The Bathory Legend.

It has been said that Elizabeth Bathory was the model for Bram Stoker's nineteenth century novel "Dracula." There is no doubt that Stoker heard the legends that have been thrilling audiences for centuries before writing his famous book in Dublin in 1897. Countess Bathory and Count Dracula are alike in so many ways, except she actually lived at the turn of the seventeenth century in Hungary. Her bloody tale is far more terrifying because it was real. Stoker developed the theme of isolation when he wrote "You must not be alone; for to be alone is to be full of fears and alarms." Bathory's victims were often innocent young girls, stolen from their families and trapped alone and defenseless, but they were also her serfs and the community surrounding her castle, the ruins of which exist today in the real village of Cachtice, Slovakia. Cachticka Pani has been a bestselling novel in Slovakia for almost as long as it has been in print. It has been translated into Czech, Hungarian, Polish, German, and now for the first time, English. This story brings to life a poignant period in European history when the value of the life of the common serf fell to its lowest point and the powers of the nobility to do evil were at their greatest. The author Jozo Niznansky, a popular Slovakian adventure writer, presents his readers a vivid description of what life during the time of Elizabeth Bathory must have been like. He used authentic historical documents to bring the incredibly evil and frightening legend to life. His novel has it all. It is loaded with facts, chills, mystery, horror, adventure, intrigue, and is also a beautiful love story.