Dracula in Istanbul: The Unauthorized Version of the Gothic Classic

Ali Rıza Seyfi (1879-1958), born Ali Rıza Seyfioğlu, was a Turkish novelist, historian and poet. His 1928 novel Kazıklı Voyvoda is an unauthorized reworking of Bram Stoker's Dracula set in Istanbul, the first version of the story to identify the Count plainly with the historical Vlad the Impaler. It was filmed in 1953 as Drakula İstanbul'da and later published in English as Dracula in Istanbul.

Abraham "Bram" Stoker (1847-1912) was an Irish novelist, theatre manager and barrister, born in Clontarf, Dublin. After graduating from Trinity College Dublin he worked in the Irish civil service and wrote drama criticism, then moved to London in 1878 to become business manager of Henry Irving's Lyceum Theatre, a post he held for 27 years. He wrote a run of horror and adventure novels, including The Jewel of Seven Stars and The Lair of the White Worm, but is remembered for Dracula (1897), the ep...