His likeness always like someone else

“Dracula - described by a reviewer in the 26 June 1897 edition of Punch as “the very weirdest of weird tales” - presents a series of contrasts and clashes between old traditions and new ideas. Stoker uses the figure of the vampire as thinly-veiled shorthand for many of the fears that haunted the Victorian fin de siècle. Throughout the novel, scientific rationality is set against folklore and superstition; old Europe is set against modern London; and traditional notions of civilized restraint and duty are threatened at every turn by the spread of corruption and wanton depravity.

The act of vampirism itself, with its notion of tainted blood, suggests the fear of sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis and, more generally, the fear of physical and moral decay that was believed by many commentators to be afflicting society. Towards the end of the book the character of Mina, who stands for everything Stoker sees as morally upright and respectable, observes “the Count is a criminal, and of criminal type, Nordau and Lombroso would so classify him”. The Hungarian social critic Max Nordau's influential book “Degeneration”, an impassioned attack on what he regarded as the prevalent air of hysteria and moral decline in Western Europe, had been translated into English in 1895.

“Degeneration” was dedicated to the Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso whose work used a similar pseudo-Darwinian language to analyze the psychology of the criminal mind. In an era noted for its foppish dandies, its pleasure-seeking aesthetes and the rise and fall of brilliantly flamboyant figures such as Oscar Wilde, Stoker is deliberately aligning Count Dracula with everything 'respectable' late-Victorian society would have regarded as morally corrupting, criminal and perverse.”

— Greg Buzwell; “Dracula: Vampires, Perversity and Victorian anxieties” (2014)

'Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!'

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As cool as it sounds to follow the schedule, I don't have the patience to wait for another year to post this.

So here was the illustration for the 5th of May. I'll make my best to post another one left this week, but the week is going to be rough.

Portrait practice with Ms. Mina.

((Translation: My dearest Jonathan, I received a scary letter. I cannot wait to see you home safe. Write back. I love you. Mina))

Dracula with the exact same plot and the exact same characters but all the vampire are permanently in bat form.

Dracula has to stack two wolves on top of each other in a trench coat to pass as the carriage driver and conducts all his business with Jonathan with a privacy screen between them

Jonathan is nearly bitten by three voluptuous bats until Dracula swoops in and starts smacking at them with his wings

HIHIHI IT WAS THE BLACKEYED THEATRE PRODUCTIN!! they r uk based tho and im not sure if any recordings r avaliable but they DO have a photo gallery!! :((( rens actress also dual played as lucy earlier in the show!

Finally Dracula's turn!