The Real History of Dracula

Count Dracula is chased away from England and destroyed. But there’s no killing Bram Stoker’s vampire. The Count lives on outside the novel that created him in numerous adaptations and cultural descendants, transforming the vampire into an immortal monster of the modern imagination.

As the hunt for Count Dracula continues, this frighteningly civilized monster makes himself at home in 1890s London, where imperial arrogance mingles with fear of the outsider, and rigid class divides offer little protection against the ravages of disease.

Count Dracula arrives in England and begins hunting new victims, exposing shifting and contradictory attitudes to sex, gender, and religious belief in the late Victorian world of author Bram Stoker.

A young English lawyer travels to Transylvania where he meets a mysterious nobleman by the name of Count Dracula - a terrifying creation of the author Bram Stoker that melds old tales of the risen dead with the gothic thrills of modern Victorian fiction.

Even if you haven’t read the book, you know the story. Written by Bram Stoker at the end of the 19th century, Dracula tells of an ancient vampire lord who leaves his homeland behind to terrorize the population of Victorian Britain. 

But that’s not the whole story. 

The roots of this legendary horror novel stretch far into the distant past…and deep into the human psyche. This podcast will reveal how Stoker melded ancient folklore and contemporary fiction. It will show how he exploited Victorian fears around sex, science and religion. And it will explain why even now we remain fascinated by his creatures of the night.

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