In the world of the Gothic, after you bang on a few castle doors, you’re bound to run into a vampire.  Bram Stoker, barrister and theater manager, notably closed out the 19th century by leaving us with his vampire masterpiece, DRACULA.

In this week’s episode, Sonja and Vanessa explore how Bram Stoker brews his very own brand of Gothic.  Legends of the Carpathian mountains mix with modern inventions and modern ideas, like that of the New Woman.  With 3 established female vampires, a newly-minted female vampire, and one beloved young wife teetering on the brink of the undead, women make up a crucial part of a tale that spans from England to the heart of eastern Europe. There are undeniably strong women in the novel, but is it a feminist text?  

Along the way, we meet a “train fiend,” Sonja muses on sexy lancets, and Vanessa concedes that lawyers may well be the greatest blood suckers of all.