Count Dracula () is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel Dracula.
He is considered to be both the prototypical and the archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. He is also depicted in the novel to be the origin of werewolf legends. Some aspects of the character are believed to have been inspired by the 15th-century Wallachian Prince Vlad the Impaler, who was also known as Dracula, and Sir Henry Irving, an actor for whom Stoker was a personal assistant.One of Dracula's most mysterious powers is the ability to turn others into vampires by biting them. Other character aspects have been added or altered in subsequent popular fictional works. Starring as Dracula in a sequence of Hammer Horror films which began with Dracula in 1958, Christopher Lee fixed the image of the fanged vampire in pop culture. The character has appeared frequently in popular culture, from films to animated media to breakfast cereals.
I have been so long master, that I would be master still — or at least that none other should be master of me.