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First of all, you should know that Vlad is George Washington to Romanians. A lot of the stories about Vlad being a vampiric rampaging monster came from the Turks and to them he was one. He is considered a hero and a revolutionary to his people and Stoker, having read reports the brits got from the Turks, heard of him being a dangerous lunatic. He was indeed quite merciless to the Turks, but the Turks weren't too big on human rights themselves. There's a very common book by Raymond T. Mc Nally and Radu Florescu called In Search of Dracula. Florescu and Mc Nally are your men. I've done a lot of research on slavic vampirism and the roots of vampire myths myself and I will tell you Florescu and Mc Nally are your men. Also worthy of note, Stoker never went to Transylvania. So, his perspective on the country and its political turmoil is a Western European thing. Try and see if you can find any insider perspectives. For this, Florescu is good. But, at any rate there are lots of good books on the evolution of vampire myth, and a few on Vlad himself. I'm bored, and my fiancee is visiting her folks, so I have plenty of time on my hands. I'll check my desk drawer.
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