AUTHOR’S POSITION AND PROBLEMS IN CHRIS HUMPHREYS’S NOVEL ,,VLAD: THE LAST CONFESSION”

The article is devoted to the historical novel by Canadian prose writer, actor and playwright Chris Humphreys about Dracula. The novel is interesting because it is a historical novel by definition, that is, the author’s motivation to create a text is the interpretation of the image of the historical Dracula with almost no admixture of ideological, political, historical, philosophical, psychological ideas of the author himself. This story does not have an easily guessed end, it seems that the author himself does not know where the development of the plot may lead. Humphreys does not try to deny Dracula’s sins, even obviously invented and completely unbelievable, but creates circumstances, builds events in such a way that the hero’s act becomes justified, if not the only possible one. Keywords: Chris Humphreys, historical novel, Dracula, hero image, author’s position, problematics, theatrical novel, Middle Ages, The Tale of Dracula the Voivode. DOI: https://doi.org/10.59295/sum4(184)2024_21