Dracula & the Victorian Horrors

Horror fiction has surged in popularity with a startling 54% rise in sales of horror and ghost stories between 2022 and 2023. This trend persists, sparking curiosity about our collective fascination with the mysterious, the gothic, and the supernatural. What lies at the heart of this enduring genre, and why do tales of terror continue to draw readers in, generation after generation?

Turning the Pages of Horror’s History

To explore horror’s hold on our imagination, we must journey back through its rich history. The roots of horror fiction run deep, entwined with classics like Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and the shadowy worlds crafted by Edgar Allan Poe. However, the genre blossomed in the late 19th century, expanding into weirder, darker territories. Robert Louis Stevenson’s "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is a prime example—its gradual, irregular unveiling of terror is one reason why it still chills readers today.

Many gothic novels from that era use framing devices—stories within stories, documents, and shifting testimonies—to draw readers into realms where the impossible feels real. Take the approach in "Jekyll and Hyde," where the transformation is revealed not by exposition but through accumulating witness accounts. This structural unpredictability suspends our disbelief and immerses us in the unknown. As the transcript’s speakers highlight, this technique lets our minds teeter between skepticism and belief, making us complicit in the tale’s surreal events.

The Doppelgänger and The Split Self

One core element running through gothic and horror fiction is the theme of doubling—the idea of the doppelgänger or dual nature within characters. Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has so profoundly impacted culture that the phrase itself is now part of everyday language describing conflicting aspects within people or situations.

But this motif of doubles and other selves is hardly limited to one novel. It reverberates in works of the Brontës, Dickens, and other 19th-century novelists, showing up as spectral presences, unsettling lookalikes, or eerie mirrored personalities. It’s a source of unease because it’s both unnatural and weirdly possible, echoing our own complicated relationship with our identities and hidden fears.

Horror as Cultural Dialogue: Devilment, Humor, and the Exotic

Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu brought new flavor to the genre by infusing his works with Irish folklore, a pinch of devilment, and subtle humor, making ghost stories both spine-chilling and, at times, grinningly playful. This blend of terror and enjoyment invites readers to revel in the yarn as much as shudder at it.

Bram Stoker’s "Dracula" elevated this energy further. Published in 1897, Dracula was a hodgepodge of influences: Stoker’s background as a theater manager contributed to the novel’s sprawling, sometimes chaotic cast, and his personal relationships—including with the actor Henry Irving—inspired characters and scenarios. Even elements like American adventurism and psychiatry, perhaps drawn from his acquaintances and brother’s work, found their way into the blood-soaked pages.

The Magic—and Madness—of Throwing Everything In

The beauty of horror fiction, as the transcript’s conversation points out, is often in its exuberance: its willingness to toss every thread of fear, humor, autobiography, and folklore into the cauldron. Stoker, for instance, originally envisioned multiple characters in the role that became Van Helsing, eventually merging them into a single, larger-than-life polymath who delights and baffles the reader in equal measure. Authors of horror frequently push the limits of inclusion—sometimes hilariously so—until editors step in to restore order.

Forgotten Horrors and the Exotic Threat

Surprisingly, "Dracula" wasn’t the only—or even the best-selling—horror novel of its day. The now-obscure "The Beetle" actually outsold it for a time, introducing Londoners to a gigantic, terrifying insect from Egypt. Although unintentionally comical to modern readers, it captured a common 19th-century theme: the exotic and ancient invading modernity, rendering the familiar strange and vulnerable.

This idea of ancient threats crossing national borders reflects broader post-Enlightenment anxieties. Modern English society, confident in its reason and science, felt uniquely susceptible to attacks by monsters because it had abandoned the old folklore and exorcisms that could combat them. A Romanian mob might know how to dispatch a vampire, but a British solicitor like Jonathan Harker would be helpless. This tension between the old world and the new, the rational and the irrational, is a hallmark of gothic fiction.

Why We Still Turn to Horror

What drives our obsession with horror? Perhaps it’s how these stories force us to confront our fears and curiosities from a safe distance. Horror taps into something primal—our fascination with the unknown, our struggles with identity, and our delight in being scared witless. The genre stays fresh because authors continue to reinvent its tropes, fuse the terrifying and the absurd, and reflect the anxieties and hopes of their own times.

Conclusion: Join the Eternal Dance of Shadows

The continued boom in horror fiction tells us something important: our appetite for the strange, the unsettling, and the mysterious is as strong as ever. Whether it’s reading the slow-building dread of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," marveling at Dracula’s theatrical antics, or discovering lost monsters in obscure novels, horror offers a unique lens on what it means to be human. Next time you pick up a horror tale, think of the layers beneath—the history, the humor, the doppelgängers, and the very real fears and joys that make the genre immortal.

Are you captivated by tales of the supernatural? Dive into your next gothic mystery—or share your own story, because in the world of horror, everyone has a shadow waiting to be revealed.

📕 Guest: Eleanor Bourg Nicholson

Eleanor Bourg Nicholson is a Virginia-based author and educator known for her Gothic novels—including The Letters of Magdalen Montague, A Bloody Habit, and Brother Wolf. She also wrote the children’s biography The Hound of the Lord. A Lay Dominican, Eleanor is assistant editor for the Saint Austin Review and a Victorian literature instructor at Homeschool Connections. She homeschools her children and is famously wary of scary stories herself.

🌍 Website: https://eleanorbourgnicholson.com/

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📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ebnicholson/