Was the "Blood Countess" history's first and perhaps worst female
serial killer? Or did her accusers create a violent fiction in order to
remove this beautiful, intelligent, ambitious foe from the
male-dominated world of Hungarian politics?
In 1611, Countess Erzsébet Báthory, a powerful Hungarian noblewoman,
stood helpless as masons walled her inside her castle tower, dooming her
to spend her final years in solitary confinement. Her crime: the
gruesome murders of dozens of female servants, mostly young girls
tortured to death for displeasing their ruthless mistress. Her opponents
painted her as a bloodthirsty skrata--a witch--a portrayal that would
expand to grotesque proportions through the centuries.
In this riveting dramatization of Erzsébet Báthory's life, the countess
tells her story in her own words, writing to her only son--a final
reckoning from his mother in an attempt to reveal the truth behind her
downfall. Countess Báthory describes her upbringing in one of the most
powerful noble houses in Hungary, recounting in loving detail her
devotion to her parents and siblings as well as the heartbreak of losing
her father at a young age. She soon discovers the price of being a woman
in sixteenth-century Hungary as her mother arranges her marriage to
Ferenc Nádasdy, a union made with the cold calculation of a financial
transaction. Young Erzsébet knows she has no choice but to accept this
marriage even as she laments its loveless nature and ultimately turns to
the illicit affections of another man.
Seemingly resigned to a marriage of convenience and a life of
surreptitious pleasure, the countess surprises even herself as she
ignites a marital spark with Ferenc through the most unromantic of acts:
the violent punishment of an insolent female servant. The event shows
Ferenc that his wife is no trophy but a strong, determined woman more
than capable of managing their vast estates during Ferenc's extensive
military campaigns against the Turks. Her naked assertion of power
accomplishes what her famed beauty could not: capturing the love of her
husband.
The countess embraces this new role of loving wife and mother, doing
everything she can to expand her husband's power and secure her family's
future. But a darker side surfaces as Countess Báthory's demand for
virtue, obedience, and, above all, respect from her servants takes a
sinister turn. What emerges is not only a disturbing, unflinching
portrait of the deeds that gave Báthory the moniker "Blood Countess,"
but an intimate look at the woman who became a monster.
