origines du monstre.

Matei Cazacu

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