The Trouble with the Pears The Trouble with the Pears stems from a place understood by all who are mad, the story of Erzebet Bathory is a story of compassion mixed with passion, blood and fire. High Countess of Hungary during the sixteenth century, she tortured, killed, loved and destroyed everyone in her path. She shocked the Hapsburg Royalty and defied the very crown of Hungary. Her scandals have lived on for ages, six of them to be precise. Her story beckons one to come near, curl up and sip the crimson vitae of madness.