Author Archives: William the Bloody

About William the Bloody

Cat lover. 18C scholar on the dialogue and novel. Co-convenor OGOM Project

Gail Turley Houston, ‘From Dickens to Dracula’

A thoughtful short essay on Dracula and the presence of the Gothic mode in Victorian fiction generally.

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The Wild Evolution of Vampires, From Bram Stoker to Dracula Untold

Devon Maloney gives a brisk but useful survey of the changes in the image of the literary and cinematic vampire.

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A guide to ghosts by Jonathan Stroud

A pictorial exploration of the different types of ghosts, ghouls, spectres, and the like.

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Adam J Smith, ‘A True Accouneit of Sublime Terror and Paranormal Activity’

In this amusing and insightful blog entry, Dr Adam Smith muses on the eighteenth-century origins of terror and the sublime while watching the film Paranormal Activity 4, via Daniel Defoe and Ann Radcliffe.

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Bram Stoker: Dracula – audio and video guides

Very useful audio and video guides to Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Roger Luckhurst, editor of the Oxford World’s Classics edition.

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Vampires!

Dr Sorcha Ní Fhlainn of Manchester Metropolitan University gives a talk on the origin of vampires.

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History at Stake! The Story Behind Vampire Slaying Kits

We’ve shown a few pictures of vampire slaying kits on this blog before. Here’s a historical account of them from the British Library, where they have one on display as part of the Terror and Wonder exhibition on Gothic.

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Neil Gaiman on Fairy Tales Revisited

Of interest to anyone concerned with the contemporary transformation of fairy tales, in YA Gothic and elsewhere, this podcast by the always brilliant and imaginative author Neil Gaiman discusses his new interpretation of the Grimms’ tale ‘Hansel and Gretel’.

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Frankenstein and the Vampyre: A Dark and Stormy Night

An account of that seminal moment when both Frankenstein and the literary vampire were born; part of BBC4’s season on Gothic. I’ve not watched this yet (not having a TV), but the very erudite Dr Angela Wright of the University … Continue reading

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Dale Townshend, ‘An introduction to Ann Radcliffe’

An excellent and illuminating piece by Dr Dale Townshend, Senior Lecturer in Gothic and Romantic Literature at the University of Stirling, on the work of Ann Radcliffe, one of the pioneers of the Gothic novel.

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