Dracula's Bloodline: A Florescu Family Saga - Paperback by Books by splitShops

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by Radu R. Florescu (Author), Matei Cazacu (Author)

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through the centuries since the 1400s, they used many sources: the Brasov archives in Transylvania, select letters, unpublished diaries, and extensive family documents that have been scattered from Europe to the United States.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.

Author Biography

Radu R. Florescu was born in Bucharest, Romania and is an indirect descendant of Prince Dracula. He received both BA and MA degrees from Christ Church, Oxford University and a PhD from Indiana University. He is professor emeritus of history at Boston College and is author of The Struggle Against Russia in the Romanian Principalities and co-author of a half dozen books on the story of Vlad Tepes, the historical Dracula. With almost a dozen books to his name, his academic work has been the subject of documentaries by The History Channel, Discovery, Canadian Broadcasting, and other international networks.

Matei Cazacu received his BA and MA from the University of Bucharest and his PhD from the Sorbonne in Paris. He served as a senior researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris. Professor Cazacu is the author of a few dozen books including Dracula (Tallandier, Paris, 2004), Gilles de Rais, or Blue Beard, (Tallandier, Paris, 2005), and Frankenstein (with Professor Florescu, Tallandier, 2011). A medievalist, Professor Cazacu lectures throughout Europe and has appeared in documentaries on The History Channel and Romanian television.