Dracula Returns
Miller sinks her teeth into coffee table tome
Most don't know her as the daughter of the literary legend Ted Russell of the sister of master fiddler Kelly Russell.
Nope- to her students and fans all over the globe - she is known as The Vampire Lady.
Dr. Elizabeth Miller (nee Russell), the world-renowned Dracula scholar, earned the moniker based on her studies of the vampire legend and historical figure.
Just last week - at a prestigious book store near Fifth Avenue in New York City - Miller launched her fourth book, Dracula, a coffee-table art book that contains 134 illustrations covering the entire spectrum of Dracula.
"This book is going to interest a different group of people...the clientele for this one will probably be people who are interested in art, rather than people who are into Dracula," said Miller, who recently lectured in Europe for several weeks. "As opposed to my other books, this is going to reach a totally different market."
Although the 224-page book is a visual coffee-table compendium, it includes about 30,000 of text on the 15th-century vampire legend, Bram Stoker's novel, and the popularity of Dracula in the 20th century.
Also printed in German and French, the illustrations include paintings with historical or religious significance, contemporary depictions of Bram Stoker, art from the 19th-century vampire-related works, and photographs of Eastern European locations. Film stills include not only the obvious - Bram Stoker's Dracula, Nosferatu the Vampyre and Christopher Lee - but scenes from Vlad Tepes, a Romanian film about the life of Vlad Dracula.
"It's an exciting time for me because I'm breaking into a new territory," said Miller, an English professor at Memorial University. "It's something I'm very proud of."
According to a recent review by Cathy Krusberg, the book's four chapters "explore basic aspects of the Dracula phenomenon: The historical Dracula, vampires in fiction, Stoker's novel itself, and Dracula as a pop culture icon."
"The first chapter," she adds, "sets Vlad Dracula in his historical context, giving a clear and very readable overview of Wallachian history, detailing sources of information on Dracula the voivode, and describing the 19th-century revival of interest in Dracula as a national hero."
Vlad's atrocities are a sine qua non for discussions of his life and times, but Miller also looks at the story behind the stories, explaining the political motives that may be behind some extant accounts of his most notorious deeds.
"That Dracula was considered a Romanian national hero centuries after his death, bespeaks more than tyranny in his rule, however harsh it may have been."
Misconceptions
As noted by her publishers, "Transylvanian mystique and legendary hauntedness surround the most infamous of Bram Stoker's protagonists, forming a legacy that allows the myth to continue into modern times, maintaining a cultish following, yet broadening to a general fascination."
Intrigued by evil and gore, Stoker developed a literary presence that translated to screen.
"I've had a hoot with this whole subject and have met interesting people from all over the world," said Miller, dismissing herself to return to a 10:00 a.m. class at MUN. "It basically rejuvenated my career about 10 years ago."
Miller released her first book in 1997, titled Reflections on Dracula. Her second book, Dracula: The Shade and the Shadow, hit stores the following year, meeting similar success. She released her third offering last year, aptly entitled, Dracula: Sense and Nonsense.
"I consider that (Dracula: Sense and Nonsense) to be my most important book because it's the one that challenges all the misconceptions about the novel and the author (Bram Stoker)...it's very controversial because I basically disagree with much that's been done in the subject," said Miller, internationally regarded as a leading authority in the field of Dracula study.
Although she became intrigued by the subject just a decade ago, her special interest is in the 19th-century British Gothic fiction, with particular emphasis on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Regarded as an expert, she's given papers all over the country, not to mention the United States, Ireland, Germany, Poland, and Romania.
She's also president of the Canadian Chapter, of Transylvanian Society of Dracula (an organization based in Romania) and past president of the Lord Ruthven Assembly, a constituent group within the International Association in the Fantastic Arts.
"Until about 10 years ago, I had absolutely no interest in the subject... I had been doing some stuff with my father's work (Uncle Moses and Tales From Pigeon Inlet), but I started (re-reading) the romantic poets, and that's where the vampire literature started," she recalls. "I was just getting restless and wanted a new challenge."
"And this, to be honest, has been an amazing challenge," she said. "It's given my career a whole new meaning."
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