MONSTER: Dracula, the vampiric count from Transylvania, may have been made famous by Bram Stoker, but the author insisted his tale was based on a true story.

A Time Magazine article in 2018 told of Stoker’s research for the book, and the reason why it begins on page 102.

“Bram Stoker did not intend for Dracula to serve as fiction, but as a warning of a very real evil, a childhood nightmare all too real. Worried of the impact of presenting such a story as true, his editor, Otto Kyllman, of Archibald Constable & Co., returned the manuscript with a single word of his own: ‘No.’”

It was not long after the Jack the Ripper murders, and such a story might generate mass panic.

As the article recounted, “Factual elements would need to come out, and it would be published as fiction or not at all. When the novel was finally released on May 26, 1897, the first 101 pages had been cut, numerous alterations had been made to the text, and the epilogue had been shortened, changing Dracula’s ultimate fate as well as that of his castle. Tens of thousands of words had vanished.”

Was the too-frightening-to-publish story lost forever? Not exactly. Copies of Stoker’s work were published in Iceland with parts of the original text.

“More can be found within the short story Dracula’s Guest, now known to have been excised from the original text.”

The book Dracul, written by descendant Dacre Stoker, and author J.D. Barker was released in 2018. Bram Stoker is the main character, and the book draws on the unpublished 101 pages of his famous 1897 book.

Sounds like an entertaining read.