Dracula

Few figures are so well-known and strike as much terror as that of the vampire known as “Dracula.” This creature — not yet dead, but no longer alive — has, at one time or another, tempted, fascinated and repelled all of us. When writer Bram Stoker published Dracula in 1897, he couldn’t have predicted that he was creating a figure who was larger than death.

Today, he might be timeless, but in the 15th century, he was all too real. His name was Prince Vlad Dracula, whom history has come to know as Vlad the Impaler.

In many ways, the reality of Dracula’s life was more terrifying than the vampire literature and fanfiction he helped inspire, his story more shocking than anything Hollywood could manufacture.