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January 13, 2008 (Sun Media / Alan Parker) -- A cold wind gusts past surrounding gothic spires as the Baroness of the House of Dracula touches a bat-shaped earring and sinks her teeth into a discussion of one of her grand, consuming passions. "I've been a baseball fan since I was a child. My father loved the game and he shared it with me at a young age," says Dr. Elizabeth Miller, resident of Toronto, professor emerita of Memorial University, leading authority on all things vampiric -- and, yes, Baroness of the House of Dracula. So how does a solid daughter of Newfoundland, a cultured professor of English literature and a (dare we say rabid) Blue Jays fan end up as an expert on blood-sucking? "I was teaching a course on the British Romantic poets (at Memorial University in St. John's in 1990) and was looking for something new," Miller says as she sits in a U of T cafeteria, having just finished an animated lecture on her favourite subject before a rapt audience of more than 100. "I was drawn to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and that led to (John) Polidori's The Vampyre and finally to Dracula. "I was just bitten, I suppose," she says with the twinkle of someone who's used the line before. That literary leaning quickly grew into a broader study of the origins of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, the impact of Dracula on modern culture and the fictional count's connection to Romania's "real" Dracula -- Vlad the Impaler. FALSE 'FACTS' Then came the defining point when she realized many of the accepted Dracula "facts" were complete falsehoods -- some erroneous assumptions based on faulty sources, some outright fabrications. "I decided to become the Dracula police." Now, six books and dozens of scholarly articles later, the 68-year-old Miller is the grand dame of the informed vampire world. Along the way, the Transylvanian Society of Dracula in Romania bestowed upon her the honorary title Baroness of the House of Dracula. Which leads us back to one of Miller's great peeves: "The biggest misconception people have is that Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler) was the influence for the book. He wasn't." Vlad was a Romanian warrior prince or voivode of the 15th century. His dad (also Vlad) was known as Vlad Dracul (Romanian for dragon) and junior adopted the family name Dracula. Vlad got the Impaler monicker because, in his endless wars with invading Turks, he spiked thousands of his enemies on sharpened stakes. In Romania, he is seen as a courageous (although somewhat bloodthirsty) patriot and defender. No vampire here. While vacationing in Whitby, England, in 1890, Stoker came across a brief reference in a book on Middle European history to a Voivode Dracula who crossed the Danube to fight the Turks. What caught Stoker's interest was a footnote that read: "Dracula in the Wallachian language means devil." Stoker liked that morbid note and changed the name of his main character from Count Wampyr to Count Dracula. That's it, that's all. Stoker never knew Dracula's name was Vlad and knew nothing of his bloody history. "If he had known, he would have used the information in his book," Miller says. "He used everything." She should know. STOKER'S NOTES Her latest work, to be published this spring, is the first facsimile reproduction of the copious rough notes Bram Stoker made as he prepared Dracula. Miller and co-editor Robert Eighteen-Bisang had the complete co-operation of Philadelphia's Rosenbach Museum and Library, where the original documents are housed. The book has the very dry, yet very accurate title Bram Stoker's Notes For Dracula: An Annotated Transcription and Comprehensive Analysis. There's also the dark underbelly of kooks, creeps and wannabe vampires, many of whom seek her out. "Part of it's fun but it can be very disturbing," she says matter-of-factly. Miller has received letters splattered in blood, has had to persuade many people she's neither a vampire nor a channeler of Vlad the Impaler's spirit, and in one case was sought out by the father of a junior high school student to convince the boy he wasn't a vampire. She also hung out with practising, blood-drinking vampires at a goth club in New York City while filming a documentary several years ago. "Nice enough people," she says now, "but strange. Of course, there is a strong sexual component to it." Did they offer her blood? "Oh, yes -- I said, 'I'll stick to Pepsi, thanks.' " --- BEST & WORST Leaving aside Bram Stoker's touchstone novel and the 1922 and '31 classic films, here's some expert advice from Dr. Elizabeth Miller on vampire literature and movies: Best of the MODERN VAMPIRE NOVELS: - I Am Legend (1954), Richard Matheson - Salem's Lot (1975), Stephen King - The Historian (2005), Elizabeth Kostova MOST FAITHFUL FILM VERSION OF DRACULA: FUN VAMPIRE MOVIES: - Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) with Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. - Love At First Bite (1979) starring George Hamilton - Fright Night (1985) with Roddy McDowall - The Lost Boys (1987) with Kiefer Sutherland WORST MOVIES: 2. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) directed by Francis Ford Coppola 3. I Am Legend (2007) starring Will Smith (For an explanation of why Miller thinks the book I Am Legend ranks second only to Dracula in the vampire literary pantheon and the current movie deserves a "triple puke" rating, go to blooferlady.livejournal.com.)
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