Dracula in Istanbul
2017 · BOOK
By Bram Stoker · Ali Rıza Seyfioğlu
In 1928, Turkish author Ali Rıza Seyfioğlu pirated Bram Stoker’s Dracula, rewriting it with original material, patriotic themes, and elements of Islam. The result is one of the strangest adaptations of the gothic classic ever written—a rare literary “bootleg” that freely reworks Stoker’s novel through the cultural and political lens of early Republican Turkey. It’s also the first adaptation to explicitly identify Dracula as the historical Vlad the Impaler, decades before that interpretation became commonplace.
For the first time in English, Ed Glaser’s edition of Dracula in Istanbul makes this long-forgotten literary curiosity available to modern readers. In Seyfioğlu’s retelling, modern Istanbul faces the threat of invasion by the ancient vampire, and three veterans of the Turkish War of Independence are called upon to defend their nation against its hereditary enemy.
The volume includes a foreword by Anno Dracula author Kim Newman, new essays on the novel and its rare 1953 film adaptation Drakula İstanbul’da, and a collection of rare photographs from the film.
This digital edition is delivered as a .zip file containing the book in .pdf, .epub, and .mobi formats.
