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Dracula Day
"My revenge is just begun! I spread it over centuries, and time is on my side. Your girls that you all love are mine already; and through them you and others shall yet be mine - my creatures, to do my bidding and to be my jackals when I want to feed."
~ Dracula, Bram Stoker, 1897
Pardon me? Such dark thoughts for May! April showers bring vampiric hours, for today is designated Dracula Day!
Created by Irish novelist Bram Stoker and published on this day in 1897, Dracula introduced readers to the now legendary Count Dracula. Written in an epistolary style through letters, diaries, telegrams, and newspaper clippings, the novel follows the charismatic vampire’s move from Transylvania to England in search of new blood and the spread of the undead curse.
During these summer months, indulge darkly in some gothic literary horror with the most famous vampire of them all. And while reading by candlelight, or decorating your lair in the lately fashionable “dark academia” style, why not consider this tartan of dark deeds, perfect for a touch of revenant styling.
Though now regarded as a cornerstone of gothic fiction, Dracula unsettled many Victorian readers upon its release. Its themes of seduction, female aggression, superstition, foreign invasion, and barely disguised sensuality struck some critics as shocking and improper, while others were captivated by its atmosphere and suspense. Contemporary reviewers often compared the novel to earlier gothic classics such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Some thought Stoker had surpassed earlier horror writers in sheer atmosphere and dread, while others felt he had gone rather too far into sensationalism. One American reviewer even complained that Stevenson’s work showed more restraint and artistry, while Dracula simply overwhelmed readers with horror. Reviewers also connected the novel with the gothic “sensation novels” and penny dreadfuls popular at the time — tales of dark castles, madness, bloodshed, and melodrama. Yet for Victorian readers, Dracula also felt strangely modern, blending medieval superstition with telegraphs, trains, typewriters, blood transfusions, and scientific investigation. The novel quickly became a sensation and, over time, helped define the modern vampire as we know it today.
The colours especially selected for this tribute tartan include: Black — for the darkness of night associated with vampiric deeds; Bright Red — for sought-after fresh blood; Midnight Blue — for those dangerous hours when caution is advised in the vampire’s realm; and Caput Mortuum — the deep puce shade of dried blood itself.
Stoker wrote much of the novel in Cruden Bay while staying at the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel, and it is widely believed that nearby Slains Castle helped inspire Dracula’s eerie coastal domicile.🖤 ❤️ 💙 🤎 ✝️ 🧛 ⚰️ 🦇 🦇 🦇
May 26, Vampire Day or Dracula Day, is the date of the publication of Bram Stoker's 1897 horror novel Dracula.
The Vampire tartan, designed by Carol A.L. Martin, employs carefully chosen colours to maximize the tartan terror:
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Black - for the darkness of night associated with vampiric deeds
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Red - for the colour of sought-after fresh blood
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Midnight Blue - for the time of night to be especially cautious if in their dark realm .. and
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Caput Mortuum - the puce colour of dried blood
Caput mortuum is a Latin term whose literal meaning is "dead head" or "worthless remains," used in both alchemy and as a pigment name.
In alchemy, caput mortuum signified a useless substance left over from a chemical operation such as sublimation and the epitome of decline and decay; alchemists represented this residue with a stylized human skull, a literal death's head.
Caput mortuum is also sometimes used as an alternative name for mummy brown (alternatively Egyptian brown), a pigment that was originally made in the 16th and 17th centuries from ground-up mummies, and whose use was discontinued in the 19th century when artists became aware of its ingredients.
Slains Castle, one of Scotland's most spectacular ruins, sits on the edge of cliffs overlooking the former Victorian holiday resort of Cruden Bay in Aberdeenshire. Once home to the Earls of Errol, the 16th century castle, which has been in disrepair for more than 70 years, was in its heyday when Stoker began visiting the area in the 1890s and took it as his model for the vampire's home.
Stoker's novel established many conventions of subsequent vampire fantasy. The novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England so that he may find new blood and spread the undead curse, and of the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and a woman led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing.
Before writing Dracula, Stoker spent seven years researching European folklore and stories of vampires, being most influenced by Emily Gerard's 1885 essay "Transylvania Superstitions" which includes content about a vampire myth. Some historians are convinced that a historic figure, Vlad III Dracula, often called Vlad the Impaler, was the model for Stoker's Count although there is no supporting evidence. Although popular when it appeared, this novel only reached its broad and iconic status later in the 20th century when the movie versions began to appear.
Modern interpretations are many and fascinatingly widely divergent. From Wikipedia:
In the last several decades, literary and cultural scholars have offered diverse analyses of Stoker's novel and the character of Count Dracula:
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C.F. Bentley reads Dracula as an embodiment of the Freudian id.
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Carol A. Senf reads the novel as a response to the New Woman archetype.
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Christopher Craft sees Dracula as embodying latent homosexuality and sees the text as an example of a 'characteristic, if hyperbolic instance of Victorian anxiety over the potential fluidity of gender roles'.
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Stephen D. Arata interprets the events of the novel as anxiety over colonialismand racial mixing.
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Talia Schaffer construes the novel as an indictment of Oscar Wilde.
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Franco Moretti reads Dracula as a figure of monopoly capitalism.
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Hollis Robbins suggests that Dracula's inability to participate in social conventions and to forge business partnerships undermines his power.
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Richard Noll reads Dracula within the context of 19th century alienism (psychiatry) and asylum medicine.
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D. Bruno Starrs understands the novel to be a pro-Catholic pamphlet promoting proselytization.
Well ...
If perhaps you just enjoy a good horror novel and have a penchant for goth fashion, you may be interested in a special World Dracula Day Symposium hosted at The Vampire Historian website, with podcasts about the vampire in history, folklore, literature, television and film. For more on this , click the stylized Dracula book cover.