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

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

by Reggie Oliver
Foreword by Dr. Abraham Van Helsing
Publication Date: 19th January, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-907681-02-8
Paperback, 504 pages, 8.0 x 5.25 x 1.1 inches

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.

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 opens 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.

Praise for Reggie Oliver’s previous works

“Oliver’s ability to create a sense of time and place in every one of these stories is exemplary…. As a work of spiritual terror it has few peers…. The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini is unquestionably brilliant.”

Jim Rockhill, All Hallows

“Reggie Oliver rediscovers many if not all the qualities which make the English Ghost Story classic.”

Ramsey Campbell, Dark Horizons

“Reggie Oliver has a controlled and vivid wit, a precise eye and ear for style, and a powerful sense of the strange…. an infernally talented writer…”

Roger Johnson, All Hallows

“Poignancy in love, farcical and dream-consistent, this novella is a masterpiece…”

D. F. Lewis, Weirdmonger